Least Privilege Principle for Employee Data Security

4020 Crews
1
4020 Crews
4
The Least Privilege Principle in Contemporary HR
Nancy Pier
Human Resource Management
The Least Privilege Principle in Contemporary HR
There is a recent trend in contemporary business where
enterprises seem to have achieved a collaboration with
information technology aimed at improving business efficiency
and consequently result in sustainable success. This
development has however come with the liability of protecting
key identifiable information of each party in a business
organization (Dhillon et al., 2017). As it is, governments have
put it as a legal obligation for organizations to protect the
information of their people as they work towards protecting
sensitive information related to business. In the United States
alone in 2018, there were 65 successful litigations by employees
towards the employer for exposing their information to
malicious parties leading to closure of 80% of these businesses
due to hefty legal fees (Cockcroft, 2020). Previous studies have
attributed secure employee and business information to 45%

success in business based on more motivated employees,
confidentiality of business information of the firms and
favorable reputation by clients (Porter et al., 2019).
The current situation points to the necessity in the application
of the least privilege principle based on the numerous success
stories upon its application. There is evidence that the
implementation of this principle in the homeland department of
security led to 78% reduction of loss of crucial information for
the department, 71 % reduction of witness and whistle blower
information leakage and efficient classification of information
an aspect that aids investigative efficiency in the departments
(Hammad et al., 2019). Experts aver that cloud computing, is
not enough to protect important information and point to role
based access, the foundation of the least privilege principle, as
the next reliable pillar for workplace and business safety. This
subject is particularly vital in human resource management
practice as the department is the custodian of employee
information and is tasked with capacitating employees.
Interestingly, under the period of the boom in internet
technologies and their application in business processes, there
has been cases of insider trading where businesses have lost
huge investment money and their operating reputations. A study
on the effects of employee data insecurity, in Texas, indicated
that last year, 2019, 28% of employees reached by the survey
reported at least one case of bullying as unauthorized parties
accessed their key identifiable information (Sennewald &
Baillie, 2020). The study further indicated that this kind of data
insecurity results in insecure and unproductive employees. The
application of the least privilege principle, therefore, could lead
to business success, employee sense of security and business
efficiency in meeting customer needs. This study will therefore
look into the value of least privilege principle in employee
management and personal information security.

References
Cockcroft, S. (2020). Securing the commercial Internet: Lessons
learned in developing a postgraduate course in information
security management. Journal of Information Systems
Education, 13(3), 7.
Dhillon, G., Syed, R., & de Sá-Soares, F. (2017). Information
security concerns in IT outsourcing: Identifying (in) congruence
between clients and vendors. Information & Management, 54(4),
452-464.
Hammad, M., Bagheri, H., & Malek, S. (2019). DelDroid: An
automated approach for determination and enforcement of least-
privilege architecture in android. Journal of Systems and
Software, 149, 83-100.
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2019). Creating shared value.
In Managing sustainable business (pp. 323-346). Springer,
Dordrecht.
Sennewald, C. A., & Baillie, C. (2020). Effective security
management. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Guidelines for Case Analysis
A critical element in our learning is the interaction provided by
discussing business decision-making. This
sharpens our communications skills and analytical skills – and
we learn a lot at the same time. Case
analysis provides an excellent forum for us to learn. Here are
some suggestions that should help you in

this course. Please note that all professors are different as are
their expectations for case analyses – do not
assume that what one professor accepted is acceptable here.
• Preparing for Cases
• Do’s and Don’ts of Case Analysis
• Case Brief Requirements
Preparing for Cases
1. Read the case quickly by yourself to get an overview and
understanding of the:
a. Company, Industry, and Supply Chain Members
b. Exhibits
2. Visually map the company’s supply chain (provides a more
holistic view of the supply chain).
a. Identify and draw a representation of the key entities (e.g.,
companies, suppliers,
customers, third parties)
b. Draw and label the relationships among the key entities
3. Next, read the case more carefully – maybe 1-2 days later
a. Identify key aspects of the situation analysis related to SCM
b. Highlight and distinguish important information, omissions,
and questions
4. Identify the problem in the case.
a. Focus on Supply Chain Management
b. Distinguish symptoms from deeper underlying problems
c. What analysis questions will inform the issue?

d. Can the data provided be worked further?
e. What aspects of the situation analysis are relevant? Why?
5. Make a decision -- take a stand and be prepared to defend it!
a. Develop recommendations with logical support based on facts
as well as your intuition
b. What are the pros and cons of the recommendations?
6. Flesh out an implementation plan of the recommendation(s).
a. Give specifics even if you feel like you are “stretching”
beyond the explicit
information provided in the case.
i. Phased/timed steps (timeline of steps)
ii. Costs, benefits, organizational functional responsibilities
iii. How will performance be assessed for each phase/step?
7. Test the plan and analysis with others you may have at your
disposal (co-workers, etc).
8. Keep in mind that the best possible template is one that you
develop on your own. Use this one as
a starting point and adapt it to best fit your needs.
Do’s and Don’ts of Case Analysis
There are a number of common problems and issues that often
arise in case analysis. The following apply
to your analysis, write-ups, and in-class discussion (four Don’ts
and then seven Do’s).

