Ethical Overview

The ethical standpoint of a manager is the foundation on which his entire organization rests on. The approach preferred by managers to address ethical dilemmas show us a lot about their thinking styles, their worldview and their styles of decision making. Some value ethics and overall honestly over performance and profits; while others look to secure that bottom line of profits by hook or by crook. So how do you think? How will you solve an ethical crisis in your hands?

Swine flu, caused by the deadly H1N1 virus, was recently reported to be breaking gout in various states of the United States. The recent outbreak of swine flu has propelled paranoia a stigmatization in all forms of social settings. Two employees of a small company were sent home on “indefinite leave” after their children’s school reported outbreaks of swine flu. Though neither their children, nor themselves showed any symptoms, they are forced to stay home, running out of their sick day paid leaves and losing pay. On the other hands, executives at another firm wanted to secure a private supply of swine flu medication for its staff members. But the company’s medical team posed a question “would it be ethical to hoard something that the general public is in dire need of?”

Discuss:

• Should businesses be overprotective of their employees?
• Should the public be affected adversely in an effort to protect organizations assets?
• Describe how you would handle the situation. Justify your actions in detail, and mention the approach you took in accordance to this chapter.

Practice setting goals

A concise understanding of the problem is very important for appropriate planning. Setting work goals is a pivotal role of a manager which helps in quantifying the problem and plan effectively. You need to set goals for any decision you need to plan, be it managerial or not, as it provides you with an overview of your entire project, for you to analysis and optimize.

Follow these suggestions to get better at setting goals:

• Figure out who is the best person for the job you are looking to be done.
• Specify the target as per the skill levels of the employee.
• Set realistic deadlines to remove any ambiguity.
• Allow employees to set goals for themselves as they understand their limitations and expertise better.
• Prioritize and rank goals as per their importance to your big picture.
• Make sure that every employee gets a mix of easy and hard goals which can provide better work ability.
• Allow for recurring and frequent feedback from both the employee and the supervisor.
• Figure out the rewards for accomplishing goals. Rewards should be of personal nature.

Ask yourself, where do you want to be in five years? Make a list of goals that you want to fulfill in this time period. Rank and range your goals as per their difficulty.

Work with your team

Divide yourself into groups and come up with unique solutions for the problem stated below. Discuss the solutions with other groups and check for recognizable pattern as to how people decide. Use the inferences drawn from this chapter to formulate your conclusions. Work out the following scenario and set a list of well-designed goals for a descriptive plan.

You are a manager employed in the school district of San Antonio, Texas, which is adopting the dour-day week program from the next academic year, owing to budget cuts. The state-wide economy crunch has forced schools to reduce their operational durations, and is bound to affect the students and employees. How would you plan the transition? What goals need to be set before joining this process? Identify the primary goals involved in this situation, and chalk out plans needed to meet those goals.

Be a manager

• Set at least two of long-term and short-term goals in various aspects of your life. You can set them in academics, family situations etc.
• Write the plans for achieving the goals you set. Figure out and write what you would have to do in order to fulfill them.
• Create your own mission statement. Make it something that you can keep, and use later as an axis for moral philosophies. Consult the internet for more details on mission statements. Make sure it coincides with your worldview, or how you want yourself to become.
• Write a report based on an interview with three different managers on the topic,” how to plan better”. Ask for suggestions and guidelines.
• Research on what it takes to plan well. Talk to professionals and learn what a good planner does and how he does it.
• Discuss three things you learned about good management from this chapter.