Brooke Pottle Author

After reviewing the Hawthorne studies video, for this week’s class discussion, what, if any, has even your experience with the Hawthorne effect on the job?

The Hawthorne effect can have a great effect on a work environment if used correctly. Unfortunately, I have experienced when a management team of a preschool I worked for tried to improve the work environment with small changes, but the one factor they missed was making changes that employees did not ask for. Instead of trying to work schedules that caused less havoc in the classroom they just continued to float people around making it harder for children to create a bond with teachers because they never knew who was going to be in the classroom on any given day. Not only did this effect the children but also the parents would become frustrated while who to give information to about their child, and of course the staff resulting in increasingly high turn over rate. Instead of making changes like different coffee in the break room that seemed to increase moral a productivity for maybe a week, the management team would have accomplished more if finding a way to get to the root of the problem.  

1. Describe a supervisor who was a poor supervisor (un-motivating, indecisive, uncaring, etc) – what were their characteristics or actions that made you feel that way?

Unfortunately, my first experience with a “grown-up job’ was with a poor supervisor. I worked in a preschool staffed with over 20 females and only 1 male. This proved to be a very interesting atmosphere that was typically not very positive solely because the women were extremely gossipy. I ended up working there for over 3 years and continually became more and more run down with each passing year. By my one and half year mark I had become a lead teacher for a classroom and was reporting directly to the supervisor of the center. When I would come to her with concerns she did not validate my concerns and in response would reverse the situation back to me and make me feel like I was being selfish, or that I did not have a valued opinion because I did not have children so “I could not understand how it feels to be a Mother or have a child’.  

Not only did this make me more frustrated, but if similar situations would arise I would not want to share them with my supervisor because I knew my concerns would not be addressed and my voice would not be validated or even heard, simply because I am not a Mother.  

It was worse because the problem was not just happening to myself but other teachers in my same situation of not having children of our own, ever though we cared for the children in our classrooms as our own. The supervisor and management team would try to up the moral of the center by having lunch ins or having small parties around lunchtime but these quickly burned out as most people would just sneak in for the food and sneak back out without actually socializing.  

At the time I knew the job was causing tremendous stress on myself and my partner. Thankfully I know have a new job that has been a dream of my for as long as I could remember that I never thought would come true and I have never once looked back.  

1. Research and find an alternative/opposing point of view to Climate Change as proposed in the Introduction.

https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

This article from NASA gives specific statistics about how climate changes started to take a turn for the worst when humans came into the picture about 7,000 years ago. This article even mentions it is “extremely likely’ human activity is the reason for the warming trend, heat-trapping carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gases. NASA has taken samples and data from ice cores, tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. From all the evidence collected NASA has found the Earth is warming about ten times faster than the average rate of the ice age. Would the Earth have warmed at this rate had humans not evolved or developed? And how, if we can, do we reverse the harm we have done to our planet?  

2. Under Learning Objectives on page 248, find #6 and choose two (2) questions to answer. Be sure to list your questions in your post.
   1. What environmental responsibilities do we have to the rest of the world? What obligations do we have to future generations?  

Depending on which ethical theory being looked at, a person can either take the route of egoism or utilitarianism. If we are living the way of egoism our environmental responsibility would only be to keep the Earth “healthy’ for as long as the individual is alive and not worry about what happens to future generations. Or if we are living the utilitarianism way we would be morally inclined to include future generations in our environmental responsibilities actions.  

With that being said, I do not believe one theory is more popular than the other when it comes to this topic. Climate change can be such an interesting topic, but I like to think society leans more towards utilitarianism and wanting to protect what is left of our environment for future generations. As Alaskans, we can witness first hand glaciers retreating. I have only been in Alaska for almost six years and I have seen a significant difference. This makes me more protective of our Earth and more conscious of my carbon footprint everyday because I want to live in a world with these beautiful glaciers and I want future generations to be able to witness their magnificences as well.  

I do not have any children yet but with the nieces and nephews I have, not only do I feel it important to teach and model how to respect our planet, but it is also important to introduce it to them at a young age because future generations are growing up in a more polluted Earth than ever before. Adults and generations of today need to become knowledgable about how to slow or reverse the damage that has been done. We also need to realize we are the ones who did this damage, we are every bit responsible as the people around us; which can sometimes be hard to admit. But once we do admit it to ourselves, we can start taking actions to slow the damage.  

3. Lastly, as you read through Chapter 7, answer this question: Who should pay the cost for protecting the environment — those responsible for causing the pollution or those who stand to benefit from protection and restoration. Explain your position.

I think it would be unethical for the people responsible for the problem to not pay the cost of damage done. However, I also believe those benefiting from protection and restoration can pitch in a bit in order to benefit, but these people should not have to pay as much as those who did the damaging. I think of an example of throwing a party at your house. The guest who made a mess and just leave without helping clean up I would not be as interested inviting back to my house for the next get-together. On the other hand, those who made the mess and stayed to help clean up I would be more inclined to re-invite for next time, they know they did some portion of the damage so they take responsibility and help undo what was done.  

If the generations who did the damage do not, or are not, willing to help pay for the damage done to the Earth, it makes current and future generations less willing to help them with things they need because it makes them seem selfish and egotistic.  

https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-created-phony-accounts-bank-fees/index.html

 

In 2016 society learned of the fraudulent behavior of the popular Wells Fargo Bank. Employees had created “ghost’ accounts and submitted credit card applications in customers names that they had not signed up for. Then these customers were unaware of these accounts and cards but were still paying fees to the bank. This was not just one employee creating these unauthorized accounts, but about 5,300 employees were taking part in this unethical behavior since 2011. Wells Fargo came out and made a statement saying they fired the employees with unethical behavior over the period of time they realized these events were taking place. Of course, this did not sit well with current customers of Wells Fargo because they did not know if they could trust the bank anymore, especially with such a large amount of employees creating these unauthorized accounts. In the end Well Fargo lost many customers and have been trying to reestablish their ethical name ever since.