1. Don’t rely on any stated questions provided in the case as the
case problem. Cases are often
written to address different business problems, and the cases in
this class may target more than
just SCM issues. Don’t assume that because a question is posed
at the beginning or end of the
case that that is the problem you are trying to solve. The case
problem in this class will be related
to SCM and a topic recently covered in the class.
2. Don’t rehash the facts of the case. It is critical to understand
(and include in a write-up or
discussion) the “key” facts of the case that drive subsequent
recommendations. But I have read
the case, so it is not necessary to spend too much of your
valuable space (you only have two
pages in a write-up) with tangential case details.
3. Don’t bring in information from outside the case. Our case
discussions and your write-ups should
be based upon the information presented in the written case.
When you add outside information –
that is only known by a few people – you add confusion to our
discussion. Although you may
know or find out what the company actually did in a particular
situation, this does not necessarily
make it the decision right.
4. Don’t use the excuse that you don’t have enough information.
The ability to manage ambiguity is
undoubtedly critical for managers to advance their careers. The
rapid changes that happen to
organizations require managers to become comfortable acting

when uncertainty and change are
constants, and timely decisions need to be made even when not
all the variables are known. This
course, particularly the use of cases, is designed to help you do
just that!
5. Don’t have unstated or unreasonable assumptions. In making
case decisions (as in the real world)
you will never have all the data you would like. Your analysis
and recommendations will
therefore have to draw on assumptions – be sure to state these
where appropriate and be sure they
are reasonable.
6. Do critically evaluate data and issues. One of the objectives
of this class is to prioritize important
information. The “facts” provided in the case may be more/less
relevant, more/less important, and
more/less valid. As you interpret the data from the case, be sure
to critically evaluate each.
Consider the SCM problem you have identified and whether and
how the facts are relevant to that
problem. Also, be sure to consider the data being presented –
was the data collected in a
reasonable manner, consider the actor and the context before
taking what an actor says as “truth.”
Be sure to qualify conclusions when the data you rely upon is
more suspect.
7. Do provide a strong analysis. The analysis or rationale
should: a) be focused on the key problem
you identify in the case, b) consider evidence that favors and
opposes a particular alternative, c)
be correct in analysis and not making inappropriate
assumptions, and d) draw upon relevant
principles, concepts, and tools from class and readings.

8. Do offer strong recommendations and implementation plans.
Make sure your recommendation
and implementation plans are: a) specific, b) practical –
considering costs, timing and
implementability, and c) a solution to the problem identified in
the case.
9. Do remember that there is no correct answer. One thing about
business is that there is rarely a
single right answer – there are many paths to success. In my
evaluations of our discussions and
your write-ups, I will heavily weight the logic and rationale
used to come to your conclusions.
Still there are many wrong answers – those that are not well
supported by analysis and logic.
10. Do Proofread. Briefs should be carefully edited and of the
quality you would submit to a
manager.
11. Do make your Exhibits comprehensible and useful, if you
provide any (not required). Be sure any
additional information provided is self-explanatory, and is
helpful in justifying your arguments.
Name: Date: SC:
Case Brief: Case Name [THIS IS YOUR RUBRIC! Use section
headings provided, red font
is meant to provide a description of what is needed for each
section; also note that the quality
(easy to read, well organized, follows format requirements,

without grammatical or spelling
errors) of the case brief is worth 5 points so be sure to proof-
read your work]
NOTE: The first case will be worth fewer points to learn the
requirements with less risk.
1. Problem Statement (15 points)
No more than two or three sentences that succinctly identifies
the case problem. Consider
the following: How clearly and concisely have you identified
the problem moving forward?
Is it precise? Did you identify a true problem and not just
symptoms? The problem may not
be explicitly stated in the case. Is your problem statement
focused on supply chain
management (instead of other areas!!)?
2. Situation Analysis (20 points)
1-2 paragraph analysis of key case SCM factors related to the
problem statement that
support the identified problem statement is indeed the problem
and analyze/get at solving the
problem. Consider the following: Did you summarize and
analyze the key factors most
relevant to the case? Did you incorporate relevant course
concepts? Does the analysis
provide possible alternative solutions and the necessary
background to lead to defining a
reasonable recommendation to the problem and justify your
problem statement? Is your
situation analysis focused on supply chain management (instead
of other areas!!)?
3. Recommendation (25 points)
2-3 paragraph description of SCM recommendation(s) emerging
from situation analysis and

addressing specific problem statement, including pros and cons.
Consider the following:
Did you justify and support your recommended course of
action? Is it supported by evidence
(including course topics)? Did you critically evaluate the
recommendation in terms of pros
and cons? Does the recommendation make sense given your
problem statement and situation
analysis? Is it decisive? Are your recommendation(s) focused
on supply chain
management (instead of other areas!!)? If more than one, are
your recommendations
integrated? Do they complement each other?
4. Implementation Plan (10 points)
1-2 paragraph implementation description clearly describing
how (tasks, steps, phases,
timeframe, costs, benefits, responsibilities) it actually
implements the specific
recommendations provided above. Consider the following: How
realistic is your
implementation plan? Have you addressed the specific details of
the implementation?
Exhibits
One page of exhibits supporting your analysis and
recommendation(s) is allowed.
Monika Thapa
Monika Thapa

Implementing LEAN Operations at Caesars
Casinos
In December 2014, Brad Hirsch stood on the
gaming floor of the Harrah’s Metropolis Casino
and
Hotel in Metropolis, Illinois. Hirsch had
assumed the position of Senior Vice President
and General
Manager at this Caesars Entertainment property in
mid-2014.Caesars’ culture was strongly
oriented toward optimizing the customer experience.
This history, coupled with increased
competitive pressures and new corporate financial goals
for 2015, had created the motivation to
intensify improvement efforts at the Metropolis
facility. Hirsch had successfully led employee-
centered initiatives to apply LEAN1 operating
principles in threeof the company’s casinos in
Tunica,
Mississippi. He believed that what he learned from
those experiences would be applicableat
the
Metropolis location, but wondered if he should
consider a modified approach that could
potentially
produce results more quickly with the help of a
team of internal experts.
In 2014, Caesars Entertainment, based in Las
Vegas, Nevada, was the world’s most
geographically
diversified provider of casino entertainment. With
68,000 employees worldwide, it operated 50
casinos in the U.S.,Egypt, England, South Africa,

