Business Commons^™

Developing And Teaching The Crisis Communication Course, Mitchell Friedman

Communication Studies

Comer (2010) noted the absence of literature offering guidance to instructors charged with developing standalone courses on crisis management. This article aims to fill this void, relating the author’s experience in developing two crisis communication classes (one offered online, one in a traditional classroom setting). Drawing on 15 years of teaching experience (including single sessions devoted to crisis communication, reputation management, and related issues in public relations and business courses) plus the investigation of scholarly contributions related to the development of such courses, syllabi, and feedback from practitioners who develop and deliver related training, the article delivers the essential components …

Leadership Development In Undergraduate Public Relations Students: A Case Study, Mitchell Friedman

Communication Studies

This qualitative case study considered the relationship between a Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter at a public state university in Northern California and its local Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) affiliate chapter. Its purpose was to explore student perceptions of the contributions of this relationship to what they learned about leadership while serving as club officers. Research was conducted during the fall semester 2010.

The study explored efforts designed to help PRSSA chapter officers fulfill their individual responsibilities. Local and national PRSA representatives provided advice and counsel through diverse channels, the intent of which was to …

Intelligent Procedures For Intra-Day Updating Of Call Center Agent Schedules, Vijay Mehrotra, O. Ozluk, R. Saltzman

Business Analytics and Information Systems

For nearly all call centers, agent schedules are typically created several days or weeks prior to the time that agents report to work. After schedules are created, call center resource managers receive additional information that can affect forecasted workload and resource availability. In particular, there is significant evidence, both among practitioners and in the research literature, suggesting that actual call arrival volumes early in a scheduling period (typically an individual day or week) can provide valuable information about the call arrival pattern later in the same scheduling period. In this paper, we develop a flexible and powerful heuristic framework for …

Improving Call Center Operations Using Performance-Based Routing Strategies, J. Stanley, R. Saltzman, Vijay Mehrotra

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The article presents a simulation study of performance-based call routing strategies using a variety of routing rules based on historic data such as average handling time and first call resolution rate. We demonstrate the relative benefits of various performance-based call routing strategies using actual data from a financial call center. In particular, our modeling results indicate that call routing based on adjusted average handle time (AAHT) and z-scores of AAHT are two strategies that can substantially improve overall call center performance and customer satisfaction.