Daily Blog Updates - Post Your Blogs Here!

Oh...and I forgot to mention I got a flat tire tonight after my other class...fantastic. I wonder if anyone will read this.

Syria who has a totalitarian regime and a history of violating human rights is about to engage in unthinkable criminal acts. Syrian "president" Bashar Assad's extremely insular leadership is on the verge of committing his most evil act of all amid intelligence reports that his regime may be preparing to use chemical weapons.
As steward leaders of the world President Obama has warned Assad there will be repercussions if he were to commit these atrocities. But is this enough? Senator John McCain has consistently displayed the courage to challenge by not ignoring the conflict in Syria and demanding a call to action.

I had very unpleasant expectations for how class would go tonight. I was very worried that the work overload would cause many cohort members to react with aggression or, arguably worse, withdrawal. Further, I was worried that some cohort members would react by becoming so fixated on minor issues that Scott Moore would begin to feel stressed due to a lack of control. (6)

I left class last night feeling relatively optimistic. I am still stressed due to work overload but I have been uplifted by the amount of citizenship that I have been experiencing both yesterday and today. Some cohort members have truly served as source of inspiration by exhibiting teamwork. (5)

I was discussing our dilemma concerning being 1 Fortune 500 CEO interview short with a colleague and his lack of optimism due to our time constraint made it a bit tempting not to seek out additional relationships for possible help. Nevertheless, I explained to him that regardless of how much of a last-minute 'shot in the dark' attempt our efforts are viewed to be at this point or how obvious it'll be the high-level executive(s) that someone in our group must not have embraced the follower's responsibility or followed-up sooner etc., we're still a team; and I would not feel confident regarding my citizenship within my cohort if I sat in class on Dec 11th knowing that I personally had not demonstrated teamwork by making one last effort to reach out to contacts for a possible last-minute interview. With my colleagues help two additional relationships with Eaton and Parker were identified yesterday and contact was made; I will post in the appropriate separate CEO blog thread as well send an email immediately if there is success. (5)
-LP

tbowen14 wrote:I had very unpleasant expectations for how class would go tonight. I was very worried that the work overload would cause many cohort members to react with aggression or, arguably worse, withdrawal. Further, I was worried that some cohort members would react by becoming so fixated on minor issues that Scott Moore would begin to feel stressed due to a lack of control. (6)

===========================================
I do think that some of these unfortunately still played out ; but...bottom line, we made significant headway. Do you need anything from me to help with today's deliverable or for tomorrow?
~Lichelle

As we close in on the presentation I think we can use some of Nash's 12 Actions as we determine what and how we want to present our solution to strengthen the culture of ethics at the BSOB. I find myself thinking about this from the other side of the fence and wondering how did the situation occur in the first place? Nonetheless this will be an experiment on our ability demonstrate the follower's responsibility and positively impact the future of JCU and BSOB.

I have to say that the group at work showed some ALTRUISM to get through this day without punching each other. We ran into many stressors including LACK OF CONTROL and WORK OVERLOAD. These problem came about because other departments were not careful with how they were closing the books they did not exhibit the FOLLOWER'S RESPONSIBILITY. Oh well I have OPTIMISM for tomorrow.

I'm sure others have seen the picture of the NYC police officer who donated a pair of boots to a homeless man. This was an act of altruism that revealed the officer's moral motivation to be generous during the holiday season. As an officer who shows the courage to serve the public every day, he really demonstrated courageous fellowship toward someone in need. He took the initiative to help a total stranger, although he was under no obligation to do so. (6)

My ethical decision making process that I outlined pulled elements mostly from Justice as fairness as far as equality of opportunity and care for all, Utilitarianism based on ability and usefulness and Altruism with respect to charity. And yet when moral sensitivity tells me I am faced with an ethical dilemma, I find myself turing more to what decision potentially benefits the greatest number of people. I also find most of these situations involve a lot of informational deficiencies.

Through this class' course material, I have noticed the poor ethical driving behavior of many motorists. Drivers don't tend to take a UTILITARIAN or COMMUNITARIAN approach when they speed or cut in front of other vehicles. There isn't really a sense of CITIZENSHIP. On another car-related note, the residents of a house I got a flat in front of were ALTRUISTIC when the husband and wife both asked me if everything was okay and if I needed anything. That took MORAL MOTIVATION, since they didn't have to answer the door or come over in the cold night.

After our team conference called last night, I feel much better going into Friday's rehearsal and the presentation on Tuesday. I believe that the MORAL CHARACTER has really come out in some people over the course of the last 5 weeks, and have provided solid support for the team. While I feel OPTIMISTIC that we will be able to INFLUENCE the client on our recommendations, I am still worried that they may see us as being COERCIVE in a sense. My one looming TIME STRESSOR is the amount of things that we all need to do on Tuesday; presentation, clean up, exam and debrief. I may be having a CONCEPTUAL BLOCK, but I am not seeing us getting out on time at all.

