Daily Blog Updates - Post Your Blogs Here!

Parent interview
I interviewed both my mom & dad about the ethical issues they faced throughout their career. My dad is an adminstrator for a vocational school and recently my mom worked as the media contact for Nordonia Schools, so similar experiences. While my mom worked at the board of education for Nordonia, she witnessed the head of food services embezzle money. Although situations like this are very few, it is still damaging to the image and integrity of the school district for when it does happen. My mom also reflected on a career prior to working for the school, when she experienced BAD LEADERSHIP from her boss. He was INCOMPETENT and RIGID on how he controlled the office.
My dad provided insight to his employer and explained why he has worked there for 30+ years, citing a positive work environment that reflects the personal values that my father has. He mentioned the school board acts with good MORAL JUDGEMENT and MORAL SENSITIVITY, focusing on the benefit of the students.

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 would you stand?

My dad has worked in corporate sales at a variety of office supply organizations, big and small over the past 25 years. To him Kant's Categorical Imperative is essential, especially when no one is looking. Overall he felt it was easier to "hide in the cracks" at larger organizations. He was constantly hearing "in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal" from his superiors when he brought up ethics violations to them, essentially leaving followers worse off, both my dad and his followers for ignoring these violations and allowing the followers to believe nothing was wrong with what they were doing. In two different situations my dad had the courage to leave his position with the company because he was not comfortable with the ethical culture of the organization.

In regards to reinforcing ethics he said providing online videos or tutorials does not captivate the audience enough to have an impact. Including various levels of management in the process of developing annual messages related to ethics, however, was very impactful. He was a part of small group in an organization that developed a set of messages they would follow throughout a given year and that message was conveyed consistently on all the correspondences the President put out, as well as the various levels of management previously mentioned. The key here is consistent, top-down messaging.

It's interesting to analyze the different styles of KELLERMAN's BAD LEADERSHIP. Kellerman's work covers everything from INCOMPETENCE (like Michael Scott) to CORRUPT (like Frank Russo) to EVIL (like some of the Middle East leaders). While some leaders may simply benefit from further education to learn how to be a competent leaders, others have made personal decisions on their MORAL CHARACTER.

I’d like to give recognition to each of our classmates who did a great job in our MB 551 project. Although everyone contributed, I’ll single out a few leaders and people I worked with directly. Scott Moore demonstrated stewardship for the group while leading us to reach our goals. Jason Nedley demonstrated partnership with group four by effectively dividing tasks amongst the group members. Justin showed the courage to challenge assumptions and make sure we defined the problem accurately. Shilpa, Tabitha, the various group leaders, and the presenters showed the courage to assume responsibility and the courage to serve by taking on additional tasks to meet our objectives. (6)

Got home from work recently and flipped on the TV for a few minutes before blogging and studying. Found A Christmas Carol on. Thought Scrooge showed some of the KELLERMAN'S BAD LEADERSHIP qualities. Scrooge is RIGID, CALLOUS, and CORRUPT before visiting with the spirits. Afterwards he has a renewed sense of ALTRUISM, and has the COURAGE TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY for taking care of the less fortunate. He also shows OBLIGATION toward Bob Cratchet and then treats him with PARTNERSHIP.

Several members of the class demonstrated steward leadership qualities during this project. I felt that many of our positional and non-positional leaders showed a sense of obligation to the class generally, and stewardship by being spokespeople for the class. Thanks for all your effort over the last several weeks. And to those with the courage to be presenters, I know you'll kill it.

This class did a good job of practicing Kant's categorical imperative because we made sure we made morally sound decisions to complete all of our tasks. The group as a whole pulled together each of ours individual skills and knowledge to piece together the best presentation we could have done. Everyone had the courage to assume responsibility and courage to serve which was definitely needed.

