Specialized Paper Sample Questions
Occupational group: Administration (P2)

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Essays

1. The primary responsibility of the purchasing function in a large organisation is to obtain the highest quality products, meeting specifications, at the lowest possible price. Given these basic terms of reference, a procurement officer must carefully review each requisition and make a determination as to whether or not a potential exists for savings or cost reductions and to take appropriate steps to achieve this objective. Describe five ways of achieving savings in the procurement process. Briefly explain a serious problem which can be encountered in each of the five ways you selected.

2. You are the personnel officer in the local office of an international organization located in a large city. The turnover of locally recruited general service personnel is abnormally high. In fact, it is higher than for all other employers: private - state owned or transnationals. Consequences of turnover were strongly criticized in an external audit report on the efficiency of the organization's local office. This report stated "The level of turnover is significant because it is expensive and leads to lost productivity. It is costly because every time an employee leaves, the organization must incur recruitment and training costs. It is costly because there is a period of time which it takes for all new employees to reach their peak effectiveness. During this time, the employee makes mistakes. A strong effort must be made to avoid this waste of resources".

   You know why the turnover is occurring: the pay of employees has been low for years. In the meantime new industry has come to the region. Since the population hasn't increased that much, the salary structure of private industry has risen to attract people. This was mentioned in previous internal personnel reports, but the increase of the international organization's salaries has lagged. The organization too often gets those employees who cannot obtain employment elsewhere. They join the organization and remain for a period of time. Once they are trained, they leave for better jobs. A small number of problem staff have had to be terminated at considerable cost to the organization.

   What the organization does have is a very generous package of benefits. In fact, it is more generous than that of the other employers in the area. While employees have left for a raise in pay, the result of a survey taken by the organization indicates that the former employees now employed outside the organization have fewer fringe benefits, including less medical insurance coverage, lower pension benefits, less sick leave, fewer paid holidays and also a smaller allowance for childrens' education benefits. The organization has, however, been unsuccessful in communicating this situation to its staff now on board.

   Your office and you have already tried to encourage supervisors to discuss this situation with their staff but in most cases, supervisors have failed to do so. Their excuse is that the benefits are complicated and difficult to explain particularly to new staff, many of whom do not show interest in benefits.

   You are requested by your supervisor, the chief of personnel, to prepare a detailed programme of action to improve on the current turnover situation. Explain your detailed plan of action including the target groups which you would address, what procedures you would recommend to be followed and how you would go about implementing such a plan.

Questions

1. Briefly explain three different recruitment interview techniques.

2. Identify three situations in which a binding purchase contract can be terminated without penalty or damage to any of the parties to it?

3. In a situation of a mandatory reassignment from one duty station to another, outline the components of a fair compensation package.

4. What is budgetary control? What is the difference between budgetary control and management control?

5. Before entering into a major contract what steps can a procurement officer take to establish the contractor's reliability and capacity to execute the contract.

6. Briefly explain the main components of a career development programme in a public sector organisation.

7. Cite five factors which you would consider in deciding whether to buy or lease equipment.

8. Identify and briefly discuss three approaches in overcoming resistance to change in administrative organizations.

9. Give three advantages of an effective communication system between managers and employees.

10. Identify and briefly discuss three major advantages of introducing electronic data processing equipment to assist in management functions.

List of topics

Suggested reading list: basic textbooks and periodicals in the field of administration.

The following topics should be covered:

	- Administration
	- Budget
	- Human resources development
	- Management
	- Medium-term plan
	- Personnel questions
	- Principles of administration and management 
	- Procurement
	- Programme planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation
	- Recruitment and training

Examination Sample: General Paper (P2)