Martha Macaskey free essay sample

McCaskey, what is your plan of action for finishing the Silicon 6 project? Please map out your detailed plan of action. Alternative #1 Ask Chuck Kaufman, the senior associate to do it instead This is a better option because he is a professional in terms of this type of work, he feels a personal obligation to do it for his managers and managing the overall project is preparing McCaskey for her promotion and the type of work she would encounter there. For finishing the Silicon 6 project- I plan on hiring Chuck Kaufmann to complete the job that I already started. All he had to do was meet with Devon and get the required information that the client company is requesting (the cost structure) I would then pay Devon the premium $7000 consulting fee. When going with the idea that you are setting up your own manufacturing facility- ask questions for how much chips are needed, what their costs are, what all equipment you need etc. We will write a custom essay sample on Martha Macaskey or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 2) What is troubling Martha McCaskey? Do you agree with her assessment of the situation? Many things in the organization trouble Martha. -Starting with the views of the senior managers -Her manager was very laid back and so there was no clear set of rules for people who worked beneath him. -The organization itself had no defined rules or policy standards to follow so this gives individuals a lot of role ambiguity and they cant differentiate between what is right or wrong -Work overload and huge performance expectations, created burnout for many employees and therefore retention rate dropped significantly Dual project assignment became a standard, She failed to speak out after the first standard was set and this led to senior management thinking it was okay, she needs to be more assertive * Not much acknowledgement of employees- lowers organizational citizenship behavior, no communal feel to the workplace * Growing resentment for the firm and its bonus policies * No trust in employees, very secretive, this can lower morale and also create a major rift for the leader-emplo yee relationship * Much less open work environment All employees feel that the work they are conducting is crossing ethical boundaries but nobody speaks up because they all still want their job * Because of the lack of policies or standards, everyone has their own view of what ethics is- McCasket thinking pretending to be someone else is fine, Malone thinking lying about the representative cost structure is okay * The boss is not there, so nobody to really supervise the employees and see how they do ethically The plan of action is to pay Devon off. Silicon 6 clients was 20% of revenues- getting paid double the fee for this project- more projects to follow if this is done Have Devon do several analyses of manufacturing the chips The IAD division was staffed entirely with outsiders Blurred line between senior associates and group managers Davies who is McCaskey’s manager was very laid pack and this caused problems when you need direction on projects or firm policy This setting standard thing Richardson and Davies were overloading her with work because she does a good job on her current projects, overloading will lead to huge inefficiencies Dual assignment also became a standard Growing resentment for the firm and its policies, also bonuses No acknowledgement of employees, no sense of care and this lowers organizational citizenship behavior No trust in employees, very secretive, this can lower morale and also create a major rift for the leader-employee relationship, much less open Kaufmann, he has a personal attachment, and he cant tell when hes being taken advantage of All employees felt that they were being unethical when conducting this work but they still did it because it was part of their job All about your own personal values- McCaskey feels that pretending to be someone else isn’t as dishonest as visiting a competitor for a fake interview Hackert: if someone was willing to talk then it isn’t proprietary Most consulting firms had written and formal policies where you must state what company you work for etc. Boss is never there, no real face-to-face interaction with him Devon seemed to willing to help, he also asked about who she is representing Malone asked to cancel out the representative cost structure to just cost structure- he was deceiving the clients, they can be sued for this Even client was very unethical for gaining info about competitor Being unethical or ethical is all about context 3) Was this situation avoidable? How did McCaskey end up in this situation? This situation is avoidable- she could have handed the project off to another associate, such as Kaufmann because he deals with this kind of work on a daily basis and therefore her personal integrity at the firm would not be threatened Another way to avoid this would have been to not approach Devon or tell her boss about Devon so she could have t aken him out of the equation entirely and presented her findings to the client they way she did-even though this might have been a loss in terms of the project- her integrity and reputation would be in tact and no guilt would be brought upon her Martha ended up in this situation because she failed to voice her concerns regarding integrity at the right time. Martha kept going further and further against her will, showing signs of self-justifying bias (telling herself that she was doing the right thing for the project- eventually it escalated into a huge hit on her conscious. Lot of organizational and personal barriers to act on our values without ramifications in the business context She is falling more