COURSE: ADMINISTERING COMPENSATION ( urgent , please help)

THIS IS NOT MY OWN WORK

THIS IS NOT MY OWN WORK

THE QUESTION IS BASED ON ZENITH MEDICAL SYSTEMS INCORPORATED, THEY ARE ASKING to identify and explain 3 DISADVANTAGES OF THE PAY-FOR-KNOWLEDGE FOR ZENITH COMPANY

Question:

correctly identifies and explain 3 disadvantages of the pay-for-knowledge system

Zenith Medical Systems Incorporated

Your Client

Your client firm is Zenith Medical Systems Incorporated. Zenith was formed as a joint venture of a major computer firm and a leading supplier of hospital products and opened its doors for business on January 1, 2012. Both firms invested an equal amount of capital in the venture. Top management for Zenith was provided from the ranks of the parent companies, but the majority of top management, including the CEO of Zenith, came from the hospital products firm. The logic for this was that managers from the hospital products firm would have a greater grounding in the health care industry than would managers from the computer firm. Zenith's product is information management systems for health care institutions. As health care organizations have become more complex, there has been an increasing demand for computer systems that will help manage the massive flows of information necessary for their effective operation. The idea is to develop an integrated system for patient records, staff and facilities scheduling, materials management, medication tracking, and financial management, in place of the separate systems that now exist in most cases. Ineffective transmission of information between different parties who need that information makes for an inefficient operation and could even cost lives. Zenith would be a comprehensive provider of these systems, handling everything from systems design to installation, training, and maintenance.

Zenith has about 600 employees, with about half located at head office in Ottawa and half located at five regional offices dispersed across Canada. Chart 1 shows the organizational structure at head office. The executive committee consists of the CEO and the two vice presidents. There are six main departments. Marketing, Finance/Accounting, and Human Resources report to Jeff Wieler, Vice President Marketing and Administration, while Systems Development, Systems Installation, and Systems Maintenance report to Rob McIvor, Vice President Systems. Most of the marketing and systems maintenance employees are dispersed across the five regional offices, while the other departments are located at head office in Ottawa. Although some employees were seconded from the parent companies, most were hired on the open market or from the companies that Zenith took over. Early in the firm's life, Zenith took over a number of small software companies that specialized in specific systems. For example, they took over a firm that specialized in medication tracking systems, another that specialized in systems for hospital scheduling, and another that produced systems for patient records. Darlene Adams, President and CEO of Zenith Medical Systems, has requested your consulting services, and she is delighted that your team was assigned to her firm. Zenith is experiencing serious performance problems: employee turnover is up and morale is down; customer satisfaction is down and complaints are up; and, most importantly, revenue and profits are both down. President Adams knows that the compensation system used by a firm can contribute to all these problems, and since compensation is a major cost item for her firm (currently accounting for about 79 percent of the firm's costs), she suspects that the firm's compensation system may be implicated in these problems. But she can't be sure without your help.

Director of Marketing Wendy Stronach Chart 1 Zenith Medical Systems Incorporated Vice President Marketing & Administration Jeff Wieler Director of Finance & Adminis- tration Tim Christenson Organization Chart Ottawa Head Office Chief Executive Officer Darlene Adams Director of Human Resources Kristic Kane Director of Systems Develop- met Terry Cosac Vice President Systems Rob Melvor Director of Systems Installation Jason Henderson Director of Systems Maintenance Susan Novecosky