Reflection Paper (for Hifsa Shaukat)

Describe McgGregor’s Theory X and Y.  Differentiate the “soft” side of Theory X from Theory Y.  What are the risks and potential benefits to each?

Describe Maslow’s hierarchy.  Why is it significant in terms of human motivation theory?  Consider the recent ICMA article on Maslow I sent all of you.  Why does Maslow keep coming up?  Why does it have staying power?  Some theories come and go but this one is constant.  How do you see Maslow playing out in your work today and tomorrow?  A full embrace of Maslow can challenge your leader style approach.  How do you manage the risks?  Letting go or total control or somewhere in between with Maslow as the mediating construct.  Management as science or art?

Groupthink: Describe a situation in which you observed Groupthink.  What did you learn from that experience?  That experience can be your own or something you observed in others.  How do see the relationship between Groupthink and some more recent phenomena like social media and “gaslighting” (Gaslighting or “gaslamping” was coined in 1938, but has recently been receiving media attention)?  How do you see “confirmation bias” as connected to gaslighting?

“Power is the ability to get things done they way one wants them done; it is the latent ability to influence people” (Shafritz, 2016).   Reflecting on your readings on Power, differentiate “power” in the Shafritz sense from statutory authority (e.g. job title), and give an example from your work experience where you could observe both

Looking ahead, Mintzberg has his theory of “5’s”. simple structure, machine structure, professional structure, divisionalized structure and adhocracy.  These are “pure structures” intended to show directions organizations get pulled toward based on horizontal and vertical integration and differentiation.  How do you see these “pure” models play out in the direction(s) your organization is pulled?

The reading assignments are as follows:  The book of Shafritz, Ch.12,13,14,15 Shafritz, Ch.22,24,25, 26 and the book of Schein, Ch.6

Please make sure you answer everything it is asking when writing the paper.

Make sure you use in-text citation from the book and any other material you use. Also use 12 fonts time romans, double space and no justify alignment. I prefer left alignment.