towards the self-justifying bias that people fall into when they feel that they can speak up against others The company has no core values and the business as a whole is one of unethical practices -Next time Martha must ask for an overview of what the project entails before starting it, if she sees that there are any chances that she will have to engage in anything that she believes are unethical then she must say no -Engage in prescripting, prepare herself for these kind of situations that will arise and decide on a well thought out way to turn down future projects like this -Malone had misled the client when he informed them that Phil Devon had worked for the company that made the micro-chip and was willing to share information. The old guard, new guard sub groups are there to create further dispersion, IAD is also an autonomous unit so the managing dir ectors probably are unaware of what is going on. Its troubling Martha that Devon is so eager to share information and that the company is willing Given the organizational and personal barriers to acting on our values, success in this arena is elusive. Thus even if we don’t succumb to the self-justifying bias noted above, many will abandon attempts to follow our values simply because we don’t believe it is possible to do so. Consequences of speaking up- anything from social disapproval to negative career consequences and/or financial and family disruptions. We are talking about efforts to make change within an organization via problem re- definition, creative problem-solving, constructive engagement, persuasion, reasoning, personal example and leadership. That is, they make an effort to know themselves and to thus better understand others, diminishing the impact of self-justifying rationalizations. Risk management is not always about avoiding risks; rather it is often about anticipating, preparing for and mitigating them. This note is about ways to think about and accomplish all of these things and so finally, this note is about acknowledging and enabling choice. In 2001, over half of respondents said their response to such a conflict would be to look for another job; in 2002 that number declined to 35 percent still a significant number. One in five students reported that their business education was not preparing them at all to manage such conflicts, and the majority said they were only being prepared â€Å"somewhat. † Why do people act with moral courage? One of the key characteristics such folks tended to share was the experience, earlier in their lives, of anticipating situations where their values would be challenged and sharing out loud with a respected listener what they would do – a kind of pre-scripting In other words, this approach is post-decision-making. It is not about analyzing what the right thing to do may be or whether to act on our values in the workplace; it’s about starting from the assumption that we know what we want to do and then figuring out how we might make that happen –and then practicing our voice. This is an important distinction – that is, the difference between not knowing the answer to the question of how to implement our values and not believing that there could be such an answer. This is an important distinction – that is, the difference between not knowing the answer to the question of how to implement our values and not believing that there could be such an answer. Core Values: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence. Kidder identifies a similar, more simply put, list of five widely shared values: honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and compassion The concept of a hyper-norm is used to establish the boundaries of moral free space, and individual hyper-norms would limit the imposition of ethical obligations within a given micro-social community. We call such principles â€Å"hyper-norms† because they represent norms by which all others are to be judged. The explicit point she was making was that acting on our values is context-specific, particularly across cultures. The implicit point was a sort of justification of her own choice not to try to fight the particular system she had faced prior to coming to school. Self-justifying bias comes into play Framing the problem is also one of the significant factors To illustrate, if we know that we tend to defer to authority, we might seek out a respected contrarian as an advisor on major decisions. Most of us tend to be susceptible to self-justifying biases or finding ways to view our decisions as positively motivated, even when we would be critical of someone else who made the same choices. Taking control of the creation of our own self-story can enable us to anticipate some of the organizational and social pressures we are likely to encounter. Looking for a win/win solution; changing the boss’s mind through persuasion and logic; going over the boss’s head within the organization; building coalitions of like-minded employees; and so on. But the pivotal moment was deciding to speak. Re-framing â€Å"voice† as â€Å"dialogue,† which includes a goodly dollop of â€Å"listening,† is another important piece of the recipe. Even if we are not convinced that our personal style will be most effective in a particular situation, we are most likely to speak if we start from the strengths we have, rather than attempting to be an entirely different type of person at a time of stress. Practice and coaching – is supported by both research and common sense. Research tells us that when leaders talk openly about how they have applied, or are learning to apply, their values and/or to talk about and listen to other viewpoints, they become more approachable and their direct reports feel more able to do the same.