You are a human resource manager in a school district. You have recently received several complaints about Francis, a newly hired high school principal. Some faculty report that Francis’s leadership style includes micromanaging and constant monitoring of their lesson plans. Upon further investigation, you learn that although Francis scrutinizes some teachers, other teachers have more freedom and are permitted to conduct their duties without issue. This has led to a toxic work environment and many faculty members believe Francis favors some teachers and distrusts others. 

You have also discovered that Francis has placed a few teachers on a performance improvement plan (PIP) for minor infractions and has occasionally publicly reprimanded these teachers in front of students, parents, and other faculty. 

The school board has asked you to meet with Francis, provide some administrative coaching, and then document the results of your discussion. The documentation will be included in Francis’s personnel file.

Write a report in which you explain how the leader in the scenario you selected can apply behavior modification strategies in an ethical manner in the workplace.

Include the following in your report:

Identify unethical behavior modification strategies in the scenario.

Describe the potential drawbacks to the use of the punishments used in the scenario.

Include relevant details to explain the ethical dilemma(s) of the punishment.

Include details to explain the harm that may occur if the punishment(s) continues.

Propose 2 new positive or negative punishment strategies to modify the behavior and replace the strategies in the scenario.

Explain how the proposed strategies can be used to decrease the chances that an undesirable behavior would continue.

Explain how the proposed strategies align to ethical principles and support the well-being and dignity of the individual(s) involved.

Instructions

A scholarly source is one where the information and analysis presented follow standards that ensure their truthfulness. In the past, scholarly sources were defined in part by the mode of publishing, such as refereed academic journals, major publications like The Economist that have a known high-quality editorial policy, or academic books published by university presses. However, with the advent of easy digitized production of source material, selecting credible sources has become more complex. While it is still true that the traditional ways of determining ‘scholarly sources’ remains valid, innovations such as Wikis, or the fast-paced publication on the Internet of information that far outstrips the slower pace of traditional academic publishing can also be credible sources. You, as a contemporary scholar, must be able to separate credible from non-credible sources, while remaining open to genuinely insightful ideas and information that may exist. For this particular assignment, however, you are required to choose bibliographic sources that are considered to be scholarly within the traditional definition of ‘scholarly source’.

A good, short guide to evaluating sources is given by: “Evaluating Sources” in the Purdue Online Writing Lab. This is also linked on your Student Online Services (SOS) page. You are to read this to get a sense of what is considered a ‘scholarly source’ – or at least a ‘truthful source’ in our contemporary world of an unprecedented information glut. Reading this short guide too will help you to write a better scholarly paper, as the guide in essence tells you what are the indications of a non-scholarly paper. It is both important, and intellectually satisfying, to be able to spot deceptive arguments and analyses.