Although this has been a challenging assignment, I feel that it has really helped me to develop relationships with members of my cohort. I have also found the courage to challenge which has been difficult for me to exhibit in the past as I am relatively introverted. I have also been able to practice using a collaborative approach to conflict which is quite different from my usual compromising approach. (5)

As we near our final night on Tuesday, I know there are a lot of stressors present right now with lack of control and work overload. But I feel the final product is coming together, and talking with a number of classmates since Tuesday night, I've seen some awesome displays of inititiave in pulling things together. Personally, I'm pretty excited for our dry run Friday evening, because I think members of our class will finally see the teamwork that has allowed for the various components of this presentation to be pulled together. I have seen and heard of many individuals putting in a lot of effort and hard at work on pulling together their respective section. With that said, there does remain the concern of fulfilling the CEO interview task, so some followers responsibility still needs to take place to close out that task.

http://gma.yahoo.com/obese-woman-denied-flights-home-dies-abroad-191137549--abc-news-topstories.html

In this article a woman died because multiple airlines refused her passage. Obviously there is more to the story, but it boils down to that. A morbidly obese woman with existing health problems took a vacation with her husband from the US to Hungary. One airline was able to accommodate her despite the challenges of her weight to get her to Hungary. The problem came on the return to the US. The woman realized that she was having increasingly urgent health issues, and decided that getting back to the States where her MD could treat her was necessary. Upon getting to the airport they were told they could not board a plane on the same airline that took her to Hungary because of her weight. They shuffled her to another company saying that the other company’s bigger planes could accommodate her at a different and rather distant airport. Upon traveling there, she was denied a flight home again. This continued with a third airline, and over a number of days until her health deteriorated to the point of death (Hungarian hospitals were unable to perform the treatments she required). The defenders of the airlines say that she was already sick (utilitarian), the concerns of the other passengers must be considered (communitarianism) and it was not any airlines fault that she was too fat to fly (Kant’s categorical imperative). The detractors of the airline point that she was accommodated on the way to Hungary (reason), that her life was in danger (altruism) and that there is total lack of compassion (no moral sensitivity). Where do you stand?

It will be important this evening and on Tuesday to maintain a collaborative working environment. As the unpleasant expectations and lack of control over a few of our remaining tasks persist, it will be vital for us all to remember to practice the methods of supportive communication with each other. Over the last month we have demonstrated the courage to assume responsibility for this project and with a little more deliberate practice we will be ready to impress the BSOB faculty on Tuesday evening.

It seems like we are getting closer to ACHIEVING our end goals. The TIME STRESSORS were certainly getting to us all, but hopefully we will be pulling it all together very soon. Hopefully we can show our ETHICAL CHARACTER in the presentation. We wouldn't want to make the situation worse by making students paranoid and LIE and CHEAT past our new focus. We can certainly hope to MODEL THE WAY.

My mother has worked in various positions at Key Bank for 15 years, most recently as a branch manager. During her tenure she has witnessed the occasional (incompetent) and (corrupt) employee or manager. Several unethical issues she has encountered include taking more breaks than allowed, leaving early excessively and stealing. These all show poor (moral judgment) and (moral character). My mother stated that she has an (obligation) to report any unethical behavior she witnesses in the workplace.

Well as we approach the fiscal cliff the partisan leadership in the the House, Senate and the White House seems to hit on a few of the attributes of toxic leadership. To begin with, both parties are playing to the basest fears and needs of followers and identifying the scapegoat (i.e. the other party) as uncompromising and driving the country off fiscal cliff. The overarching basis for this stalemate is that the top 2% needs to pay more; however, this misleads follower's because the president also ran on the campaign that he will not raise taxes on the middle class which is inevitable if we go off the fiscal cliff and in the end they will both leave followers worse off. Bottom line both parties need to swallow a little of their pride and show the citizenship that they are put in office to accomplish. I heard a survey today that 72% of Americans want lawmakers to come up with something even if it means that meant that the individual they voted for had to compromise on an issue that may have had them voted into office. To me that speaks volumes and think that lawmakers need to start listening.

One of my parents worked for an individual who embodied almost a complete sweep of Kellerman's Bad Leadership. He was incompetent, requiring significant assistance from subordinates to complete even simple tasks. He also was very rigid, not believing that women - those same women who were helping him complete his work - could contribute meaningfully. He was intemperate, committing repeated acts of sexual harassment. Those lacking the courage to leave needlessly suffered. He was insular and corrupt, promoting cronyism by steering choice assignments and promotions to favored associates. Finally, he was callous, lacking both the motivation and perspective to make anyone at work happy other than himself.

In the end, I was able to take on both a positional leadership role and a personal leadership role. I was able to use both my expertise and effort to assist in this assignment. I was also able to use centrality, relevance, and visibility. This was true learning experience for me. (7)

Christmastime is a time of year when giving is encouraged to those less fortunate, which is an ALTRUISTIC mentality. Some people will have the MORAL CHARACTER to donate, perhaps subconsciously thinking through the MORAL REASONING, including SITUATION DEFINITION, ANALYSIS and DECISION.

I want to talk about the NFL linebacker that killed himself as well his girlfriend. Clearly he was under a great deal of situational stress and had mental issues. Kants Catigorical Imperative would not agree with what he did. He lacked moral character and poor moral judement. It is sad.

Another tragedy left an NFL player dead this weekend. Josh Brent, who plays for the Cowboys, was driving drunk with his teammate, Jerry Brown, as a passenger. Brown died in the car accident. Brent had a previous drunk-driving charge while he was in college, so the recent episode was not his first illegal act. Brent used poor moral reasoning when he decided to drive the car while intoxicated. His analysis of the situation and his ultimate decision to drive showed poor moral judgment. Although Brent's errors were tragic, he seems truly remorseful for what happened. (5)

I wanted to take a moment and congratulate the entire cohort for giving such a great effort over the course of the last five weeks. We were given a large and ambiguous project and we did a fairly excellent job at executing each aspect of it. Looking back at the the last month I feel that while our citizenship was great as a whole cohort, we lacked initiative, especially at the beginning. I hope that we all use this experience to better ourselves for the next cohort project so that we can work even more efficiently. A few areas in which I feel we can all improve is in the courage to assume responsibility, specifically in regards to tasks which we know are not getting done and should be, such as the CEO interviews and the 15-pg term paper. I know that in a few instances, communitarianism was lacking and that caused a high degree of disconfirmation for members who were shouldering significant responsibility for the group. But given that this was our first major group effort, I am quite optimistic about our future prospects in the IBD program.