and Canada, under the names Harrah’s,
Caesars,
Rio, Flamingo, Paris, Bally’s, Horseshoe, and London
Clubs International. Its largest concentration of
properties was in Las Vegas, where nine of its
casinos occupied 1.25 miles on or near Las
Vegas
Boulevard, commonly known as The Strip. In
2013, the company had net revenue of $8.6
billion U.S.
Caesars had developed an industry-leading loyalty-card
program, introduced sophisticated
customer-service measurement systems, and had been
the first to apply LEAN process-
improvement concepts to casino operations. (For
more on LEAN principles, see Appendix A.) As
Hirsch thought about the challenges that lay
ahead for LEAN implementation aimed at
customer-
service enhancement and operational effectiveness at
the new Harrah’s Metropolis Casino and
Hotel, he reflected on his previous experience in
Tunica.
LEAN Implementation at Caesars in Tunica,
Mississippi
At the end of 2008, Tunica, Mississippi, located
about a 45-minute drivesouth of Memphis,
Tennessee, was the fourth-largest gaming market in
the world with more than $1 billion in annual
revenue. Three of Tunica’s nine casinos were owned

by Caesars. These threegenerated $545
million in revenue and accounted for 50% of the
Tunica market. Over 4,000 employees worked
across the threeCaesars properties, delivering
hospitality and entertainment services to
8,000,000
guests annually.
In late 2008, the economic environment for the
Caesars Tunica casinos was a serious
concern. First,
the U.S. macroeconomic collapse of the Great
Recession had led to reduced customer spending on
entertainment. As a consequence, casinos in the
region experienced declines in revenue, and
competition for market share was intense. Beyond
the impetus for improvement inspired by
macroeconomic challenges, all Caesars-owned
properties embraced customer service as an
essential element of the corporate operating strategy,
and strove to continuously increase customer
satisfaction as gauged by rating scores. Every
week, Caesars surveyed a random sample of
recent
customers for each property. Survey respondents
assigned scores of A, B, C, D, or F
for various
dimensions of their Caesars experience (staff
helpfulness, staff friendliness, speed of service,
and
othermetrics). Data showed that moving a customer
from a B to an A score resulted in up
to a 12%

increase in customer spending. On a quarterly basis,
weekly service-score data were averaged and
used as a factor in determining staff bonuses.
The higher the percentage shift of B scores
to A
scores, when compared to the same quarter the
prior year, the higher the bonus for team
members.
At the end of 2008, the Caesars Tunica
leadershipteam sought to deliver more conversions
from B
to A scores, both to increase customer loyalty in
a hypercompetitive landscape, and to
maximize
team-member bonuses and enhance employee satisfaction.
Members of the Tunica executive team recognized
that to reverse the declines in revenue and
challenges to profitability, and improve service
scores and market share, would require
engaging
the entire organization. However, one challenge was
the absence of a consistent and systematic
problem-solving approach through all layers of
the 24-hour, 7-day a weekbusiness. As one
associate observed, “If your supervisor is passionate
about casino cleanliness, casino cleanliness
becomes your top priority. But your next supervisor, or
the supervisor of the next shift, might
focus
on a completely different aspect of the
customer experience.” Hirsch recognized that

LEAN, with its
easy-to-understand tools and concepts, could create a
consistent and focused approach to process
improvement for all layers of the business.
Kaizen Events as the Organizing Framework
for Implementing LEAN at Caesars
Tunica, Mississippi, Casinos
In December 2008, Hirsch was appointed Regional
Director of LEAN for the threeCaesars casinos
in
Tunica. He and the executive team saw the urgency
for change, and knew they had to make
the right
improvements and sustain them. Hirsch created a
Regional LEAN Team by recruiting two
experienced, high-potential leaders from the casino
operations in Tunica, each with a passion
for
process improvement. The team agreed to orchestrate
the LEAN rollout around a series of
kaizen
events. These were intensive five-day workshops
involving employees from multiple functions and
levels working together to identify and improve
target processes.2 For example, an earlykaizen
event focused on improvinghoteloperations—from
check-in to check-out. The kaizen team
included a department manager, bellhop, housekeeper,
front desk clerk, supervisor, information-
technology associate, and a gaming-floor employee.
The department manager’sparticipation
ensured that she understood the work under- taken
during the kaizen weekand would be

prepared
to lead the follow-up activities that grew out of the
event.
An initial challenge was that, to somecasino
employees, the word lean implied cutting jobs. To
address this challenge,members of the executive team
consistently communicated that the goals of
eliminating waste via LEAN efforts were to
improve the customer experience, increase process
effectiveness, teach problem-solving tools, and
improve employees’ work environments—not to
cut
personnel. Sharing this message was important,
but Hirsch and his team knew they simply
had to
start conducting kaizen events so individuals
would SEE that jobs were not being eliminated.
As
Hirsch explained, “We thought our behavior would
speak louder than our words, and it did.”
The five-day kaizen workshops—each of which
followed a similar structure (see below)—yielded
immediate, tangible improvements and laid the
foundation for post-event efforts to
establish a
LEAN culture throughout the organization. During
calendar year 2009, Hirsch and his team staged
63 five-day kaizen events. These events
resulted in improved customer-service scores
and $3

million in documented savings. Each five-day
workshop included a set of activities intended to
build
knowledge, engage participants, solve problems,
and develop solutions.
• Kaizen Day 1
Every kaizen event began with education about
LEAN concepts. A major component of
this
education was teaching employees to recognize waste
(or, in Japanese, muda). Hirsch and his team
used a memorable acronym for teaching waste
recognition that seemed to resonate through
the
entire organizational hierarchy— DOWNTIME
(defects, overproduction, waiting, not engaging
people, transportation, inventory,motion, and extra
processing). At each kaizen event, the
facilitator explained DOWNTIME using examples from
the casino environment.
• – Defects: Defects are mistakes that result in
items being scrapped or reworked. Delivering
a drink to a customer with ice when the
customer has requested no ice is a defect.
Checking
a guest into a hotelroomwith the incorrect bed
type (i.e., two queen-size beds instead of a
king-size bed) is a defect. In both situations,
wasteful rework is required and the customer
is left with a poor impression.

