MAN 2100 Module 5 Decision-Making and Control Paper Example

Should the Library Stop Charging Late Fines? A Decision Analysis and the Controls That Would Judge It

Student Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University

MAN-2100: Principles of Management

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Should the Library Stop Charging Late Fines? A Decision Analysis and the Controls That Would Judge It

Decision-making and control are linked: a manager decides, then needs a way to tell whether the decision worked (Lumen Learning, n.d.). This paper applies both to a decision now before the board of the invented nine-branch library system where I run a branch: whether to stop charging overdue fines on most materials. Several library systems across the country have dropped fines in recent years, and our director has asked branch managers for an analysis. The paper defines the problem, generates and evaluates alternatives using a structured decision process, recommends a choice and designs the controls that would show whether it achieved its purpose.

Defining the Problem

A decision process begins by defining the problem precisely rather than jumping to a solution. Fines bring in about $96,000 a year, less than half of one percent of the library's budget, and collecting them takes staff time at every desk. Meanwhile, 11,300 cardholders, about 9% of the total, have borrowing blocked because they owe $10 or more, and a review of blocked accounts found them concentrated in the county's lowest-income ZIP codes and among children's cards. The real problem, then, is not revenue: it is that a small revenue stream is keeping thousands of residents, many of them children, from using a public service, while the library also needs materials to come back so others can borrow them.

Alternatives and Criteria

Four alternatives deserve consideration: keep fines as they are; lower the daily fine and cap the maximum; eliminate fines on children's and teen cards only; or eliminate fines on all materials while keeping charges for lost items. Each is judged against four criteria agreed with the director: access for residents, return of materials, financial effect and staff time.

Other stakeholders bring their own criteria. County commissioners care about the budget line, staff care about fewer tense conversations at the desk, and parents care whether their children can borrow again. Listing these interests before comparing alternatives helps the board see why the criteria were chosen.

Evaluating Under Bounded Rationality

A purely rational model assumes the decision maker knows every alternative and its consequences. Simon (1955) argued that real decision makers face limits on information and on their ability to process it, so they seek solutions that are good enough rather than provably best. That describes this decision well. The library cannot know in advance how patrons will behave without fines, so it must decide with incomplete information and plan to learn.

The most important uncertainty is whether materials will come back. One might assume fines are what make people return books. Behavioral research suggests the link is less simple. Gneezy and Rustichini (2000) introduced a modest fine for parents who were late picking up their children at several Israeli day-care centers and found that late pickups increased rather than decreased, and stayed high even after the fine was removed. Their explanation was that the fine turned a social obligation into a price, which some parents were willing to pay. If overdue fines work the same way, removing them would not necessarily slow returns, and reminders that appeal to the obligation to other borrowers might work as well.

That evidence comes from a different setting and does not settle the question. It does shift the burden: keeping fines can no longer be justified simply by assuming they drive returns.

Recommendation

The library should end overdue fines on all materials, keep replacement charges for items not returned within 45 days of the due date, and automatically clear existing fine balances under $25. This choice serves the access criterion best, frees staff time and has a modest financial cost that can be absorbed. To manage the uncertainty about returns, the board should approve it as an eighteen-month trial with explicit criteria for review.

The recommendation also needs a communication plan. Staff will hear about the change before patrons do, along with a short script for answering questions such as what happens to fines already owed. Patrons will learn about it through branch signs, the library's website and a letter to every blocked cardholder inviting them back. A decision that is announced poorly can fail even when it is sound.

Designing the Controls

Control is the management function that compares results with standards and acts on the difference. The trial needs three kinds of controls. Feedforward controls work before problems occur: automated email and text reminders three days before and on the due date, and clear messages that returning items on time helps neighbors waiting on hold lists. Concurrent controls monitor the change as it happens: a monthly dashboard showing the share of items returned within seven days of the due date, the length of hold queues and the number of items reaching lost status, each set beside its figure from a year earlier. Feedback controls evaluate results after the fact: at twelve and eighteen months, the board will review whether active cardholders in the lowest-income ZIP codes increased, whether the on-time return rate stayed within three percentage points of its baseline and whether replacement costs rose.

Each measure has a standard and an owner. If the on-time return rate falls by more than three points for two consecutive quarters, the circulation manager will recommend a corrective step, such as stronger reminders or limits on new checkouts for accounts with many overdue items, before any return to fines is considered.

Conclusion

Ending fines is a decision made with incomplete information, which is the normal condition of management. Defining the problem as access rather than revenue, comparing alternatives against explicit criteria, using research to challenge a common assumption and building controls that will reveal whether the decision works allow the library to act now and correct course later.

References

Gneezy, U., & Rustichini, A. (2000). A fine is a price. The Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1086/468061

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Principles of management. Open Educational Resources. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-principlesofmanagement/

Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99-118. https://doi.org/10.2307/1884852