Operations Management

PROTECTA Promoting Civil Society in Serbia

Publication Date: May 11, 2010

In 1997 three students joined a protest against the electoral victory of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party. Upon the protests ultimate defeat, and Milosevic's return to power, the students vowed to continue the struggle for civic...

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator: A Model for Reducing Unemployment in South Africa

Publication Date: April 20, 2023

 In the fourth quarter of 2021, South Africa's unemployment rate rose to 35%, the highest since 2008. Though some of the job losses could be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country had already been experiencing high unemployment...

Ordering Floppy Disks in Poland

Publication Date: January 01, 1992

This five-paragraph case presents the process by which a basic office supply item had to be ordered by Polish government officials in January 1992.Learning Objective:As in many brief cases, the deceptively simple procedural description can...

Trash Collection in Lone Pine: To Privatize or Not?

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

This hypothetical case is a paradigm of the privatization decision facing many jurisdictions as they struggle with budget pressures. It tells the story of the town manager of a small Texas municipality who has reason to believe that, if she were...

Registry of Motor Vehicles: Watertown Branch

Publication Date: January 01, 1984

As the agency responsible for licensing and certifying motor vehicles and their operators, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles serves over five million people a year -- 3.5 million on a person-to-person basis -- bringing the state in...

Meeting NYC's Asphalt Needs (B)

Publication Date: January 01, 1984

In Part A of this case, Henry Fulton, the head of New York City's Bureau of Highway Operations proposes that, as a cost saving measure, the city build and operate its own asphalt plant to produce some of the paving material needed each year to...