Ethics Assignment 2 - Issues in My Business

The world of human resources, organizational development, and training provides ample opportunity for ethical challenges. The misuse of confidential information; the appropriation of another's ideas as one's own; and the manipulation of employee confidence for personal gain are just a few of the issues one may face in the human side of the organization.

As with any ethical issue, one must always go back to first principles - do no harm; act in the interests (long-term) of the organization; seek first to understand. The leadership of any organization, whether it is the CEO, Vice-President, Unit Manager, or team supervisor, has a responsibility to set the tone for ethical practice.

The specific ethical behaviors addressed by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, executive oversight, audit procedures, and independent verification of results, provide a roadmap for all of us in business to develop policies, procedures, and best practice for delivering our services ethically.

Ethics & Accounting Assignment 1

I am troubled by the author's clear bias against any serious discussion of ethical behavior. In the section, "The Social Responsibility of Business", he casually refers to the idea of social responsibility as "politically correct" behavior. He puts Milton Friedman forward as a competing point of view. Friedman seems to want businesses to have all the rights of a free society without any of the responsibilities. Clearly, the failures of many of the businesses noted in the opening chapters found comfort in Friedman's "letter of the law" approach to business.

Clearly, with the worldwide possibilities of cultural and societal norms, an analytical approach serves the manager well. Taking each case on its merits allows the manager to evaluate the situation based on his and his company's ethical stance. The starting point is to decide that ethics are worth discussing, and from there the conversation can develop to encompass the various individuals and philosophies at play.

The Stakeholder Framework (p. 67) provides a straightforward approach to laying out the issues.

Takeaways: 1. Include ethics as an element in any decision to embark on a new/different policy or project; 2. Adopt a standard approach to including stakeholders in the discussion; 3. Recognize the validity of differing points of view, and allow for the possibility that you may be wrong.

Avoid harm and look for "the middle path".
dh

Assignment 2 - Bus 600

Comparing competitors' point of view on marketing on their websites in the non-profit world doesn't reveal much about their approach to the most important 'customer' - funders. That info would have to come from their grant-writing and/or board.

In the world of Shakespeare and Theatre on the Central Coast, the clear leader is UCSC and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Pacific Repertory, the only professional theater in the area, presents a wide variety of high-quality theatre and offers an annual Shake-speare (their convention) festival. The intent of the Shakespeare Society of AMerica, with whom I am working, is less focused on performance and more focused on research and education (at least initially).

Reviewing the websites for Shakespeare SC and Pac Rep, one can clearly see the performance focus in the format and emphases on performance line up; audition opportunities; ticket sales; etc. That is not to say there are no educational or research activities. Each offers training in acting, directing, etc. It is more of a difference in focus.


At SSA, we intend our first year to be devoted exclusively to research, education, and fund-raising to support the building of the physical infrastructure necessary to sustain our programs.

Random THoughts on Marketing presentation video

Customer Value Proposition – right product; right price (for customer);right cost; profit.

What is the value proposition for a non-profit organization? It is the customer/client’s emotional response to the organization or its mission. For example, seeing value in providing homes to the homeless and so they participate or donate to “Habitat for Humanity”; or taking satisfaction in the delivery of financial literacy workshops and seeing participants taking steps to improve their financial situation.

What is the payoff or profit to the organization for the marketing and sales activities? Again, it must be connected to the satisfaction of seeing an improvement in the conditions of those seeking service, coupled with the successful application of sound financial and operational practices to solicit and maintain an adequate operating budget and a reasonable reserve to maintain the delivery of the services.

Marketing – What is a market. "The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary" Drucker.

Marketing is customer focused; sales is product focused. Marketing causes the phone to ring; sales is what happens once you’ve picked up the phone.

Marketing mix: product; price; place; promotion

New Semester

Hello all! We have a large group starting this semester. I look forward to working with you all and sharing challenging ideas.

dh

Ch. 15 & 17 Observations

Portfolio Project Management seems to be one of those ideas that, once recognized, appears so obvious on its face. Clearly, having a central, coordinated grasp of projects and their impact on the business will help the PM. Inasmuch as every project has an ultimate deliverable, each can be seen as an asset, with corresponding liabilities in the forms of time, resources, and quality. Balancing those pieces and demonstrating the coordinated impact of various projects on the strategy would certainly position the PM to make her case when needed.

As with almost all the discussion around PM, it is critical to establish the outcome. Absent an understanding of the end-game, it is difficult to prioritize actions and projects. Understanding the strategy, then becomes key when figuring out what the project hopes to accomplish, if you intend it to positively impact the bottom line. Once identified, and fit into the portfolio, the project can be subjected to some of the ideas of LEAN.

In the projects I have undertaken (mostly org development and/or training events/programs), I have found success with the idea of parallel operations and standard work, as described in the chapter. As an example, when constructing the participant workbook (template is used to provide consistency and ease of formatting), the leader's guide is, essentially, embedded in the flow of the workbook. One version contains the directions and activities for the content, and while the content is written, I am 'seeing and hearing' the activities unfold.

All of this presumes adequate research on the content and identifying the needs of the client. In any discussions leading up to the development and delivery of a workshop, much time is used to verify that training/learning is the right solution. If there is a structural impediment to getting the work done, perhaps the requesting manager's better choice is to fix the structure.

The development and planning process for training events becomes iterative and the time-to-delivery can be shortened almost to only the time needed to research the content.