GM599 Unit 10 Final Capstone Paper Example

Why Wexmoor's Operators Stopped Applying and What Would Bring Them Back: A Unit 10 Final Capstone Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GM599: Applied Research Project

Unit 10 Final Capstone Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Wexmoor Regional Transit, its staff, the respondents and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

Executive Summary

Since 2023, road supervisor postings at Wexmoor Regional Transit have drawn an average of 1.9 internal applicants, down from 7.4, and nine of fourteen were filled from outside. Records, a survey of eligible operators and twelve interviews show why. For the most experienced operators, promotion now means a pay cut, because top-quartile operators earn about $88,300 with overtime while the supervisor midpoint is $79,500. It also means losing seniority, with no way back except to the bottom of the list. Seventy percent of survey respondents named pay, and nearly half named seniority.

Three actions are recommended, in this order: a side letter with the union giving promoted operators twelve months to return with seniority intact, at about 60 hours of staff time; paid shadow shifts for up to twenty operators a year, at about $15,100; and a supervisor salary floor of $91,000, at about $145,800 a year. Recurring cost totals about $160,900.

The Problem

Wexmoor runs bus service from three garages with 312 full-time operators and 24 road supervisor posts, whose holders watch service, respond to incidents and support operators on the street. Until 2023, most were promoted from the operator ranks, and they brought knowledge of routes and garages that outside hires must learn. Vacancies now last a median of 97 days, against 41 before. Timothy Ellis and Yair Levy describe a research-worthy problem as one with evidence that it exists and that it matters (Ellis & Levy, 2008); the posting records supply both.

What the Literature Suggests

Three explanations from the literature framed the study. Pay compression, in which lower-level hourly workers earn as much as or more than salaried supervisors, is a known cause of reluctance to accept promotion (Milkovich et al., 2020). In union work groups, seniority carries heavy weight, so leaving the seniority list is a cost that grows with tenure (Abraham & Medoff, 1985). And new managers often struggle with the shift from peer to supervisor (Hill, 2007).

Method

The study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, collecting quantitative data first and qualitative data afterward to explain it (Ivankova et al., 2006). Posting records from 2019 and banded payroll figures came first. A census survey of the 141 operators eligible for promotion followed, with 14 items and no question that, combined with others, could identify a respondent. Twelve interviews came last: nine operators, three per garage, and three supervisors promoted from within. Interviews were coded using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Permissions came from the general manager, human resources, payroll and the union local, which announced the survey but did not endorse it.

Findings

Records. Internal applicants per posting fell from 7.4 to 1.9. Withdrawals rose from 9 of 118 applications to 8 of 27. Two of seventeen operators promoted between 2019 and 2022 returned to driving within six months, both to the bottom of the seniority list.

Survey. Sixty-three of 141 operators responded, 44.7 percent, with tenure bands close to the population's. Forty-four, 70 percent, named pay loss; 31 named losing seniority and run picks; 22 named supervising former coworkers; 6 named the job's difficulty. In the highest earnings band, pay was named by 19 of 21.

Interviews. Seven of nine operators described calculating what promotion would cost them. Both operators who had withdrawn did so after learning the seniority rule from a coworker. Every one of the three promoted supervisors called the early months lonely.

Pay made operators stop considering promotion, seniority kept them from taking the chance, and overseeing old coworkers was a price they could live with once those two were fixed.

Integrated. The three sources agree. Money comes first, the seniority rule second, and the discomfort of overseeing old coworkers trails both. Training and garage differences, both suggested informally by managers, did not appear.

Recommendations

A return right, first. A side letter giving promoted operators twelve months to return with seniority intact, plus a sentence on every posting explaining the rule. About 60 hours of staff time, owned by the labor relations manager, starting within two months. Measure: withdrawals after application.

Shadow shifts, second. Up to twenty operators a year would each get sixteen paid hours riding along with a supervisor, about $15,100 a year, owned by the training superintendent. Measure: participants who later apply.

A salary floor, third. A road supervisor floor of $91,000, raising fifteen current supervisors at about $145,800 a year with benefits, owned by the human resources and finance directors, in the next budget year. It will be judged by whether internal applications per posting climb back to five or more within a year and a half.

Eric Barends and Denise Rousseau recommend measuring the effects of evidence-based changes and adjusting them as results arrive (Barends & Rousseau, 2018). The human resources director will report the three measures every six months.

What the Director Should Do Next

Three steps would put the recommendations in motion within a month. Ask the labor relations manager to place the return right on the agenda of the next labor-management meeting. Ask human resources to add the seniority sentence to the next supervisor posting, which costs nothing. And ask the finance director to cost the salary floor for the coming budget, using this paper's figures as a starting point. The shadow shifts can begin with the next service period once the training superintendent schedules them.

Beyond Wexmoor

Other transit agencies with overtime-heavy operator pay and union seniority lists may face the same pattern, since the national workforce shortage makes outside supervisor hiring harder everywhere. This study cannot show that, but the method, records first, a short census survey and a few interviews, could be repeated at another agency in a single quarter.

Limitations

Four limitations matter most. Because only Wexmoor was studied, other agencies should treat the results as a lead, not a rule. The survey's 44.7 percent response rate leaves more than half of eligible operators unheard. The writer works at the agency, which provided access but may have shaped what operators chose to say and how the writer read it, as Teresa Brannick and David Coghlan note insiders must acknowledge (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007). And reasons are self-reported, so operators may have named the reasons easiest to state.

Appendices

The appendices hold the survey instrument, the interview consent script, the codebook, the three permission emails and the year-by-year posting counts.

References

Abraham, K. G., & Medoff, J. L. (1985). Length of service and promotions in union and nonunion work groups. ILR Review, 38(3), 408-420. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979398503800307

Barends, E., & Rousseau, D. M. (2018). Evidence-based management: How to use evidence to make better organizational decisions. Kogan Page.

Brannick, T., & Coghlan, D. (2007). In defense of being "native": The case for insider academic research. Organizational Research Methods, 10(1), 59-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106289253

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Ellis, T. J., & Levy, Y. (2008). Framework of problem-based research: A guide for novice researchers on the development of a research-worthy problem. Informing Science, 11, 17-33. https://doi.org/10.28945/438

Hill, L. A. (2007). Becoming the boss. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 48-56.

Ivankova, N. V., Creswell, J. W., & Stick, S. L. (2006). Using mixed-methods sequential explanatory design: From theory to practice. Field Methods, 18(1), 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05282260

Milkovich, G. T., Newman, J. M., & Gerhart, B. (2020). Compensation (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.