• – Overproduction: This is production in
excess of what the customer requires. Customers
in one restaurant were sometimes served water
with threelemon slices. Mostcustomers
were satisfied with a single lemon slice. As
Hirsch explained, “Customers writeus all
the
time to tell us what they love about our casinos in
Tunica, but occasionally getting
additional lemons in their ice water is not a
cause for customer delight.” Producing three
times as many lemon slices as necessary
was waste because it consumed money and
time
without creating additional value for the customer.
• – Waiting: Waiting-time waste occurs when
employees are idle or when customers must
wait for service. Timespent waiting adds no value
to the product or service. If a gaming
table runs out of a particular dollar-value betting
chip, the table-games supervisor signals
for a chip replenishment. Chip replenishment is a
time-consuming process that, because of
regulatorystandards and asset protection protocols, requires
supervisor verification, travel
to and from the cashier cage where money and
chips are held, and engaging a security
guard to oversee the transport. During portions of
the process, patrons and employees
sometimes must wait to resume gaming activity,
which affects profitability of gaming
operations. Similarly, if a hotel- roomattendant
cannot finish cleaning a roombecause
sheets or towels from the laundry aren’t

delivered on time,the attendant may be forced to
wait. This yields non-value-creating payroll expense
and a delay in roomreadiness for
customers.
• – Not Engaging People: Organizations incurwaste
when they don’t routinely ask
employees, “What would you change that would
make your job easier to do and allow
you
to better serve customers?” Priorto the
introduction of LEAN methods, the majority of
tactical process changes occurred as a result of
a top-down approach. Although someof
thesetop-down solutions produced improvement, they did
not always achieve their highest
potential. Without immediate feedback from the
employees actually doing the work,
managers could not fully appreciatedelivery-system
challenges. For example, employees in
one area struggled to transport food carts across deep-
pile carpeting in corridors, resulting
in relatively long transport times and employee fatigue.
During a kaizen event, the
employees who had experienced this performance
obstacle greatly appreciated having their
voices heard.
• – Transportation:This is the waste of
resources, time,and effort involved in moving
items
and tracking their locations. Damage and non-value-added
payroll expense are always a risk
when items are transported, and transportation

adds to process throughput time.Moving
food, for example, does not add to its value.
One kaizen team tracked the life of a beer
and
discovered that a beer could be put into storage
in up to five different locations before being
acquired by the beverage server for delivery to
customers. Limiting transportation frees
employees for higher-value work, and, in the
hospitality industry, can also help protect
product quality.
• – Inventory: Inventory waste is incurred
when material on hand exceeds current
demand.
Excess inventory costsmoney, takesup space, can
create a safety hazard, and becomes
obsolete when customer requirements change.
Inventory is, in essence, dead money—
money has been spent on somethingthat is doing
nothing to create customer value. An
examination of one of the Tunica warehouses
revealed multiple pallets of boxes of paper
used to print vouchers for customers cashing out from
slot machines. Each month, a team
ordered approximately $10,000 worth of slot paper,
regardless of current inventory levels.
This order level had historically enabled the
property to have the right quantity of slot
paper on site. However, as business levels
declined for casinos in the Tunica region

and slot
volumes became more variable, a six-month supply of
slot paper accumulated in the Caesars
Tunica warehouse.
• – Motion: Any movementthat does not add value
to the product or service represents
waste of motion. In a food-service area, bottles
of water were stored in a largetub-like
container of ice (rather than a refrigerator) to
keep them cold. Servers incurred waste of
motion every time they reached into the container,
withdrew a cold bottle of water, grabbed
napkins from a nearby dispenser, and driedoff the
bottle before placing it on a tray to
deliver it to a customer.
• – Extra Processing: Extra processing occurs
when unnecessary, non-value-adding work is
performed. For years, as part of the property’s
security protocol, a security guard used a
metal-detecting wand to scan bags of trash coming
out of the casino’s cash-counting room
to ensure that coins were not being smuggled
out. This practice continued after the casino
eliminated all metal coins from operations.
No one questioned the protocol to wand
the
trash because it was always done this way and was
assumed to be a regulatorynecessity.
D-O-W-N-T-I-M-E proved an effective analytical
tool to help front-line personnel see the
various types of waste in work processes.In
addition, Day 1 training also introduced several

LEAN tools. Participants learned about value
stream mapping, spaghetti diagrams, 5S, Five
Whys, one-piece flow processing, the pull discipline,
and the basicproblem-solving
approach (i.e., define the problem, seek out root causes,
identify potential solutions, test
them, keep what works, repeat). With an
understanding of theseLEAN principles and tools,
the teams were ready to improve their own
processes.At the end of Day 1, each team
agreed on the processes that would be the focus
of the week’s kaizen improvement efforts.
The selected processes presented the greatest
opportunities to improve customer service
and reduce waste.
• Kaizen Day 2
During the second morning, participants mapped
the work processes targeted for
improvement. Team members engaged in what was
called a gemba3 walk, in which they
went to
where the work was done, made notes on
what they individually saw, and gathered data about
each process step. Then they jointly created a large,
wall-display value stream map of the
process using sticky notes and simple
symbols (see Exhibit 1 for an example).
The afternoon of Day 2 was devoted to a waste

walk. Armed with a sheetthat listed the
types of waste and using the DOWNTIME
rubric, each participant observed a segment of
the
process and recorded every waste he or she
identified. In somecases, team members counted
how
oftena particular waste (e.g., walking to retrieve
a forgotten item) occurred and timed the
duration.
This information helped teams to understand
the effects of the waste on the business.
After
completing their observations, team members met to
share their waste discoveries, recording each
waste on a separate sticky note. A typical
kaizen team identified between 60 and 80 points
of waste
in the target process.
As part of the waste walk, a team member
equipped with a copy of the area layout would
follow a
specific person or product, drawing a line from
start to finish every time the person or
product
moved to a new location. The result, called a
spaghetti diagram, oftenprovided compelling
evidence
of the motion and transportation waste inherent in
the current way work was done. Exhibit 2
shows the spaghetti diagram of sandwich production
developed as part of a kaizen event
focusing
on kitchen operations.