Well guys we are the day before the presentation. We have busted our a** on this presentation and it appears it is all coming together nicely. I feel myself trying to cope with the stress with proactive strategies. I feel all the sources of stress working. I have anticipatory stress most likely because I have unfaborable working conditions and unplesent expectations. I feel that we used teamwork to acomplish this project. We did well and lets do this. As we use to say.....BIG TIME PLAYERS,BIG TIME PLAYS, BIG TIME GAMES. ..................LETS DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My OPTIMISM is on the rise tonight with the prospect of these blogs being over with! I feel that my FOLLOWER'S RESPONSIBILITY has been enacted by engaging in these despite the monotony of it. I also feel good about my CITIZENSHIP as we wrap up the semester. I hope that the video montage that I put together goes over well with the client tomorrow evening because I know our presenters are going to knock it out of the park. I would also like to give a thank you/shout out to Scott M. for proving to be a very COMPETENT leader. I would say he put out some transformational leadership in the form of his INSPIRATIONAL MOTIVATION as crunch time got heavier and heavier to get us to complete what needed to be done.

Let's have a great presentation Tuesday and everyone have a safe and happy holiday.

Well, we are down to our final day in this course which will culminate in the presentation to our client. I think we can all agree that this project has presented us with work overload, at times made people have feelings of disconfirmation, required a lot of personal effort, and challenged the 80% of us in the class whose MBTI's consist of sensing and judging. But we know a lot more about each other, indivdually and collectively, than we did 5 weeks ago, and that should serve us well for future semesters. I went back through the syllabus this evening to make sure everything is covered and one thing caught my eye....Scott Allen mentions that "....the two previous groups have done incredible." If everything comes together on our final day I'm looking forward to that now being the three previous groups.

The example my parents used when I discussed the topic of ethics with them was one that has recently been experienced by close family friends. The case revolves centered around a business that was run using corrupt and insular practices. The owners, who have been close family friends for many years, began to engage in their unjust activities so often that they become nearly ethically incompetent when it came to telling right from wrong. The subverting of the organizations ethical process, upon which the company was founded, ultimately led to the downfall of the entire company. The lack of moral sensitivity ultimately landed the company in bankruptcy and caused some of its owners to spent time in jail after a difficult sentencing. Overall, this story demonstrated a message my parents have always pushed onto me throughout my childhood, which is to do the right thing and consider the perspectives of others. By failing to do so, our family friends fell victim to the constant downward spiral caused by engaging in unethical activity. Like many of the stories we hear in the news, there are obvious consequences that came from such a corrupt situation. The fact that this situation occurred so close to my family supports the idea mentioned in our text that no organization, regardless of size, is exempt from experiencing unethical activity.

Although we have experienced our fair share of time and situational stressors throughout this course, I must say that the anticipatory stress is fairly low for tonight. I am very optimistic that our presenters will kill it tonight, and that our overall body of work will be quite useful to our client. It has been a quick five weeks. I just hope I have the moral character to deliverately apply the components ethical decsion making that I have learned to the rest of my courses in this program!

http://news.yahoo.com/cia-agent-found-bin-laden-having-trouble-045149864.html

In the above article the author talks about the people and operatatives in the CIA, and thier somewhat problematic internal behaviors. There is mention of many, possibly most, of the clandestine operations group being "jerks", and there are examples of agents' somewhat disterbingly callous statements. It seems that this type of job may draw on, or even require, people that have a lack of empathy. The article actually describes the group by using one of Kellerman's "bad leadership" traits, insular. Do certain legitimate jobs and tasks inherently require a lack of ethics. Is this the extreme of the utilitarian concept of ethics? Can what would essentially be assassins be justified by utilitarian mindset and proper motivations?

We've finally reached the end. Everyone has shown a great deal of ALTRUISM getting through this project without any major blowups. It will be nice to finally get this behind us. We have also been able to show great MORAL JUDGEMENT, MORAL MOTIVATION, and MORAL CHARACTER during the project as we have made decisions, stuck to our guns, and followed through. Hopefully we will help JCU be less RIGID and knock any INCOMPETENCE out of the ethical environment.

Well we have reached the day. There has been a great deal of altruism and communitarinism to get to this point. We have fought one another and jelled together. The teamwork that we showed was great. The courage to serve Scott Moore was also terrific. This class bonded our class and I am optimistic that our servant leadership attitude will serve us well in later groups.