Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Additional Information: Earlier today, you attended a meeting with Shawn Williams, the new VP of global human capital management at Atlantis Global Corporation (AGC), and John Dawson, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO). John was very concerned about the financial losses at AGC. John’s main concerns were product market share and the threat of losing AGC’s market position as the top manufacturer of electronic circuit boards for high-definition television screens. However, John did not mention any issues relating to the employees who work at AGC. Last month, the general manager of one of AGC’s global subsidiaries told Shawn that it is difficult to recruit talent for AGC, that employees are not happy, and that many are leaving AGC to work for other organizations. Shawn discussed developing a new recognition-and-rewards program to attract talent, motivate employees, and improve job satisfaction. When Shawn brought the up human capital concerns at AGC in the meeting, John was not very interested and thought that employee-related issues are not critical to AGC’s performance. Shawn thinks that it will be challenging to work with John to implement a global human capital management strategy.
You and Shawn are scheduled to meet next week with John and the board of directors at AGC. Due to the urgency of the company’s situation, you and Shawn decide to create a briefing about the value and need for an optimized program for the management of global human capital.
Review the AGC scenario for this course and with your classmates; discuss the following questions that will help you and Shawn prepare for the briefing:
What are the differences between the leadership styles of Shawn and John? What are the pros and cons of each style?
What is your own leadership style? During the briefing, how will you use your leadership style to illustrate the intrinsic value of human capital?
What human capital management strategies will you recommend to John and the board of directors? What examples from other organizations can you provide to strengthen the board’s knowledge of global human capital trends and problems?
While a set of frameworks complement and build on each other, the delineation of the concept focuses heavily on vertical versus horizontal dimensions in a time-sliced fashion. That is, time dimension in accountability has not been of primary importance. However, it is worth noting that the time dimension is closely interrelated with a series of conceptual distinctions made in previous literature, and it may cover complementary aspects of the question concerning two sequential lines represented by administrative responsibility versus political accountability. First, the positioning of accountability actors depends on the time dimension. Civil servants usually have longer terms to serve the public interest over the long term. At the same time, they are responsible to the elected representatives of the public who tend to have “a limited time horizon” and “prefer policies that yield tangible benefits for constituents in the near term” (Posner, 2004: 137). For this reason, the priorities expressed by elected officials may be far more related to short-term issues and temporal problems instead of long-term solutions, whereas the long-lasting forms of civil service personnel would prioritize sustainable solutions to secure a long-term perspective of the citizens, both current and in the future. Second, the time frame is essential to distinguishing between two main streams of accountability. Accountability mechanisms focus predominantly on retroactive accountability for the past outcomes, while accountability as a virtue takes a proactive approach to ensuring ethical behaviors in the future. The timeline is also useful to distinguishing between ex ante accountability of the decision-making process leading up to the decision and ex post accountability where the results available from the decision already taken or where questions of compliance are identified and addressed. In other words, ex ante accountability refers to being accountable for the decision before an administrator act, while ex post accountability is suggestive of situations where administrators are accountable for the outcome of their decisions. For example, the focus of traditional bureaucratic administration is very much