In the afternoon of Day 2, team members categorized
wastes by moving each pink sticky note into
the appropriate quadrant on a wall-mounted matrix
(see Exhibit 3). Specifically, the team
determined whether a waste would be easy or
hard to remove and whether removing the waste
would have a largeor small effect on (1)
safety, (2) quality, (3) delivery, (4) inventory,or
(5)
productivity and cost. These were the five key
dimensions on which all areaswere evaluated.
Wastes that appeared in the top left (easy to
remove, largeimpact) quadrant (circled) were the
first
targets of opportunity for the remaining days of
the kaizen event.
At the closeof Day 2, the kaizen team presented
the work it had done so far to the property’s
executives. The team shared its value stream
map, waste-prioritization matrix, and otheranalyses.
This meeting had threegoals. First, the exchange of
information at the meeting helped ensure
that
senior leaders recognized the goal of the kaizen
event, understood the analyses the team had
per-
formed, and supported the direction the team was headed.
Second, the checkpoint meeting
provided an opportunity to seek senior executives’
assistance in removing barriers the team
anticipated (e.g., the need to purchase equipment,

or a request for help in rearranging a
workspace). Third, the department manager’s
involvement in the kaizen team’s presentation
helped ensure his or her commitment to the
changes the team was developing.
• Kaizen Day 3
On Day 3, the team identified the root cause of
each waste in the easy-to-remove, largeimpact
quadrant of the matrix generated in Day 2. In
seeking out root causes, kaizen teams relied
heavily
on the Five Whys lean tool. This technique involves
asking why five (or more) times whenever a
problem or waste is encountered. For example, a
team observed that buffet attendants routinely
polished clean silverware. When queried, the
area’s supervisor noted that over a typical
24-hour
period, about four hours of employee time was
spent polishing clean silverware. Applying
the Five
Whys to this waste of motion, the team asked
and answered the following series of questions

• Why are attendants spending four hours a day
polishing clean silverware?
– Because the silverware has spotsthat create an
unacceptable presentation on the dining table.
•
Why does the silverware have spotson it?
– Because the silverware comes out of the
dishwasher with spotson it. • Why does the
dishwasher
leave spotson the silverware?
– The dishwasher doesn’t hold a consistent
temperature during one of the phases of
the cleaning
cycle.
• Why is one phase of the cleaning cycle
not holding a consistent temperature?
–
Oneportionofthecurrentpreventivemaintenanceprotocolisnotcons
istentwithwhatthemanuf
acturer
suggests in the dishwasher’s operating manual.
• How can we remedy the situation?
– Revise the preventive maintenance protocol to
make it consistent with the manufacturer’s
guidelines.
Based on this analysis, team members revised and

adopted new preventive maintenance practices,
and continued to evolve them over time.
• Kaizen Day 4
Day 4 was devoted to try-storming—proposing and
testing possible remedies to root causes of
problems identified the prior day. For example, the team
investigating the waste of motion in
polishing clean silverware agreed to commit to
better pre-wash procedures, and to institute
routine preventive maintenance to clear obstructions
in the dishwasher tubing before they could
affect the rinse water temperature. Preventive
maintenance design and scheduling were among
the
lean solutions frequentlycalled upon to remove waste
from processes during kaizen events.
In another example, the team examining kitchen
processes try-stormed options for arranging
kitchen equipment and supplies to reduce the
time and motion involved in preparing sandwiches.
Exhibit 4 shows the spaghetti diagram of
sandwich production in the revised kitchen
layout (as
contrastedwith Exhibit 2). Locating together the items
needed for sandwich production (an
example of work-cell creation) vastly streamlined

the time and motion required.
Another LEAN tool used by almost every team in
the try-storming phase was 5S, a term
referring to
principles for creating a visual work environment
that is easy to understand, execute, and
maintain.
The concept was originally drawn from five Japanese
words: seiri,seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and
shitsuke. These have been translated into numerous S-
words in languages around the world. In
English, the 5S are typically expressed as sort, set in
order, shine, standardize, and sustain.
1. Sort: “If in doubt, throw it out” is the
phrase that best describes this first S. Sift through
everything that has accumulated in the workplace
and identify what is needed. Eliminate
unnecessary or out-of-date items.
2. Set in Order: “A place for everything
and everything in its place” describes the
set-in-order
concept. As- sign essential items to specific
locations and clearly mark theselocations. The
objective is for anyone to be able to find
anything at any time quickly, and for it to be
obvious when things are not in their proper
place.
3. Shine: Clean and inspect the workplace. After
sorting and setting in order, houseclean
thoroughly to ensure that everything is clean,

neat, and functioning properly.
4. Standardize: Standardize means to create and
enforce policies and procedures that make 5S
a dailypractice, not a one-time activity. This
typically entails assigning responsibilities and
putting in place policies such as a dailyfive-
minute shine—a brief period each day devoted
to cleaning and ordering the workplace.
5. Sustain: Sustain means to institutionalize the
above 4S’s throughout the entire organization
so that 5S develops deep roots.4 Training,
communication, ongoing measurement, and
promotionof 5S are essential building blocks of
sustain.
In applying 5S at Tunica, teams began by
removing everything from the area under study
and
placing each item into one of threepiles: (1) items
that were definitely needed and used, (2)
items about which the team was not sure of
the need, and (3) items that were definitely
not
needed. Items in the not-needed pile were
discarded or repurposed. Items in the
definitely
needed pile were set in order—placed in a
designated area. Next, the team turned to
the not-
sure-of-the-need pile. Having just set in order
the definitely needed items, teams were able to

