SAMPLE 503 STUDENT ANSWERS

While there are no right answers, some are better than others. And some have less opinion and more expierence and connections to the class, making them easier for me to award scores to.  dboje@nmsu.edu 

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A HIGH SCORE (Early in Term)

Boje's Comment and Score

Hi xyz,

I score your answer A. The reason is you take a self-reflective look (not opinion but an analytic one) and you gaze the media and its programming of the stories and your own consumption habits. It is a neat reply. In future you may want to hedge your score by continuing to tie into the class readings and also poke about find a related item (e.g. click on one of the references in the Pop Mech piece).

Very good first assignment. Congrats.

david

HOMEWORK ANSWER: TO NICKERSON QUESTION

After reading the Popular Mechanics article "Felon Busters" I felt 
incredibly hopeless. All the crime and lack of education made me think 
Nickerson Gardens, along with all the other "projects" (including the ones 
in El Paso) were supposed to be that way. That image instantly contradicted 
what Dave had told us in class. Then I realized that the media had a lot to 
do with the way I felt. When we watch TV these days it's always about how 
we're heading to fatality. I guess pessimistic views of what's happening 
around us sell better than the positive ones.
However, it's not the media's fault. It's ours. How many of us would tune in 
if a positive look on NG was on TV? I have to disagree with Phil on this 
one. The PM article isn't targeted to white-mainstream America but to our 
own human need for chaos. If we want to change what the media offer us, we 
would have to stop watching shows like COPS, Real TV and all those talk 
shows (including Jerry Springer) that show us the worst side of our 
humanity. The reason of pessimistic articles like the one on PM to exist is 
that people will read them.

On the other hand, what Dave told us about NG was the opinion of an insider. 
How he depicted Nora King's efforts, how residents wanted to get involved in 
the RMC, how they were at the top of the organizational chart, were all 
examples of people's empowerment. As they realized of their problems and 
took the challenge of changing their situation for good. This is the concept 
of festival Dave's is always talking about, but do we want to hear the 
optimistic side of the story? Will this sell in the media? I want to know 
how we could change our viewpoints from a spectacle to a festival without 
being unrealistic?

I want to know about both "drugs and crime (PM article)" and "empowerment 
and progress (Dave's article)." Can the media provide that? Dave, What are 
some of the ways we could change all this?

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A HIGH SCORE ( midway through term)

Boje's Comment and Score

Hi xyz,

This is an excellent answer. I appreciated your use of the readings. I liked the questions you raised and tried to answer. Next time, include something on what you would do about it all -- david

Homework Question Answer 

After reading Merkles's "Management and Ideology" about the origins of
Scientific Management (SM), I must confess that I found it amazingly
interesting but uncomfortable at the same time. For some reasons I also
thought of Nora King and the NG's. I guess that Nora as well as Fred
Taylor had conceived a vision and a dream. But let's take Nora out of
this story. The SM evolution is a unique true story confronting the
mental revolution of both workmen Vs managers, power & social control Vs
conformity, monopoly capital Vs labor, opportunities Vs difficulties,
owners interests Vs work force in-satisfactions, social heroes Vs social
villains, unions Vs the system, a charismatic leader Vs its opponents, a
science Vs a spectacle!

There is no question about the tremendous impact that SM has had on
business management today, regardless the fact of the unpopular social
implications emerged from it. It seems to me that in his vision Taylor
was not really aware of all these social consequences. His formal goal
was focused on the reconciliation of capital and labor through the
distribution of higher benefits to both parts. On the one hand, Taylor
system claimed to improve the condition of labor, to raise wages, to
decrease hours and fatigue, to train the unskilled, etc., based on
scientific measures, and on the other hand, led to increase the control of
ownership through the intervention of the new "white-collar" class based
on these same scientific measures. And at the end, neither workers nor
management were pleased with this system. So then, what was wrong with
SM? Why the historical record has been obscured when it comes to a more
precise definition of SM and its influence? It's been said that after
Taylor's death, SM became somewhat "softened" in the hands of its
followers. So maybe -after all- this was affirmatively necessary. Had
Taylor underestimated the power of participation of the labor force in
scientific management decisions? And what about participation of women as
well?

I believe that we all -managers and workers- can benefit from this
ideology without distinctions of any kind. But where is that written?
Can scientific management really help us to integrate? Can we take away
all this mechanism of social (and managerial) control emerged and twisted
from SM in a capitalist world? Are TQM and Reengineering the answers?
Will we ever see I light in the middle of all this spectacle of production
and consumption where we live? 

