Unit 4

Building a Culture of Ethics
Being an ethical person is something I try to be all the time. I believe that honesty is the best policy. Because of this I am always blunt and will give a straight answer. I do not believe in dodging questions or giving vague answers. I try my best to be “on the record” at all times. I am the same person with everyone, never putting on an act to save face. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be too much for some, as they are not use to just getting open, honest answers. But, that does not make me want to change who I am, because that would not go along with the ethics I have established for myself. I believe in practicing what I preach.
The book mentioned how it is important for a company to establish an ethical culture in their organization. This is done in a several ways. The first way is for the management to be visible role models. People mimic what they see which is why this is an important step for management. This is walking the walk and talking the talk. The next way this is done is by communicating the expectations. I feel that laying out a clear list of expectations is a great way to do this. When I became president of my fraternity, I felt that the standards/expectations were unclear in the past. Due to this, I make a packet that laid out the expectations of each brother, each committee, and each committee chair. In addition, I laid out the expectations of myself. After this we had a meeting and each person signed a contract that acknowledged their position, duties, and expected behaviors. I really feel that this helped a lot. Not only was this step part of the communication process, but it also was a training of ethics. The training of the expected ethics is another step. The next step would be to provide rewards for ethical behavior and punish unethical ones. This is a hard step to do for me because I am managing my friends and while it is easy to praise them, it is harder for me to punish because friends have a hard time realizing that the punishments we hand out are strictly as managers and not as friends. Often it is taken to be personal and that is not the case. Lastly, you need to provide protective mechanisms. This allows employees to report incidents or discuss dilemmas is a safe way. In our fraternity we have a committee devoted to doing just this and it is very effective.
Working to create an ethical culture is very valuable, but takes quite a bit of effort.

Why I Enjoy My Team/Group and some other thoughts....

Why I enjoy being in my group/team

Due to the fact that this class relies so heavily on group work, I am happy that I am happy with my group. It is not a secret that our group is the loudest, nor is it a secret that I am part of that reason (mostly it is Rob). However, I feel that this group is very productive and the communication between us is clear. Most importantly I feel trust with them and know I can be myself and not worry about contributing thoughts to the discussion. I know when it is time to put the pedal to the floor, and I also know to slow down, relax, and build a relationship with my teammates. Our group is very diverse in personalities, but in my mind the blend beautifully. We have loud and quiet, procrastinators and overachievers, high and low strung, etc., etc. I am not usually a “wait to the last minute” kind of person, but for some reason it always seems like I do my assignments for this class at the last minute. And sometimes I feel like it’s my best work. I know that that would drive Liz and Ashley nuts. They like to have every detail worked out ASAP, me not so much. I very much enjoy going with the flow and seeing where my thought process goes. For example, I did not bring in any prepared questions for our interview because I had no intention of doing so. I have no problem fine tuning the questions we have and helping prepare our meeting outline, but I would rather see where the interview goes and then contribute. I may need to clear this with my team. I prefer to only have a vague or skeleton idea of what I intend to say. Whenever I have to give a speech or presentation, I never write out my speech word for word, never really use notecards with sentences, rather I prefer to use a single notecard with “key” words. I feel that I am much better speaker when I do this and it just feels more natural to me. Sure, I could write down some mundane questions for the group, but I would not see that as a real contribution. Of course I will though if my team wants me to do so, but I would prefer to actively listen in the interview and ask a question that presents itself after the interviewer has responded on something. It could simply be a clarification, asking for an expansion of the answer, or it could profoundly thought provoking.

Unit 2

Hello all! Welcome to my Unit 2 Blog! To me Unit 2 was jam packed with lots of useful, interesting information/concepts that I would not have thought about on my own. My interest was caught by the book's discussion of the individual's personality. I have always wondered what has made me the way I am today, and now I know. I got to be this way from my environment and the genes I was given at birth. I think that I am a lot like my parents, but also I am way different from them too. The book said that a majority of our personalities is formed from our genes, and I really see that expressed in me and my three sisters. We each have very unique personalities, but each of us express in different ways of our parents genes. My mom is a worrier. I often refer to her as a helicopter mom, always hovering above me and always concerned with what I am doing. Two of my sisters are very much like this, so they must have gotten the helicopter genes. My sister Emily and I are much more go with the flow, outgoing, and not really concerned with stuff ever. This is more like my dad. However, my mom and dad both are always prepared well in advance, my sisters Elizabeth, Erin, and I are a lot like this, but Emily is not. So I think that since she is the oldest her environment was shaped to put stuff off to help out with the younger kids and that she would eventually get around to the stuff she had to do. I will say that I am the most free spirited of the bunch, and I think that it is because I was the baby and my parents had seen/dealt with just about everything by the time I did it, and also I am the boy; therefore, I am the favorite and can get away with anything. Hope you enjoyed my blog today!