Wish I had known then what I know now...

Judgement in Managerial Decision Making has been very insightful and will contribute to my processing of decisions in the future.  According to Stephen Kuhn, "A paradigm is what members of a scientific community, and they alone, share." A paradigm shift is referred to as a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented.  My boss has been supervising for over forty years and in my history with him, his management philosophy is “it is his way or the highway”.  In 1998, I was hired as the program manager for an early childhood initiative serving twenty counties.  Our main modality for communication was mass mailing to our clients.  We mailed a newsletter quarterly with a cost of $7500 a year.  The program is funded by state and federal dollars so as with many social service agencies reducing costs is one of the ways to deal with a flat line budget.

In 2006, I had a plan to educate, train, encourage and support childcare providers in a movement from hard copy mail to email.  When I presented this idea to my boss, he was vehemently opposed.  He found every reason why this was not a viable option.  He shot me down.  It was slightly emotional for me because I was passionate about the idea and knew it would save money.  I did the thing that no one should do.  I took it personally.  It was hard to become detached in the flat no.  I know for a couple weeks, I could not detach from being wounded by the emphatic “NO”.  I believe it was harder for me than it was for him. (I wish I would have known about freezing, unfreezing and refreezing.  Also, how to understand biases in others)

 In 2007, I approached him a second time with the same request and asked for permission to do research and present again to him in three months.  He again said no.  I asked if he could explain to me his reservation and concerns regarding this idea. As he began rattling off a list of everything that was wrong with the idea, I spent time really listening and at the root of his concerns were misinformed concepts around electronic communication. (There was most defiantly a escalation of conflict and it was very intense) I started doing some research to understand his perception and found that this was common with supervisors in my boss’s age group.  I had not thought he might need educated on email communication and technology. Over the next two months at our weekly meetings, I gave information on technological advances and how they could reduce costs. (I needed to acquire expertise)

In 2009, he had the PARADIGM SHIFT.  He came to me and asked me to share my idea.  I explained my plan to educate, train, encourage and support the child care community while we made slight changes to the move from hard copy to electronic copy media.  The excited part was that in his shift in thinking he became excited and actually championed the movement.  I am thankful that although it was a two-year process, the end result was success for the idea and cost savings for the program.  On a side note, he never addressed taking so long to say “yes”.  I dropped it.  I knew it was more about my need to be affirmed than what was in the best interest of the job. 

There are so many things I would have done differently now that I have read this book.  This work cause a paradigm shift in me.  Thanks Professor Artz!

Moral Compass - Written and Unwritten Ethical Standards

In our Ethic Coursework thus far really one concept has stuck with me since I read it and it is that there is not just one standard.  There are those written and unwritten.  In class last week, we were to write about the Enron Scandal. I believe the unwritten standards have us focus on our personal morals and values.  Enron had corrupt leadership that committed crimes both civil and criminal.  If we assume that obeying the law is the most basic measure of ethical business behavior, understanding which laws apply to your activities and undertaking the diligence of knowing that requirement sis a fundamental step. Several times, it was discovered that Lay asked employees to continue unlawful practices.

Contracts and Agreements were not upheld for instance, the retirement plan for employees.  Deliberate violations occur when one party to the contract willfully decides to violate some or all of the terms of the agreement.  Because of the many contract violations and corporate activities that were questionable, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created. As for Industry Standards being violated, this happened on two levels, written and unwritten standards.  They breached generally accepted accounting principles, which are written standards associated with accounting and auditing practices.  They also abused unwritten standards by using inflated records to sell stock.  One such employee purchased the second largest farm in Texas.  When people violate an industry standard, there are only three things that can happen: (1) nothing: (2) they can be perceived as innovators: and (3) they can be perceived as disreputable.

When unwritten standards are violated it appears, we end up with court battles going all the way to the Supreme Court to make decisions for us.  I have a very hard time when my moral values are decided for me or we have to have everything written because “our free will” is does not have a moral compass.