Through my experiences in student
government, there have been many people that I have encountered that have
either acted opportunistic or not acted opportunistic. Through this, I have
learned there are many reasons that people act the way that they do. What I
have found to be consistent though is that if someone acts opportunistic once,
it is much more likely that they will do it again. The reversal is true if someone
does not act opportunistic, they are less likely to act opportunistic in the
future. It appears those who act opportunistic fall down a slippery slope in
which it becomes easier to justify their rationale.
A specific example comes to mind in
terms of a few individuals who acted opportunistically. For the sake of
anonymity, some parts of this is going to be left out but the situation is the important
aspect. A few years ago, there was a situation that the student government was
working on an initiative that gave students items during a specific campus holiday.
The student government passed an allocation to fund this initiative and needed
volunteers. We were scrambling to find enough people that were willing to
volunteer and commit to not celebrating due to the nature of the holiday and
how we were interacting with students. A few members showed to the event after
previously celebrating to, as I believe, maintain face as they had volunteered.
To me, this was a very opportunistic
act. They had committed to volunteering, knew that they were not supposed to
have celebrated before arriving, but did anyways. They had decisions to make in
terms of not celebrating until after their shift or not showing. While their
claims were that they were wanting to help and that they were fine to do so, I
believe that this was unethical. They were trying to do the right thing by helping,
but by doing so jeopardized the initiative. They did not think anyone would
notice but those of us that knew them well did. While everything ended up being
fine that specific time, it showed us the importance of committed volunteers. Some
people help for personal, sometimes selfish reasons, and some people help from
the goodness of their hearts.
The group of volunteers who could
have celebrated but did not before handed did not act opportunistically. As
there was no real consequence for the actions and they were volunteering, they
could have taken the mindset of the individuals that had celebrated. They did
not and this is something that I have not forgotten. I believe that they did
not because they found value of their commitment, they were doing the right
thing in trying to assist others. I believe that this correlated to their
future behavior as they were faced with other situations that they could have
acted opportunistically.
I believe that people’s decisions
and subsequent actions are based on core values. In this case, core values
would play a role in if people act opportunistically or not. I think that
ethics play a very large part in how people act, both when people are looking
and when they are not. While people may have different intrinsic motivation, I
think that there are values that contribute to the way someone acts in a
potentially opportunistic situation. One may think of their values in terms of
the different potential outcomes. There may also be different external factors
that would determine the actions one takes. I believe that people, at their
core, have an inkling into what decision would be correct or appropriate in a
certain situation, such as a gut feeling.
In my BADM 340 Ethical Dilemmas of
Business class, we learned about a check of sorts in terms of explaining the
situation and decision to your grandmother. Would one be comfortable or ashamed
doing that, and if it is the latter, maybe it would not be the best decision. I
think that this plays largely into opportunism as well, and could be a way to
combat opportunistic actions. Often I think people do not fully think through
their actions, which can also be a factor. While we see opportunistic actions
and people all the time in day to day life, politics and the media, I think it
is important to stay true to one’s values and beliefs. Maybe one day we won’t
have to worry about seeing all these things in the news… wouldn’t that be the
day!
It seems that this is the post for next week. This week we are discussing your experiences in organizations. This is okay. I will comment on this one. Next week go back and write to earlier prompt.
ReplyDeleteNormally I don't correct grammar, but you said the same thing repeatedly in the first paragraph. The word act, as you used it, is a verb. A modifier of a verb is an adverb. So the expression should be act opportunistically, which you did say in the second paragraph. You can use the word opportunistic to modify a noun - the action was opportunistic.
It would have been good to provide some background about what your position in student government was and what sort of responsibility you had for the event. It would also help to identify whether the experience you describe was isolated or if it was more indicative of behavior that happened elsewhere, as your first paragraph suggests.
I want to note a couple of parallels for you to consider. One is attendance in class when it is not required. Some students come regularly. Others don't come much at all. I know this to be true but I still don't quite get it in our class, where we are comparatively small and the class session should be interesting to students.
A different example is given by this Op-Ed from the New York Times about waiters who are drunk on the job. The issue is a big deal productivity-wise among employees in many sectors of the economy. So you might consider whether there is a connection with what you have observed or if it is only student immaturity, nothing more.
You talked about core values but didn't elaborate on how those are learned or not. I also think it matters whether people identify the situation as serious, where they would behave one way, or more frivolous, where perhaps the student government is making the situation out to be serious but they don't really believe it is. Since you chose not to give much detail here, it is hard for me to say which of these is more important in your example.
Hello Professor -
DeleteThank you for the comments. I apologize for the confusion, I got a week ahead on my blogs as I misread the due date. I have a blog post on experiences http://christinaromerblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/rsos-transaction-costs.html. Again, sorry for the confusion.
Thank you also for the comments on the grammar. It is not my strong suite so I truly appreciate the clarification. I will triple check in the future to make sure errors like that are avoided.
In terms of my student government background, in rereading the post I see where I could have improved upon this. Going forward, I'll be sure to give enough information for a third party view to understand the background of the situation I am describing. As it is part of who I am, I often forget to take a step back and explain so that those who are not familiar with the organization and my roles can understand where my perspective is coming from. In this particular situation, I was an intern/executive assistant as a freshman. I looked up to those who were older than me in terms of how they acted and those actions they thought might go unnoticed. I was looking to learn as much as I could from leaders within the organization so I was very observant.
Thank you for sharing the article, it was very interesting. I always appreciate seeing different perspectives. It is easy to quickly jump to a conclusion or thought based on the visible factors only. In terms of this specific situation, I would say that it played more to student immaturity. This happened during Unofficial 2015, which was my first experience observing unofficial. I did not know what to expect and was surely surprised by all the craziness on campus. I think this also speaks to social norms and the impact of "celebrations" that are accepted both on campus and on a global scale.
As you mentioned, I believe that the determination and categorization of the situation followed by evaluating consequences is a big part of people's decision making. Their core values may be the same, but based on external factors they may not be the biggest part of decision making. With this situation in student government, I think that it was student's determination of what the consequences could be that determined much of their actions. The students were of age to participate. Those of us organizing the initiative learned that going forward, we would have to find volunteers who, even if they were of age, would not celebrate before their shifts.
Thanks!
You mentioned in the first paragraph that people who act opportunistically are tended to do it again, and vice versa. From the perspective of human behavior, I agree with you that people are likely to act consistently; yet few abnormal behaviors are acceptable.
ReplyDeleteFor myself, I am a person who seldom do opportunistic things. However, I acted opportunistically few times when I couldn’t tolerate some other opportunists. There was one time when professor asked how many free points we got for answering questions in class. Some students who didn’t ask a single question during the semester added themselves many points, which made me feel so unfair so I added myself few extra points. That was absolutely wrong and made me feel guilty. Then I act normally afterward, just like a good citizen.
There is a point I don’t really understand. Since I’ve never partied before, I just want to know how badly those volunteers acted after they partied. Could it be possible that they were still conscious and were able to allocate students’ items efficiently? In that case, I don’t think that they acted opportunistically because they didn’t harm the activity. Only if that the student government have announced that students are not allowed to party before doing volunteer.