Discussion question

Class,

Students, how many of you have seen Will Smith's movie, I am Legend? The premise of the movie was that a scientist found a cure for cancer, and she inoculated the world with her cure. The cure was a virus based vaccine, which the injected virus kills the cancer virus. The following is a warning for those of you who have not seen the movie, as the next sentences may contain spoilers. The vaccine killed 98% of the world's population (or something close to that) and the people that were left behind, one part of them turn into day fearing cannibals (like vampires). The other 2% were fine, as they were immune to the vaccine that mutated into a virus that turned people in day fearing cannibals, but they were forced to live in fear of the cannibals.

My point that I am trying to make from this movie is if some drug company claimed they have found the cure for cancer and people began to line up for it--what if the premise to this movie were to become reality? Yes, this is me being a conspiracy theorist at its best! But, the topic does make you stop and think, critically I hope.

Remember--critical thinking here, combined with laughter.

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Questioning leadership?

Class,

Leaders do not always frame the problems that abound in the organization. Morgan (2001) suggested that leaders put their decisions to the test by communicating. Morgan (2001) also stated a gambit of questions; how did it happen? Why didn't anyone in office know about it? Why did it take so long for the problems to surface? What good news can come from this? In the government the main question is 'will this pass the newspaper headline test'. Which is to say if this issue goes to press will the City look bad?

Morgan (2001) stated that bad decision over-rely on intuition and emotions. When businesses take on too much too fast communication gets lost in a vacuum. When decisions are made the decisions are often influenced by personal biases or the wants of others. Personal biases, intuition, and emotions could all be grouped together. The problem occurs when these decisions based on the aforementioned list are not communicated to those in the organization. When leaders start communicating their plans the staff is able to identify flaws that cause issues such as bankruptcies, headline tests, and force reductions. Putting the leader's decisions to the test would be to communicate it to the entire organization. Communication is a rare trait to find in a manager, as most would like to work out issues alone. However, I would state that open communication could save many organizations from downfall.

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Class,

The achieving greatness study reviewed 200 management techniques that are used by over 160 companies over 10 years, which identified specific management practices that led to long term superior performance. Critical Thinking (2012) narrowed it down to the top four.

1. Strategy--focused on customers, continually fine-tuned based on marketplace changes, and clearly communicated to employees.

2. Execution--good people, with decision-making authority on the front lines, doing quality work and cutting costs.

3. Culture--one that motivates, empowers people to innovate, rewards people appropriately (psychologically as well as economically), entails strong values, challenges people, and provides a satisfying work environment.

4. Structure--making the organization easy to work in and easy to work with, characterized by cooperation and the exchange of information and knowledge throughout the organization.

Discuss the management techniques used in your organization. (Reply with 150 Words)