And while I question myself longing for true answers, I must admit that I
agree with Merkler when she refers to the fact that SM "was not simply the
result of the introduction of this or that technique of organization, but
rather the spread of a new world vision of the proper goals for industrial
and industrializing societies". And whether we think about it or not, 
Taylor's original ideology and contribution have not died. It is still
very alive in our modern societies, and is longing to fit in perfectly for
the new coming millennium!

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A HIGH SCORE LATE IN TERM

Boje's Comment and Score

Hi xyz,

I really appreciated your story and the way you tied it into our topic question.  Good stuff.

- david

HOMEWORK ANSWER:
All semester, I’ve been thinking about control settings that I’ve been in or 
been a part of. Initially nothing came to mind because I didn’t think I’d 
been “controlled” to do anything in a work-related environment. But I think 
with the power of a little storytelling, I will be able to show you one of 
the most powerful forms of control that is placed on many people all around 
the world.

Most of my degree-related work experience has been in a research and 
clinical laboratory setting. When dealing with the ‘hard’ sciences 
(physics, biology, etc.) as opposed to the ‘soft’ sciences (economics, 
sociology, etc.), there is usually always a right answer and a wrong answer, 
good data and useless data. In this sense, it is objective rather than 
subjective. Control in a biology/biochemistry laboratory setting exists but 
not in the same sense as control in a managerial setting. Orders are 
dictated by the laws of science and by the power of knowledge. The more 
science, more methodology, more knowledge, you have, the more you are free 
to research those hypothesizes without being governed. (although research 
money/grants may inhibit and control in this area)

After a year or so of laboratory work, in ’97, I decided to venture out and 
discover the country of my origins. Still undecided about my future 
studies, it was a great opportunity to see if I wanted to study or work in 
S. Korea. It was the first time to go and actually live there rather than 
just a two-week vacation to visit relatives. I was born in Korea and stayed 
until I was five so many changes had taken place since then and even since 
1987 when I was there last.

It was a tremendous learning experience to say the least. Having been 
raised in America where individualism rules, people have ‘rights’, freedom 
of speech and expression prevail, I felt like I’d been picked up and dropped 
in a very small square box with just enough elbow room to breath and wiggle. 
First of all, I was a woman, then a student, then a junior (in rank 
relative to age). Most of all my actions had to follow some sort of command 
that came from being in those categories. Social rules, norm, ideologies 
are not written or said (unless you overtly display disobedience), but 
everyone followed them. Control of physical factors wasn’t a problem but 
control of people’s thoughts and ideology was. When society can take 
control over the mind, that’s when it becomes very dangerous. Physical 
factors refer to woman unable to laugh out loud in public, speaking softly 
and submissively to elders, not looking superiors directly in the eyes, 
slightly bowing to everyone you meet or when saying thank you’s. Those 
things are part of the Korean culture. That’s part of adjusting to 
different society’s and their customs. But as I said earlier, it was not so 
much the customs that put me in a box, but the ideologies. I had been 
brought up to do and be my best. My dreams and aspirations did not lie in 
that I was woman but a human capable of many things. It was not socially 
acceptable for woman to have dreams and aspirations. You were a woman—cook, 
clean, take care of your husband and children. Oh.. but you had to be an 
educated woman so you could be an intelligent chef, maid, and wife. The 
fate of a girl’s life depended on what kind of husband she meets. There was 
basically no other goal or purpose. This type of ideology was not just in 
the people I met or associated with but in the news, on TV, everywhere. No 
one goes around and preaches or teaches it, it’s just known.

Many cultures around the world are male dominated and females take their 
place in those societies without question but what was amazing to me was 
that many young woman who were oppressed by these thoughts did nothing. 
Powerlessness may be a factor but more than that, they themselves were 
convinced that this way of thinking must be the right way. I use this 
example because I saw myself being walloped in this black hole. Becoming 
totally immersed in a society or any organization, being culturally 
controlled with ideologies is very easily done whether you want it or not. 
I started to second-guess myself and my goals.

This is just an example of a woman’s issue but there were so many erroneous 
ideas that controlled men and woman alike making it a true psychic prison. 
And I don’t think I’m just speaking on behalf of a foreigner but for all 
people. For them, they just come to accept it.

So before I suffocated myself to death, I decided that being there wasn’t 
for me and returned home.

