I love ethics LOL
“To me being ethical means being transparent to all parties involved and I think it is more black and white then you suggest.”
I pointed out that even being ‘transparent’ – whatever that means, because again – no universal definition – could be considered ‘unethical’ in some situations. How is that not gray?
As much as I roll my eyes at Walden’s over use of ethics, I do love the subject. I think because it’s so gray and too many people don’t see the gray. But, in business – especially one that is international – how can there not be gray? Or, if things are seen as black & white, how do you avoid stepping on different cultures and traditions, instead of respecting and celebrating the differences?
So I went ahead and dropped both of my assignments. It’s only Day 2 (Tuesday) but I’m over it LOL I’m ready to be done.
This Blueprint is particularly weird. They’re usually a hodge-podge of things – random ideas just thrown together into an assignment. This one is no different:
•Provide the title of the job position you evaluated, and briefly describe the roles and responsibilities that position entails. (the idea was to think about a future job at an organization we ‘aspire’ to work for)
•For each of the six characteristics outlined on p. 159 in How the Mighty Fall, write a paragraph evaluating your strengths and weaknesses in that area.
•Write a 2- to 3-paragraph analysis of at least three key weaknesses that you would like to improve. Formulate a potential plan for developing yourself in those areas.
•Briefly describe the lessons you learned as you analyzed an organization in terms of improving performance, increasing throughput and profit, and designing more successful organizations. Explain how you can use these concepts in the future.
•In addition, write a 1-page paper identifying the important concepts, ideas, or skills you will take away from this course that would also help you be prepared to reach future career goals. Discuss how you will use those things to improve yourself in your current managerial role or in a future position.
The first part seems especially weird. I love my job and am not currently looking for a new job or even a different position. Plus, how am I suppose to evaluate the true nature of a job based on random articles or stuff I find online?
The 6 Characteristics in Collins’s book are fine but two of them are especially obnoxious:
#1 – Core Values … OK – nothing wrong with that until you get to the part that says good organizations encourage/support an “almost cult-like culture”. Umm … no. ‘Cult-like’ makes me think of people who end up drinking kool-aid in the jungle of Guyana and not the sort of company I want to work for OR the kind of employee I want to try to manage.
# 3 – Responsibilities, not Jobs – it’s the idea that good employees/good organizations see their work not as ‘just a job’ but as some higher calling and responsibility. You know – I think that’s pretty judgmental and doesn’t take into account that people who see their work as … a JOB … can still be a great employee, dedicated and passionate from 8-5 … and then leave their work for other, private things that bring them passion and joy. I point this out and say the problem doesn’t lie with the employee but with an organization which doesn’t recognize or respect that their employees have lives outside of work.
Almost done – finally. I’m really looking forward to the end of this and very curious to see how the next class goes, what the schedule is like, what the requirements are like. Luckily, I’ll know on Friday when I get access to the class.
I’m actually taking Friday off work for several reasons but a big one is to get early access and start to work. Next term is a busy one for me work wise and if I can get a jump on school, it will make everything easier.
This week is really easy and straight forward. The discussion is Walden’s favorite – Ethics LOL and the two assignments are the standard Blueprint for Personal Growth (eye rolling) and the assignment from Week 6.
Considering I got zero comments on mine from the peer review thing, I just reread it and am going to drop it tomorrow night. I usually don’t post papers TOO early but it’s Week 8, I have a 99.2 grade so far – I really don’t care LOL
I think everyone is slightly confused about last week’s carry over assignment as I am. The replies to this – the peer review – was very much along the lines of “Good point” and “That’s an interesting point of view that I hadn’t thought of” In other words, not really useful. Certainly no ‘peer review’ .
It’s requiring finding MORE quotes from another resource – How The Mighty Fall – the book about companies going through rough patches and compare those 3 with 3 from Velocity (which can be some of the previously found quotes). Then, they have to be related to each other and a course objective:
◦ Correlate the principles of organizational decline as they relate to principles in Velocity.
It’s not hard but a bit time consuming and seems pointless. I feel like I missing something or maybe it just IS pointless. The How the Mighty Fall book is at least interesting.
The timing is also weird and a bit frustrating. It’s due by Day 5 (Friday) and then THREE replies are due by Day 7 (Sunday). So, if you have a busy weekend or don’t like to work on the weekends because of family commitments or have a hard time finding time on the weekends – you’re going to struggle.
One of the questions for the discussion this week is
“• If a particular company is on the way down, what can a manager do to help reverse course? Do the options differ depending on the manager’s level within the organization? Explain your answer.”
I point out there’s no way to answer this question –it’s too vague. I said:
“The ability of ‘a manager’ to reverse the course of a failing company is too broad of a question. How large is the company? What is the culture of the company? What is the role of the manager? What is the personality and personal motivation of that single manager? There’s no way to accurately answer it because there are too many variables at work. Every organization has their own unique cultures and therefore breeds theirs own unique type of employee – independent and free thinking, by the rules and stick to hierarchy, extreme levels of loyalty to the organization so that they are willing to ‘go down with the ship’, to the other extreme, when the decline begins – they leave easily and quickly to protect their own careers. None of these are better or worse than others and just a fact of various corporate cultures and personalize motivations (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011). The question is more – Is a company in decline able to support or nurture managers who are able to reverse course or, did the culture that lead them to decline make them unable to support such individuals? Collins (2009) believes that by Stage 2-3, an organization in decline is no longer behaving in such ways that would support or encourage these types of managers. Unless the corporate culture and leadership changes to alter these Stage 2 -3 behaviors, such as the case with the turn-around company Nucor, then the decline will continue.”
Any bets if the professor says anything? I bet not.
I know this isn’t really the last week but considering Week 8 is always easy and quick (at least for me), it feels like it!
Another good discussion, a bit of the assignment from last week and – annoyingly – another discussion with weird timing.
I know I should be happy to have an “A” in this class and I am but I hate getting ZERO feedback. All I hear is “great response” – nothing else – no explination of what was great or even good.
I’ve lost a grand total of 3 points so far. Trust me – everything I write is NOT perfect LOL
But – with zere feedback, how can I grow or improve or even expand my thinking?
Got my grade for Week 5 and thought I’d share the statistics now that we’re half way through the class:
Still 11 people participating:
5 people posted 4 times
3 people posted 5 times
2 people posted 7 times (including me)
1 person posted 8 times
But what throws me are the “Posting Statistics for Hawthorne”
It says:
Average Post Length: 3084
Minimum Post Length: 1249
Maximum Post Length: 6021
Average Post Position: 4
But that’s not right – or even CLOSE My longest post (my initial discussion one) was only 1,111 words. My next six ranged in size from 59 words to 359. I thought it might be some sort of rolling average but I went back and looked at Weeks 3 and 4 as well and the numbers are all over the place, with too wild of swings to be a rolling average.
Got me.
Swimming at Walden University 