take a freshlook at items in the not-sure-of-the-
need pile. Teams oftenconcluded that much of
the not-sure pile could be discarded or repurposed.
A kaizen event in the buffet kitchen applied
5S to the dry-goods storage area, where
inventory was
not sys- tematically organized (see Exhibit 5, left
side). Retrieving a specific item might
require a
lengthy search, and items, once located, could
potentially have passed their expiration dates.
Further, duplicate items might be ordered if
the on-hand item could not be located
quickly.
The kaizen team studying the dry-goods storage area
discarded $8,000 worth of unused inventory,
established dedicated storage locations for the items
that remained, marked the maximum
inventory levels with tape on the wall, and used eye-
level labels with pictures to showwhat went
where (see Exhibit 5, right side). The effort
simplified ordering and increased the speed with
which
items could be retrieved for use in serving
customers. To address the inventory challenge of
slot
paper described earlier, the kaizen team dedicated a
lined-off space in the warehouse for the
boxes

of slot paper and created a visual two-bin
system. Two stacks of slot paper, each of
which
represented a two-week supply, were located side-
by-side. Team members placed a strip of tape on
the wall indicating the maximum height of the stacked
boxes of paper. They added clear signage
that reminded warehouse personnel to withdraw boxes
from only one stackat a time until it was
depleted. Depletion of the first stacktriggered an order
timed to arrive
before the second stackran out (see Exhibit 6).
This system eliminated unnecessary orders
and
reduced the annual inventory investment by
$60,000. And, because warehouse workers had
been
part of the kaizen team that developed this solution,
they readily embraced the new work
procedures.
Through the application of simple tools, such as
5S, a kaizen event typically eliminated
anywhere
between 25%-90% of the waste observations. This
was a powerfully motivating and rewarding
exercise for employees who were able to see that
they could immediately remove obstacles and
improve frustrating aspects of their work through
the kaizen process.

• Kaizen Day 5
On the morning of the last day of a kaizen
week, the team presented its work to the
property
executive team and managers. Team members shared
their value stream maps, waste analysis
and
try-stormed solutions, and described the follow-on
improvements they planned to make, but could
not complete, in the five-day kaizen event
window. These action items identified,
but not yet
implemented, were captured in the area’s Kaizen
Newspaper, which was posted in the work
area
and became part of the daily-management metrics
board (see Exhibit 9). The presentation on
the
last day was informative for senior leaders, and it
also allowed them to recognize kaizen team
members for their hard work and reinforce the cultural
shift taking place.
Post-Kaizen Pillars
The week-long kaizen events provided the
foundation for creating a LEAN culture.
Solidifying the
gains and maintaining momentum to truly
transform the organization required more than these
week-long events, however. Caesars Tunica’s House
of LEAN (see Exhibit 7) relied on three
post-
kaizen pillars: standard work, key performance

indicators, and a focus on dailyproblem
solving
reinforcedthrough gemba walks.
• Standard Work
Every kaizen event resulted in new ways of
performing routine work activities, and each
new work process was documented with easy- to-
follow instructions that included
pictures and listed the tools required (see Exhibit 8).
This standard work became the
prescribed and repeatableway of performing the
task.
• Key Performance Indicators: The Daily-
Management Metrics Board
Measurement played an essential role in keeping
areasaccountable for maintaining and
extending the improvements made during the kaizen
event. “You get what you measure,” as
the management adage holds. After each kaizen
event, employees in the work area
developed a set of key performance indicators (KPIs)
that were consistent with the
company’s overall operating objectives of safety,
workplaceorganization (5S), quality,
delivery, inventory,and productivity-cost. These
indicators (one or two per objective) were
tracked on a KPI Board posted in each area

and updated on a dailybasis. Performance
was
coded as red (below expected performance) or
green (at or exceeding expected
performance). In addition to the key metrics, the
visual board also displayed the name of
the individual responsible for maintaining the board,
the list of ongoing improvement
efforts generated during the most recent kaizen
week, and the area’s standard work SOPs
(standard operating procedures). The board documented
barriers to service the team had
identified and described countermeasures the team had
developed for removing or
overcoming thesebarriers. For example, a barrier to
service quality for one team was
insufficient training on the new standard work,
which had been developed during the
kaizen event. To address this, the team planned
additional training. Exhibit 9 shows the
standard board format adopted throughout the
organization.
• Daily Problem Solving, Gemba Walks, and
Executive Engagement
The KPI Board became the focus of daily
problem solving. At a designated time,each
day,
area team members gathered around the board to
discuss performance, report barriers,
share improvement ideas, and decide on next
steps.
Oncea week, representatives from Tunica’s executive
team conducted gemba walks to observe
processes and hear from process teams about their

ongoing improvement efforts. In each process
area, the team and executives gathered around the
area’s KPI Board to discuss red metrics
and the
status of countermeasures. The team also shared
the progress it was making in addressing
the to-
do items identified during the most recent kaizen
event and requested support, where needed,
from
managers and executives.
This ongoing engagement of top-level leaders was
essential to sustaining momentum. The company
CEO, who had encouraged Tunica to develop a
LEAN culture, followed the efforts of the
program
closely, participated in gemba walks while on
site, and personally called employees to
thank them
for their improvement efforts.
LEAN Results in Tunica
…
Best Practices Writing Assignment
Cover Page: None

