Learning Activity 4.3
What political undercurrents exist? Why do you say that? What evidence do you have?
Just like most workplaces, there are a variety of political undercurrents that exist in my workplace. There are political undercurrents between workers. For example, some teachers believe they should have different amounts of outdoor supervision based on how long they have worked in the division. There are also political undercurrents between the division office and the teaching staff. Some of the teaching staff feel that there is a gap between how the division spends the budget and what they believe the budget should be spent on.
Do your leaders merely make expected power plays, puffing themselves up and blowing smoke to cover up the truth? Yes or no? Why do you say that?
No our leader is very supportive and makes a solid effort to build relationships of trust, make people feel valued and respected and provides an opportunity for people to share new and innovative ideas.
What evidence do you have?
In my experience with my leader, she has always treated me with respect and been open to new and innovative ideas and suggestions.
Can the leaders be trusted and do they trust the workers? Yes or no?
Yes the leaders can be trusted. They value and respect each member of the team and are extremely supportive. She also trusts the workers. Our leader offers all of the workers an opportunity to cover her for a day when she is away, and be the active administration for the day. In this way she trusts everyone.
Are the discussion topics in the meeting subjective, vague, and seasoned with optimism? Yes or no? Why do you say that? What evidence do you have?. Are the discussion topics in the meeting objective and supported by observations from the workplace? Yes or no? Why do you say that? What evidence do you have?
Typically when we have staff meetings, they are objective and not subjective. The discussion topics are specific and very well laid out. Everyone is notified ahead of time, and given an amount of time to comment or discuss the matter at hand. We also have a time set aside to acknowledge or thank someone or say something positive about a staff member. If the leader wants to conduct a subjective meeting she would likely have a one on one, or a smaller meeting with only the necessary members instead of having a meeting with the whole staff. For example, some of us were using a website for classroom management that gave the teacher a choice of removing points from a student’s name, if they were off task. The leader called a meeting and stated that the division did not support the use of this website any longer and we were asked to try other options and given a list of other things we could try instead.