Case Article—Three Mountain Communications: Fairness Considerations for Workplace Task Allocation

• Published in: Transactions on education Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 195 - 199
• Main Authors: Wu, Wei, Sharma, Rashmi, Bansal, Saurabh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: INFORMS 01.05.2025
• Subjects: fairness; integer programs; task allocation
• ISSN: 1532-0545; 1532-0545
• DOI: 10.1287/ited.2023.0044ca

The case study has two primary objectives: incorporating fairness considerations in managerial decision making and introducing task allocation using an optimization model. The case focuses on a call center that faces the issue of daily task allocation. The current self-selection-based allocation protocol has created friction among employees. To enable employee satisfaction and boost team morale, the call center needs to develop an allocation model that is perceived to be fair by employees. The case tends to elicit enthusiastic participation from students, especially on the theme of workplace fairness and the role of gender and individual constraints on employees’ ability to excel at the workplace. Overall, students believed the case was challenging and that it provided them skills to combine (i) optimization modeling and (ii) qualitative considerations for workplace fairness that they studied in management and leadership courses. Supplemental Material: The Three Mountains Student Shell Excel spreadsheet is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2023.0044ca . The Teaching Note and the Three Mountains Solution Final Excel spreadsheet are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .