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13Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2009 2) 84-93
УДК 378.034
Ethical Education Innovations: Ethic-Project Work in the Sphere of Commercial Business-Education
Elena N. Viktoruka* and Efim V. Chebotarevb
a Siberian State Technological University, 82 Mira, Krasnoyask, 660049 Russia b System Development Holding, 1-201 Televisornaja st., Krasnoyarsk, 660032 Russia 1
Received 24.02.2009, received in revised form 03.03.2009, accepted 10.03.2009
In the given article we consider the conditions and perspectives of development of ethical types of «know-how» (and first of all, ethic-project works), basing on the many years' working experience of LLC SDH, the «Training Hall» project (Krasnoyarsk). Ethical education innovations are analyzed with a due consideration of global change of the education paradigm, of today's moral peculiarities of «high modern» and specifics of the Russian society's moral, where traditional, re-traditional, rational and post-rational types of moral interrelate with each other in a complex way. Authors describe one of the least researched segments of «the ethic-educative services market» - additional corporative commercial education. They reveal certain difficulties in new values formation (including the moral ones), and, as an example, we present our ethic-educative «product» «The Management of Involvement».
Keywords: Ethical types of «know-how», ethical education, ethical innovations, corporative commercial education, ethic projecting.
Introduction
Today, ethic education undergoes significant changing as in Russia, so in the whole world, and it is caused by a whole number of factors. Firstly, it is the transfer of education into a post-industrial phase, which has the following peculiarities, as massovization, commercialization, flexibility, internationalization, appearance of new forms of education (additional, corporative, business-education) and new educational technologies. Appeals and trends of the post-industrial paradigm are revealed in the ethical education to their full extent: «the acquaintance» of the
lection-seminar model is substituted by «the mastering of activity patterns», where exercises and trainings of all types dominate, and also by the model of «production». The following forms as project session, project workshop, analytical session, organizing-activity play, and brain-storming and so on are typical for the level of «production». New educational technologies development and implementation quite seriously expand the sphere of ethics, going beyond the borders of a standard humanitarian discipline, taken from the curriculums of state higher education institutions.
* Corresponding author E-mail address: eviktoruk@narod.ru
1 © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
Secondly, ethical education innovations are caused by transformation of the moral as a social sub-system: the moral of «high modern» (R.G.Apresjan) or of «early globalization society» (V.I. Bakshtanovsky) is characterized by chaos, by the mixing of moral values and principles, and it speaks of «post-rational moral» formation. As specialists justly notice, the moral crisis, we observe, instability of morals, chaos in the world of values - all these mean a prolonged and manysided complicated process of the given civilization's values-and-standards system renewal, of accumulation of positive tendencies, generated by it in the moral life, which are connected with hopeful prospects (V.I. Bakshtanovsky, Yu.V.Sogomonov). Commercial ethical education is defined b y the social and professional «order» for reflexive mastering, development and formation of corporative and professional values.
Thirdly, the image of modern ethic education is to a large extent completed by the theory and practice of applied types of ethics and an increasing «through» involvement of ethic knowledge, skills and experience into professional knowledge. The demand in development of TECHNOLOGIES of ethic knowledge appliance for some concrete corporative and organizational problems salvation is obvious in commercial ethic education, as well as in applied types of ethics on the whole. V.I. Bakshtanovsky, the director of the Applied Ethics Research Institute (Tyumen State Oil and Gas University), calls the development of such technologies to be «ethic know-how». Phronestic technologies are referred to a qualitatively new form of knowledge. «Phronesis» is a peculiar kind of knowledge, being opposed as to the theoretical one (epistema), so to the skills and knowledge of the craftsman (techno); it is a merge of skills and knowledge, being different from the useless and the utmost general, because it is a pragmatic kind of knowledge (praxis) about the peculiar and the private (Bakshtanovsky, Yu.V.Sogomonov, 2,
p.148). It is impossible to extract this knowledge deductively from the system of scientific principles, from the universals of any level; it cannot be known beforehand and is revealed only in appliance to a concrete case.
The processes of innovative changes in the ethic education are the subject of scientific reflections and wide discussions as in Russia, so abroad (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Thanks to mass media heavy coverage, one can get acquainted to a whole row of ethic-educative projects, being realized in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tyumen and other Russian towns. The authors and coordinators of these projects underline the importance of the modern stage of ethic education, as far as it is connected not only with new programs creation, but also with an implementation of new educational forms and modern educational technologies: management influence on the moral and up-bringing activity, consulting, case-studies, ethic workshops, ethic-business plays, ethic simulations, ethic projecting. These technologies bring ethics far beyond the borders of traditional higher-education-institution programs and demonstrate the social order for practical morals as an instrument of formation of effective professional and life strategies and corresponding them norms, principals and ideals.
The subject of the given article is the least studied segment of ethic education - a commercial business education, on the materials of the System Development Holding «SDH» in Krasnoyarsk.
Opinion
So, in Russia the segment of commercial corporative ethic education is poorly studied, but it is precisely the sphere of rapid development of phronestic technologies, development of ethic kinds of know-how. Ethic projecting is a complicated research field for a whole number of reasons:
• It is a continuous work (from several weeks to several years);
• It is a work, generating an original (or even a unique) product, which is impossible to predict beforehand, that is why it is described sooner by its results;
• This work is based on «masterhood», which analysis and transfer are encumbered, because the master-consultant's «unrevealed» knowledge prevails;
• Being a commercial corporative «order», such a work is often a «confidential» product, and here, the non-disclosure of performed analytical and projecting work data is warranted beforehand.
Nevertheless, it is maybe necessary to single out the main ideas and principals of this work. The main idea of ethic projecting is development of corporative culture elements (institutes or infrastructure elements) upon the proximate co-authorship of company's employees. Here, the main task is not to be carried away by the temptation to do it by ourselves and not to create the target document, instead of the participants. «The counter motion» from ethic-applied speculations to the demands of the real moral practice is an obligatory condition of the ethic-project activity, which cannot be reduced to the formula: «order -development - implementation» (Bakshtanovsky, Yu.V.Sogomonov, 2, p.204).
One of the main conditions of the ethic-project work is creation of a document, being adequate to the real condition of society and professional community. It is the specialists' competence to define the kind (type) of final document, where the social moral will be detailed. In the example below, we present such a document, which is the formalization and regulation of ideology of one of the corporations of the Krasnoyarsk region.
Ethic projecting is always a multi-level process, which stages are the following: pre-project work (interviews with the owners, top-managers
and key specialists, questioning / testing of the personnel, observation of the employees in their real professional situation); different approaches to the model constructing; technology of discussion and perfection, final version; analysis of the project «lessons». Its «super-task» is being accentuated on every of these stages: not simply to help the subject (organizations, associations) in its striving to activate the process of self-regulation, but to try to influence on the MOTIVES of such an actualization. It is important to raise a problem in the subject's conscious, concerning the phenomenon of actual domineering of self-regulation utilitarian motives, and to increase the motive of self-criticism of a concrete moral situation in the organization, the situation the subject is involved in at present moment (Bakshtanovsky, Yu.V. Sogomonov, 2, p.204). The work on a project contains the following blocks: problematic situation - tasks - motivational complex - self-definition, concerning the corporative mission - employee, as a subject of moral choice - behavior requirements - expert-consultative commission - comments.
In the course of transfer of Russian education in to the post-industrial paradigm, one of the most important questions in the process of new educative technologies assimilation is: shall we borrow the techniques, having been developed in the West or to create our own ones? Of course, there is no one single answer here, but what concerns ethic-project works with Russian (in particular with Krasnoyarsk) organizations, we may surely say that there is nothing to be borrowed. In some corporations there are elements and even blocks of axiological management (and education), but, first of all, this kind of experience is still mainly segmentary, and secondly, it has not frequently any system (it does not embrace all the sphere of corporative culture and may omit a regular company training). That is why we are to invent much by
ourselves. In particular, in the course of this year we are planning to bring to life a new consulting product «Management of Involvement» together with Novosibirsk consultants, and this product will be just exactly oriented to implementation of axiological management in companies, including the means and process of training.
The longstanding practice of LLC SDH, the «Training Hall» project (Krasnoyarsk) allows singling out the following peculiarities of non-academic ethic business-education:
a) in commercial business-education, formation of ethic skills, knowledge and experience is associated to the organization's «order» for formation of a certain corporative SYSTEM OF VALUES. Values, as a phenomenon, are not at all reduced to the moral ones. But, the dominating ones are dignity, duty, and corporative responsibility, along with such values, as result orientation, economical feasibility and market leadership;
b) Concrete company's ethic has a concrete meaning, making references to the panhuman morals be inappropriate and so on. For example, the following question requires very often a separate discussion in companies: how should the colleagues help each other - after the «needing» colleague asks for help or upon the proposal of the one «who can help». And very often they come to a conclusion that even if an employee needs some help, and it is obvious to his colleagues, they should not offer their help to him. Otherwise, the responsibility for the task, being performed by the help needing colleague, disappears (as far as, answering to the excuse: «nobody could help me and so on.», the following question should appear: «and whom did you ask for a help?!»). Though, from the point of view of the majority - it is inhumane and even somehow amoral;
c) Company's ethic has not so much an abstract character (describing general rules),
as an applied one, in its pure form. That is why (in case of a full-rate realization of company's axiological management) it goes through all the vital elements of the business-organism: strategic elections, business-processes, goals/results, -and all this interrelation is being demonstrated in the process of corporative training, is made more visible and «implemented» into the employee's behavior models, what can be observed in the example given in the of the section «Policies»;
d) Ethic business-education is result-oriented, and that is defined in epy achievement of these or those key figures, which reflect the loyalty to the organization's ideology. For example, the value of «customer focus» is connected with such concrete values, as the number of complaints from the buyers' part; the share of clients, being satisfied by the quality of service; the number of justified claims from the part of inner clients (representatives of other departments), with whose help one can estimate correspondence of the personnel's behavior to the company's ethic and «correct» the employee's behavior (both by carrot and sticks).
Formalization of the organization's ethic is a complex product, which combines different procedures, and there is not only training work, but also project work, and «production» on an adequate level. It is predominantly the management team, which is engaged in production. In the course of the project and with a help of consultants, it forms the organization's mission (ideology), a short code of most reclaimed norms, and organization's values. The next stage is the order to consultants for development and maintenance of the project, what means implementation of these values in the organization and also includes the usage of training technologies. As a result, the Company-client gets not only the system of company's ideology implementation, but also the mechanisms of control, which allows permanent
tracing of its realization level. The system of KPI (Key Performance Indicators) can serve as the main technology of ideological plans realization control, which allows considering the level of ideological correspondence objectively and with the help of figures. To these very indicators is «attached» the system of motivation, which supports precisely the required and «ideologically correct» behavior of employees.
Coordination of values, development of the system of values realization, mechanisms of control and motivation - all these present a continuous process in the process of the Company's activity:
1. First of all, the Company foresees the fact of ethic mismatch, using the axiological filter in the process of staff recruitment. For that very reason, they create blocks of procedures in the structure of staff recruitment, which are appealed to show the candidate's competence in the sphere of the Company's ideology. For example, value: «customer focus» - competence: «customer orientation» - skills: «active hearing» and «hierarchy flexibility» are revealed in the course of an interview and assessment procedures.
2. Moreover, in the course of probation period, they consider the indicators by the adaptation card, where the new-comer's ideological correspondence is reflected. For example, value: «customer focus» - KPI «the number of justified claims from the consumers' part concerning the quality of service»
3. When the employee is hired for a permanent job, in the motivation system they reflect a plan, concerning the indicators, and which do not allow stepping aside from the ethic priorities of the Company. For example, value: «customer focus» - KPI: «the number of justified claims from the consumers' part concerning the quality of service» - planned value: «not more than two claims» - monthly bonus, if the plan is achieved «**** rubles»
Only in case of such a systematic work, there appears a possibility to create the environment for full-rate realization of the Company's values and ideological orienteering points (ref. «Is axiological management valuable?», «Social Partnership» journal №3 (5) 2008».
In Russian business education, ethic projecting has its own peculiarities: the order for formation of corporative values of «western», «bourgeois» type is performed on the basis of the native moral, where the trend for traditional «natural» moral is rather strong, and which is characterized by: the limited choice, authoritarianism, the weak social dynamism, the limited capability to mobilization of inner development resources. «A stagnation sub-type of this kind of moral has been developed in this country for various reasons: the person accepts his fate as an inevitable play of chance of his own birth fact, which does not need any consideration, while the boarders of his life activity are clearly defined, and he knows, who he is, what he should do, and what his life is. It means that there is no any project of one own "I", and if wishes and cultural images are balanced, the diapason of choice is very limited» (Bakshtanovsky, Yu.V.Sogomonov, 2, p.204). The notions of freedom and social justice, entrepreneurship and ethic norms, success and decency are not compatible with this kind of «immature», «re-traditional» moral.
In the given situation, «the original material» can turn out to be one of the curbstones, which cannot resist all the powers of the ideological machine, and is not able to perform the axiological transformation independently. So, for example, in the course of last decades, «ethoses» of the soviet sphere of service and soviet trade with their unwritten codes formed the situation, when growing like mushrooms cafes, restaurants, boutiques and so on could hire only young people, who had not yet assimilated the values of the ethos of
the soviet public service and trade, where the instrumental value of «the skill to be useful» (the modern «customer focus») was taken as «groveling». And the instrumental values of amiability, the skill of compromising, accuracy, helpfulness, and correct speech - the values of the western «bourgeois» business ethics - are implemented into the Russian conscious with a big difficulty, as far as in this country rational and post-rational moral appears only in separate professional highly-competitive centers: trading companies; companies, providing professional services; innovative industrial companies.
Example
A Company's order for formation of the given concrete organization's ethics presents by itself a complex of training and consulting procedures, which are usually set in the following succession:
1. The Company's self-definition. Its expected result is a formalized Company's ideology
a. Definition of the organization's vision, mission and its values
b. Definition of «the hedgehog concept» of the organization (the key point of efforts exertion)
c. Analysis of the organization's resources and concept realization possibilities
d. Definition of the key factors of success and strategic competences
2. Creation of development strategy in correspondence with the Company's ideology
a. Creation of the field of strategies according to the Company's perspectives on the basis of the key factors of success and taking into consideration the analysis of the Company's environments: its Finances; Clients; Inner processes; and Personnel
b. Strategies decomposition up to the goals, tasks and business events
c. Scheduling of a timetable of the strategy realization. In the result we get a strategic plan
3. Description of the Company's operational activity
a. Description of the main processes with due consideration of the Company's ideology (for example, if we take «efficiency» as a value, then the processes can be simplified, then we get some additional points of control and etc.). As a result, we get described flows of Company's values formation
b. Separation of the job-positions responsibility zones according to the processes and products of the Company. In the result we get the main regulations and procedures
c. Development of the system of indicators, which allows performing a balanced (and it turns out to be ideological as well (if we continue the example, these will be the additional control points of deadlines/ efficiency)) control ofprocesses realization according to the job-positions. In the result we get the regulation according to the departments and job-positions
4. Creation of the motivation system, which supports the ideological choice of the Company. Here, everything is rather simple: the system must be able to meet the competition (must attract and keep the personnel); the system must support the necessary indicators, having been achieved; the system must support the achievement of forthcoming (and not only of behindhand) indicators. As a rule, it includes the following:
a. The system of labor remuneration
i. Its constant component (rewards for job content performance)
ii. Its variable component (rewards for efficiency)
iii. Benefits (the system of rewards and compensations for the personnel keeping and its loyalty increase)
b. The system of non-material motivation
Formation of the organization's system of values starts from the self-identification. In particular, it becomes obvious that the following questions should be separated in their discussion in the course of the project work for ideology formulation:
1. Who are we
2. What are we for
3. Where are we going to
4. What is important for us in the process of achievement
5. How shall we achieve it
Thereat, the answers to these questions presuppose not so much specific content, which will reflect the chosen segment of the market, where the given Company is presented, as they formulate the attitude of the key competent persons of the Company towards themselves and their surrounding reality. Here, we shall give an example of ethic-project work with one of the Krasnoyarsk organizations; the following document has been created in the course of this work: «Ideology of the Group of Companies...». Formation of this document has taken two one-day sessions and about eight hours of independent work of our consultants. The given document allows detailing the process of realization of the mentioned above positions.
Who we are:
«We, the employees of the Group of Companies «SYSTEM», are the team of professionals, who create and realize new entrepreneurial possibilities, what demands the highest level of competency and longsightedness. It allows us working successfully on the venture markets and feeling deep professional satisfaction, while meeting the demands of the market and corporative ambitions.
OUR CREDO:
WE CREATE. ALWAYS For us: working in the Company is a MODEL of life of a business person, which allows to combine the process of earning money and the feeling of deep professional and personal satisfaction
It is development of oneself as a BUSINESSMAN, i.e. «a person, who creates his own part of the SYSTEM» upon minimized efforts and comfortable conditions and getting the financial and hormonal results
It is a UNITITY of vision and of understanding of the forces, which drive us and our business
And that is why we are ready not only to declare all these ideological orienteering positions, but also to prove them by our real BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS
Then, it really brings joy. Much joy. And, first of all, it brings joy to us. © WHAT WE ARE FOR: «OUR MISSION
WE DO THE FOLLOWING PROFESSIONALLY
o buy perspective assets o hold control, increasing the cost o trade efficiently,
DEEPENING THE CONFIDENCE OF OUR PARTNERS
PS: it makes us happy. Very happy. Everybody's happy»
WHERE WE ARE GOING TO: OUR VISION OF THE COMPANY IN 10 YEARS:
• INSURANCE: safety of our key assets
• STAFF: xxx thousands employees in transnational teams
• CAPITALIZATION: xxx euro assets of our own
• CONFIDENCE of our partners: xxx euro assets in control
• SCALE of our business activity: three
continents' markets coverage WHAT IS IMPORTANT FOR US: OUR VALUES:
1. SAFETY. We are a strategically controlled corporation. That is why the most important condition for realization of our long-term corporative ambitions and plans is safety of our key resources:
o Of the Owner o Of the Company o Of the Employees
2. ETHICS OF BUSINESS RELATIONS.
For us - adherence to the agreements is an obligatory requirement to the professional suitability of our team's members. If agreements have been made - then, it is obligatory to fulfill them, if they are out of date - then, it is possible to discuss them and to reconsider, in case the new changes have been accepted - they are again inviolable and are the key criterion of possibility of further interaction as with the outer, so with the inner environment. Precisely, that is why the following ethic results are so important for us: o Satisfied partner o Harmony of our interests
3. LEADERSHIP. Our ambitions are preeminently fascinating, they are really high. Thereat, we possess the resources, which full-rate usage let us to achieve really desirable results. That is why nothing can prevail us from realizing of the following
o High standards of our activity o Dynamic development of our technologies
and systems o High profitableness of the main kinds of
our activities o Our Company's prestige image
4. A SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYEE. Staff is everything for us. That is why we are ready to combine our corporative goals and the interests of our employees - the key members of our
team have a possibility to become partners of our Company and can realize their ambitions by means of
o Their professionalism - their correspondence to the qualification requirements
o Their interest - their involvement into the working process and the life of our Company
o Their loyalty - adherence to the goals of their team and our Company
HOW WE SHALL ACHIEVE OUR GOALS:
OUR PRINCIPLES:
1. We are «System», as far as independently from the hierarchy, every member of the Company is a part of the huge mechanism, brining him money and satisfaction, that is why
2. We receive in our team only those people, with whom we feel personal sympathy, as far as we understand that our work demands to be always ready to collaborate and also to trust, and in connection with all these
3. We use the information, having been obtained within the Company, out of its bounds only after it has been reconciled with our topmanager, and it is possible because
4. We do not include in to our team those people, whose personal and professional interests are in a direct conflict, and that is why
5. We stick to the point, that the main requirement to everybody's work is «Grow or Go Away», and in case it is not satisfied
6. We are ready to change a member of our team, if he is obviously inefficient. A new member of our team must prove his efficiency in the course of his probation period, which is estimated according to his key indicators, and moreover
7. We are ready to express and accept criticism and praise in accordance with the operating results of every member of our team.
Thereat, we criticize only in face to face or in the presence of a very «close» circle, avoiding spectators in the face of subordinate employees or Company's partners. It makes our relations open-hearted and transparent, and it brings to the following
8. We realize the principle «all for one, one for all», cementing the relations of friendship and trust within the team and shortening the communication gap, and that is why
9. We address each other «on a first-name basis» and all these speaks about the following
10. We know: «SYSTEM» MAKES HAPPY. VERY HAPPY. EVERYBODY IS HAPPY!
The structure and content of the presented document let us also demonstrate one important technological principle of the ethic-project work: a qualitative ethic project presupposes a certain balance between the sections, which characterize SENSE-MAKING, and the sections, which formulate STANDARDS. On one hand, such a project allows avoiding dangerous extremes in administrative regulations of the organization's moral life and, on the other hand, avoiding moral anarchy and refusal from pan-human moral influence on the individual professional-ethic decisions. Upon the fact of realization of the given project, the ideological tree of the company has been discussed and agreed and it has allowed the participants of the project group (top-managers and key employees) to agree also the requirements of realization of the operative line of management.
The participants develop a certain understanding of the following condition, that obligations, being formed by the professional community of the Company, can become effective only inasmuch, as they become the result of the common AGREEMENT. The project work result is «instrumentalization» of the moral values, norms and principles. In the given document, it is open through the choice of a recommended
concrete decision, mean, or action, which involves directly or implicitly some moral value. This is precisely the way, the effect of the ethic projecting is revealed: to invent a method to combine the world-outlook and the normative block of life of the Company, being set in a document, provision, and regulation.
Conclusions
1. Today, development of innovative ethic-educative technologies takes place in commercial corporative and business-education. And here, correlation of traditional and «advanced» educative technologies, being in demand by the post-industrial society, is obviously to the benefit of the models of «mastering» (training and imitations) and «production» (sessions, organizing-activity plays and so on.).
2. Practice of the SDH Company (System Development Holding) proves that in this very sector, ethic projecting is closely connected to the «order» for formation of systems of corporative professional values of concrete organizations.
3. In the modern conditions, relevance of ethic business-education is an «emerging» demand: being «deeply» realized, it is YET rarely formulated in the form of a concrete order, with concrete financing. In the given direction, the work perspectives are connected with already a ready suggested product «The Management of Involvement». Such a «wrapping» underlines an obvious use for the client.
4. The sector of ethic business-education is not large, but it is obviously important: here, the selection of new ethic values, «a quiet revolution» take place in fact, not in word, and along with the instrumental values (custom focus, responsibility, independence, ability to self-control and others), it also forms universal values (values of business and life success, professionalism, rationalism, individualism, freedom of choice and responsibility).
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