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I find the title of Badaracco's book quite facinating. St Thomas Aquinas
said,
"seek the good, avoid evil." That is often easier said than done. Some years
ago, Newman Peery and I published a study in the Journal of Management on
"the cognitive structure of coporate social responsiblity." In that study,
we found that our subjects used three dimensions when evaluating corporate
outcomes. The first dimension traded off human versus economic values.
The second dimension traded off the ethics of beneficence (doing good)
versus nonmalfeasance (advoiding evil). The third focused on qui bono (who
benefits), essentially a stakeholder dimension.

In all three dimensions, it can be said that managers were forced to chose
between "right and right."

Few people set out to do evil. But there are moral mazes that make the
calculus of determing what is good/best quite difficult.I often present my
students with a series of seven payoff matrices to demonstrate to them that
even trying to choose among three alternative that maximize "the greatest
good for the greatest number" can be quite difficult.

One of my Ph.D. students has become interested in the topic of
"stewardship." I have given him some resources (including the book from Ex
Libris on the topic), but I would be interested in passing on any
recommendations for reading to him. Also, as he develops his interests
into a researchable dissertation topic, he will be looking for
organizations to participate in his study. If you think your organization
might be a possible data site, please let me know.

Thanks, Kim Boal
--------------------------------
Kim Boal
College of Business Administration
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409
(806) 742-2150
KimBoal@ttu.edu

Kim:

At our last Reader Forum where we discussed Peter Block's book
"Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest" we spent a
lot of time focusing on the concept of power and how the implicit
power structures that exist in most organizations hinder people
from connecting and working as partners.

At the same time, during last month's Ex Libris Author Tele-Interview
we talked with Tom Crane, author of the book "The Heart of Coaching"
who suggested that leaders/managers should and must serve as
coaches. The coaching relationship that Tom recommends however is
one of partnership and again during this discussion we got into
the challenges a leader/manager faces trying to establish a
partnership relationship given he or she is officially in a position
of power OVER others.

Both discussions have really intrigued me and encouraged me to want
to expore more the concept of power and its impact upon relationships
within organizations--particularily in organizations striving to
transform themselves in terms of empowerment, partnership and
as a team-based organization. I think there is a GREAT need for
more research in this area because I think the organizations striving
to make these kind of changes are finding (to varying degrees) that
existing power structures are undermining the change effort.

If your student's dissertation topic moves in this direction, I would
love to talk with him......Please feel free to give him my email
address and invite him to get in touch with me.

Warmly,
Laureen

-----------------------------------------
At 09:09 AM 6/25/98 -0500, you wrote:

>.....One of my Ph.D. students has become interested in the topic of
>"stewardship." I have given him some resources (including the book from Ex
>Libris on the topic), but I would be interested in passing on any
>recommendations for reading to him. Also, as he develops his interests
>into a researchable dissertation topic, he will be looking for
>organizations to participate in his study. If you think your organization
>might be a possible data site, please let me know.
>
>Thanks, Kim Boal


laureen@quanah.com

QUANAH
Leadership & Organizational Development Specialists
phone: 208-939-0970
fax: 208-939-1530
mail: 1657 E. Highgate Court, Eagle, Idaho 83616

About QUANAH
============
QUANAH provides a range of individual and organizational
learning opportunities that enhance the effectiveness of
our client organizations through a focus on leadership
development as a force for organizational change.

QUANAH provides a range of leadership development services
directed at both the individual and the organizational level.
Specifically, QUANAH provides:

· Research On Leadership & Organizational Design & Development Issues
· Organizational Assessments & Development Planning
· Consultation On Organizational Design & Change Management
· 360-Degree Feedback & Performance Coaching For Leaders
· Action Learning Programs For Senior & Executive Leaders
· Leadership Training Programs
· Leadership Seminars & Conferences

Kim,
I'm quite interested in your concept of corporate social responsibility and would
be interested in getting the article if it is available.

I have recently done a lot of work in taking Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels of training
evaluation and added a fifth (organisational utility within the community). In
doing this I've changed the emphasis from analysing training to analysing
outcomes of training (and, indeed, any personal learning whether it comes from
training or simply from life experiences - after all, how many CEOs are trained
for their job? Most get little or no formal training after college/university
therefore.....). Anyway, your thoughts appear to add a bit more clarity to what
I've been looking at.

Thanks in advance ....

PHIL RUTHERFORD



Kim Boal wrote:

> I find the title of Badaracco's book quite facinating. St Thomas Aquinas
> said,
> "seek the good, avoid evil." That is often easier said than done. Some years
> ago, Newman Peery and I published a study in the Journal of Management on
> "the cognitive structure of coporate social responsiblity." In that study,
> we found that our subjects used three dimensions when evaluating corporate
> outcomes. The first dimension traded off human versus economic values.
> The second dimension traded off the ethics of beneficence (doing good)
> versus nonmalfeasance (advoiding evil). The third focused on qui bono (who
> benefits), essentially a stakeholder dimension.
>
> In all three dimensions, it can be said that managers were forced to chose
> between "right and right."
>
> Few people set out to do evil. But there are moral mazes that make the
> calculus of determing what is good/best quite difficult.I often present my
> students with a series of seven payoff matrices to demonstrate to them that
> even trying to choose among three alternative that maximize "the greatest
> good for the greatest number" can be quite difficult.
>
> One of my Ph.D. students has become interested in the topic of
> "stewardship." I have given him some resources (including the book from Ex
> Libris on the topic), but I would be interested in passing on any
> recommendations for reading to him. Also, as he develops his interests
> into a researchable dissertation topic, he will be looking for
> organizations to participate in his study. If you think your organization
> might be a possible data site, please let me know.
>
> Thanks, Kim Boal
> --------------------------------
> Kim Boal
> College of Business Administration
> Texas Tech University
> Lubbock, TX 79409
> (806) 742-2150
> KimBoal@ttu.edu