Report Length: 5 – 6 pages + Reference/Works
Cited page
Line Spacing: 2.0
Font: 11-point Arial
Number of Sources: 5 minimum (Use
quantitative/numerical sources)
Headings/Subheadings: Yes
Page Numbers: Yes (Your choice)
Page Margins: 1-inch top, bottom, left, and right
Clarity/Content: 65 points
Organization: 15 points
Style: 20 points
Best Practices Writing Assignment
In large corporations, HR staff (and sometimes non-HR
staff) are asked to research specific topics, issues, or problems
and provide recommendations to upper-management regarding
possible solutions or steps that the business should take to
address them most effectively. That research often includes a
description of “best practices.” Best practices are ways that
specific organizations effectively deal with a problem or issue,
or recommendations made by experts about how to deal with a
problem or issue. As one example, an organization might want
to implement some kind of a wellness program, but they might
not be sure HOW to implement it. Should it be tied to insurance
costs? How should participation be incentivized? What kinds of
activities should be included? How should the program be
described to employees? As another example, a company might
be interested in implementing some kind of drug testing
program. What are the privacy issues involved and how can they
best be addressed? What are the best types of tests? Which
employees should be tested and when?
Here’s what you need to do: a) identify an HR topic, issue or
problem of interest to you (see subsequent page for sample

topics), b) research that topic in academic, practitioner, and
online sources to identify best-practices or recommendations for
solutions, and c) write-up your findings with a critical analysis
of what you’ve found. Focus on QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE
to support your analysis. The written paper should include 5 –
6 pages of text (5 minimum, 6 maximum, 2.0 line spacing 11-
point font Arial), and a reference or Works Cited page.
There will be an early checkpoint (Week 12) for turning in
your topic, as well as references from at least five (5) sources
that you can potentially use for your paper. This checkpoint is
intended to ensure that everyone has a reasonable topic with at
least five (5) sources on which they can base their paper. At this
point in the process I might steer you in a different direction if I
think your topic is problematic (e.g., too broad, too narrow, not
HR, not enough sources).
The text of the paper should include two (2) major
sections: 1) a description of the “problem” (e.g., legal
requirements or laws, social trends, adoption of new
technology, etc.) and why this is of concern to organizations
(and HR specifically), and 2) a description of best practices
and/or recommendations for addressing the problem. This
should include a critical analysis of the information you find—
not simply a regurgitation of the information. For example, you
might find two different recommendations/best practices in two
different sources: use your judgment and critical argument to
inform the reader about which recommendation might be most
relevant in which type of situation. This is where an analysis of
the quantitative data or studies would also be relevant.
Remember, this paper is designed to give you practice writing a
report on a specific issue to upper level managers.
I expect that you will integrate a minimum of five (5)
different sources into your paper, though you might rely more
heavily on some than others. These sources might include
practitioner-oriented publications (e.g., HR Magazine), news
sources (WSJ, Newsweek, Time, etc.), academic journals, or
books. If you cannot find at least 5 legitimate sources

(dictionaries and Wikipedia are not legitimate sources), pick
another topic! You may use your textbook and/or material from
this class as a source, or interviews you conduct with experts on
the topic, but you need at least five (5) legitimate sources with
data/numbers on your topic.
Start your search at www.library.missouri.edu with the
Business Source Premier database. With this database, you can
narrow your search to relatively recent articles and search by
keywords in the article title or abstract. You may also want to
search for PDF white papers online that are often published by
organizations that do research in numerous HR areas. Use PDF
as one of your Google search terms.
Beware of plagiarism. Always parenthetically cite the
work from which your information is drawn (even if you are not
using actual word-for-word text from the source), and if you use
text directly from someone else’s work, you must put that text
in quotation marks and parenthetically cite the original work. In
general, you should use very few (if any) quotes. You may use
any standard referencing format (e.g., MLA, APA) as long as it
is complete.
Your paper will be graded based on a number of criteria:
clarity/content (e.g., was the problem described clearly? Were
the arguments straightforward and easy to understand?),
organization (e.g., Was the paper organized in a clear manner—
introductory problem definition, argument 1, argument 2,
argument 3, analysis, conclusion? Did the writer use headings
and subheadings correctly?), and style (e.g., Writing is
compelling, appropriate grammar, correct and sufficient
references). To be clear, inattention to detail (spelling,
grammar, citations, etc.) will result in a lower grade.
Examples of Possible Paper Topics:
I want you to choose a topic that is of interest to you. I
also want to make sure that you choose something that is
relevant to HR and is neither too narrow nor too broad. For

example, “training” is too broad, and training New York City
firefighters about sexual harassment is too narrow. However,
“sexual harassment training” might be just right. Similarly,
using web-based training or “webinars” for training salespeople
might be at an appropriate level of scope. Early in the semester
(see schedule) I’m going to ask you to provide me with a short
(max 1 paragraph) description of your proposed topic, along
with at least five (5) good sources that you will be able to use to
address this topic. This should help you get on-track with a
good topic, and will help ensure that there is at least
“something” in the literature on the topic for you to work with.
Here are some other ideas for topics, though you are free to
choose others:
· Best practices in developing or retaining international
managers
· Best practices in CEO compensation
· Best practices in using technology to help geographically
dispersed teams communicate
· Best practices in using technology for training purposes
· Best practices in using human resource information systems
· Best practices in managing temporary workers
· Best practices in managing contract workers
· Best practices in recruiting techniques (job boards, company
recruiting websites, job fairs)
· Best practices in developing effective training simulations
· Best practices in outsourcing HR activities
· Best practices in succession planning
· Best practices in managing family businesses
· Best practices in benefits administration issues (e.g.,
transition to defined contribution, same-sex partner benefits,
childcare, managing healthcare costs, wellness programs, gym
memberships, flexible spending)
· Best practices in managing commissioned-based pay
· Best practices in effective labor relations (e.g., negotiating
first contracts, grievance processes)