“Consciousness is a product of social structure and the relations of 
domination and oppression that exist within it.”--Marx

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A MEDIUM SCORE

Boje's Feedback:

Dear XYZ,

A very good answer on your part. You have a theme, do the contrasts and pose some critical thinking. SCORE B+/A-

For more on the topic consult chap 2 of Managing in Postmod World at my web site. It confirms I think your ideas about Follett and empowerment.

For next round pull some of your own resolutions and personal stories where they apply.

david



Question: Contrast of: Knowledge Work and Knowledge Management Spectacle by David 
 Boje and The Psychology of Consent and Participation by Mary Parker Follett

I believe that Follett was writing during the industrial revolution, which
is Toffler's "second wave." Follett advocates participation as "the right
basis for all social relations." She goes on to say that participation in
an organization should involve the interaction of all its members which
can lead to the interpenetration of ideas. Follett's organizational
members include those who are in charge (managers) and those who are not
in charge (workers). The KWMS is part of Toffler's "third wave." Here
the organizations are virtual as they exist on the worldwide web, and as
Boje states, "instead of bureaucratic hierarchy, there are leaderless
networks..."

Follett is concerned with both workers and managers getting what they want
through the integration of ideas, and progress is the result of this
integration. In the KWMS the workers do not seem to have the "say" in
matters that Follett might like them to have. The KWMS seems to advocate
paycuts, reduction of benefits, and the downsizing of workers. I think
that Follett's idea of the integration of ideas among managers and workers
would result in a greater feeling of empowerment among the workers than
the empowerment that knowledge workers are supposed to feel by giving up
their identity and taking on the corporation's values and serving the
corporation. Follett does, however, seem to say that individuals may
identify with the interests of the organization if they see those
interests as advantageous to themselves as individuals.

Boje presents the KWMS as chaotic with virtual management. Follett is
presenting an organized form of management that requires a coordination of
ideas starting with the workers. It seems that the KWMS of detached
workers could benefit from Follett's idea of the need for all to
participate in organizational decisions.

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A LOW SCORE AND AN INVITATION TO RESUBMIT SINCE IT WAS POSTED WELL BEFORE THE DEADLINE.

Boje' feedback

Hi Brown,


Appreciate your answer, but I am applying the standard of critical thinking, analysis, and reflection upon reading for each HW assigned. I score this C+/B- but do not be worried, I will just ignore this if future ones are hanging in there. There are examples of HW2 that do what I suggest on the posted list. You have done more than most, so I did not give it C. No worries I think your other answers great

thanks

david

QUESTION ANSWER:

I have enjoyed most of the readings so far, and have found them to be
informative and educational, as most anything I read on OT will be new to
me. The only authors so far that I would not like to read any more from
are Jepperson and Meyer, but I don't think there are any more assigned
readings by them. I think concentrating on the 3rd and 4th quadrants
would be good, with some readings from the 1st and 2nd quadrants for
contrast.

THIS HOMEWORK RECEIVED A LOW SCORE

Boje's Feedback

My score is B-, but will look for turn around to feedback below and may decide to drop this score in final analysis.

Here is some feedback to help you on next go around. First, you can submit assignment over the weekend or before, so I can respond and give you time to make adjustments before it is finally due on Tues. Second, you have some very fine opinions here (but I can not score these), but can get into a more analytic and critical thinking mode (see modules on my web). This would involve pulling in some facts, observations, and data from the links you explored on KW, pulling in some of our readings, etc. Third, you can do some solution work i.e. propose some ways to proceed. Fourth, if you have them, some personal experience narratives related to topic are a plus. Fifth, I did not find the contrasting article (i.e. Pfeffer or Follett) in your answer. Do these things and you are assured of high scores.

thanks david

QUESTION ANSWER
The reading about KWKM spectacle brought to mind several current trends. In Boje's readings, it is stated that the colonization of the virtual world is taking spectacle to a new level. Years ago, as virtual reality was first being developed, people were speculating that eventually we would all live in the "virtual world", interacting with each other only through our "virtual-selves." I remember thinking that this would never happen. Yet I feel it is, in fact, coming to pass. People involved in Ultima Online have virtual characters interacting in a virtual environment with other people from around the world with their respective virtual characters. It amazes me that these characters and even "virtual real estate" are being sold for actual money. Though my knowledge of Ultima Online is limited, it seems that a new "virtual economy" has indeed been created.