Time Delay in Engagement Schedules in a Public University in Ghana

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the incidence of time delays in engagement schedules on campus. The study made use of past records of time delays in starting committee meetings of five colleges at a public university in Ghana. The study relied on secondary data extracted from minute and agenda files of college meetings. The Minitab package and Microsoft Spreadsheet were used to analyse the data. The statistical techniques used in the study were Markov prosses and Steady state probability. The results revealed that the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences consistently start their meetings on-time in the long-run with the highest probability of approximately 0.810. Meetings of the College of Education is characterized with large delays in starting times in the long-run with the highest probability of approximately 0.812. Based on the results, the paper recommends that the colleges with higher possibility of starting their meetings ten minutes late should encourage its board or committee members to be prompt in attending to meeting/schedules. Additionally, the paper suggests that the management of the university should design an effective policy to ensure a rescheduling when a meeting delays for more than an hour.