· Best practices for conducting effective performance appraisals
(e.g., using HRIS)
· Best practices for expatriate compensation
· Best practices for enhancing worker engagement
Some Other Advice About Your Paper
Clarity/Content (65 points):
· Use quantitative/numerical evidence when available, which
should be nearly always.
· This is formal writing, and you should use a formal “voice.”
That means you should avoid using slang or colloquial phrases
(e.g, “Nowadays,” “oftentimes,” “It’s kinda like….” Or “he
went totally nuts,” “behind the curve,” “takes a hit,” “makes all
the sense in the world,”) or language that is too conversational
(“So, I say to myself ‘why is that?’” or “you might not think
this is a big problem”). Use language that is clear and precise.
If someone reads one of your sentences, and thinks “I’m not
sure what that means,” then you should fix it!
· This is not an opportunity for you to get on a soapbox about
some issue (e.g., CEO pay-- “the amount that CEOs make is
clearly ridiculous” or drug testing “companies that do drug
testing are violating employees’ rights!”). Do not assume that
your own perspective is the right one, or the only one. Present
what you find on the topic with balance, and guided by facts or
data you find in your sources. For example, instead of saying
“CEO pay is ridiculous” you could frame your argument in
terms of the concern for HR (e.g., “Many CEOs make very large
salaries relative to other employees. For HR, the issue is
whether the firm can justify CEO pay relative to firm
performance, by linking levels of compensation to the
accomplishment of organizational goals”). The conclusion
section might be a good opportunity to provide a little of your
own viewpoint (e.g., “It is easy to understand how that rate of
growth of CEO pay over the last 3 decades might make people

question whether CEOs deserve such high salaries”). But
remember, the key to this paper is making suggestions about
best practices, not taking a stand on an issue.
· Don’t beat around the bush! The very first paragraph of the
paper should let the reader know what the paper is going to be
about, and what the general “problem” is that is going to be
addressed. Moreover, within that first paragraph, the very first
sentence should be strong and clear. For example, in a paper
about using social media in recruiting, your first couple of
sentences might sound like this: “Human resources departments
know that the people make the place, and they are looking for
any type of edge they can get in recruiting the best employees.
In this paper, I will review three social media tools that
organizations can leverage to give them access to sources of
applicants that they might not otherwise reach.” BAM! The
reader knows where you are going, and now you can present
information and arguments that will make sense.
· Some other little specific things:
· Avoid sexist pronoun usage (i.e., use “he or she” rather than
just “he”—for example, don’t just refer to CEOs as “he”). Even
better, use terms that don’t require gender: e.g., “CEO
compensation” or “employees” or “applicants.”
· Use the correct words. (Use Word’s spell check and grammar
check to catch many common errors.)
· Alphabetize your reference list—usually by the last name of
the author.
Organization (15 points):
· Make use of headings and subheadings. Doing so often helps
YOU (the writer) organize the information you’ve collected in a
meaningful way. For example, a paper on the use of social
media might have an introductory heading called “Social Media
and Recruiting” and then the content might be broken up into
additional headings “Facebook and Recruiting,” “LinkedIN and

Recruiting,” and “Recruiting with Twitter.” You might have a
final heading called “Conclusions” or “Practical Advice.” Use
of headings is a fabulous way of letting the reader know how
the content of your paper is organized. They also reduce the
need to craft good transitions between paragraphs, because they
act as a natural break in content.
· Do not use “orphaned” headings or subheadings as the last line
of a page. Instead, insert a page break and move the
heading/subheading to the next page.
· Avoid super-long paragraphs. Generally, a paragraph should
contain a single definable idea. If you write a paragraph but
can’t summarize the point of that paragraph in one short
sentence, you probably need more than one paragraph. You
should be able to get 2-4 paragraphs per page of writing. No
paragraph should be longer than 11 LINES (1/2 page).
· Use topic sentences and transitional expressions to guide the
reader from paragraph to paragraph and sentence to sentence.
Style (20 points):
· Please, please, please, spend 30 minutes re-reading your paper
to fix all the obvious grammatical problems (e.g., repeated or
missing words, unclear or incomplete sentences, missing
punctuation, etc.). Some people find it helpful to read their own
writing out loud. Better yet, have a friend or family member
read your paper and tell you where there are problems with
grammar or clarity. Tell them to be critical, because you can be
assured that I will be critical. I can’t tell you how frustrating
and distracting it is to read a paper where it’s clear that the
author never did even a cursory edit of his/her own work.
· Quoting: If you DO use text directly from a source, it should
be set in quotation marks and referenced in the text. However, a
good rule of thumb is that you should not need to quote things
in a paper unless the original text presents something in a very
artful way that will help the reader understand something

clearly. Most of you should not use any quotes. Any time you
are tempted to use a quote, try to paraphrase or restate the
content of the quote instead, and then reference the author (in
parentheses) at the end of the sentence that carries that content.
If you DO use quotes, they need to be explained or described or
otherwise set-up by you in sentences before or after the quote.
Do NOT use quotes as a replacement for your own writing. The
writer must explain why the quote is relevant or important.
· Avoid hyperbole and exaggeration (e.g., “CEOs are richer than
God,” or “Sexual harassment is the biggest problem that
organizations have ever faced….. EVER!!!!”). Also, do not
misuse the word “literally.” For example, the phrase “It will
literally make my head explode” is appropriate in the context of
someone attempting to diffuse a bomb, but not for someone who
is confused by too much information.
· Get to, too, and two right, as well as their, there, and they’re.
· Get apostrophes right. “My dog’s coat has fleas” (dog is
singular) vs. “The dogs’ coats all had fleas” (dogs is plural).
· Avoid the words/phrases “In today’s business world….” or
“To start off….” or “proven” (seldom is this true: use
suggested, shown, demonstrated, believed, etc.), or “downfall”
(use “weakness”).
· Nearly every paragraph should have at least one or two
parenthetical citations. Presumably, you are NOT an expert in
the field you are writing about, so you are referencing articles
written by people who are experts. Thus, you cannot have too
many parenthetical citations. Too few parenthetical citations is
a form of plagiarism and will cost you points (-5 points per
missing citation).
· You will be submitting your work to Turnitin, which will find
passages in your writing that may require direct quotes. Please
make sure to insert quotation marks if you are using word-for-
word quotes from your articles. However, again, you should be
paraphrasing and summarizing not over-relying on direct
quotes. Either way, you need to insert citations to give credit to
the author who provided the information.

Thank you to Professor Chris Roberts for sharing this writing
assignment and allowing me to adapt it to my needs.
1

Least Privilege Principle for Employee Data Security

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Least Privilege Principle for Employee Data Security

Similar to Least Privilege Principle for Employee Data Security (17)

More from BHANU281672

More from BHANU281672 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Least Privilege Principle for Employee Data Security