Comments on: 10 of the Millennium’s Best College Business Scandals http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/ Entrepreneurship, Startup Companies and Business Philosophy Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:09:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Diego http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/comment-page-1/#comment-32251 Diego Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:03:21 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com/?p=5108#comment-32251 I knew #2 very well...I worked for one of the people he screwed... I knew #2 very well…I worked for one of the people he screwed…

]]> By: Milan Moravec http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/comment-page-1/#comment-25626 Milan Moravec Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:14:23 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com/?p=5108#comment-25626 Higher education in the USA is into a phase of creative disassembly where reinvention and adjustments are constant. Even solid world class institutions like the University of California Berkeley under the leadership of Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer are firing staff, faculty and part-time lecturers through “Operational Excellence (OE)”. Yet many employees, professionals and faculty cling to old assumptions about one of the most critical relationship of all: the implied, unwritten contract between employer and employee. Until recently, loyalty was the cornerstone of that relationship. University employers promised job security and a steady progress up the hierarchy in return for employees fitting in, performing in prescribed ways and sticking around. Longevity was a sign of employer-employee relations; turnover was a sign of dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply today. Organizations can no longer guarantee employment and lifetime careers, even if they want to. UC Berkeley senior management paralyzed themselves with an attachment to “success brings success’ rather than “success brings failure’ and are now forced to break the implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by Cal management that the future can be controlled. Jettisoned University of California Berkeley employees are finding that the hard won knowledge, skills and capabilities earned while being loyal are no longer valuable in the employment market place. What kind of a contract can employers and employees make with each other? The central idea is both simple and powerful: the job or position is a shared situation. Employers and employees face market and financial conditions together, and the longevity of the partnership depends on how well the for-profit or not-for-profit continues to meet the needs of customers and constituencies. Neither employer nor employee has a future obligation to the other. Organizations train people. Employees develop the kind of security they really need – skills, knowledge and capabilities that enhance future employability. The partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor. Get ready for a big dump of staff, administrators and Vice-Chancellor as a consequence of the University of California Berkeley Organization Excellence (OE) initiative championed by Cal Chancellor Birgeneau. Higher education in the USA is into a phase of creative disassembly where reinvention and adjustments are constant. Even solid world class institutions like the University of California Berkeley under the leadership of Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer are firing staff, faculty and part-time lecturers through “Operational Excellence (OE)”. Yet many employees, professionals and faculty cling to old assumptions about one of the most critical relationship of all: the implied, unwritten contract between employer and employee.
Until recently, loyalty was the cornerstone of that relationship. University employers promised job security and a steady progress up the hierarchy in return for employees fitting in, performing in prescribed ways and sticking around. Longevity was a sign of employer-employee relations; turnover was a sign of dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply today. Organizations can no longer guarantee employment and lifetime careers, even if they want to.
UC Berkeley senior management paralyzed themselves with an attachment to “success brings success’ rather than “success brings failure’ and are now forced to break the implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by Cal management that the future can be controlled.
Jettisoned University of California Berkeley employees are finding that the hard won knowledge, skills and capabilities earned while being loyal are no longer valuable in the employment market place.
What kind of a contract can employers and employees make with each other? The central idea is both simple and powerful: the job or position is a shared situation. Employers and employees face market and financial conditions together, and the longevity of the partnership depends on how well the for-profit or not-for-profit continues to meet the needs of customers and constituencies. Neither employer nor employee has a future obligation to the other. Organizations train people. Employees develop the kind of security they really need – skills, knowledge and capabilities that enhance future employability.
The partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor.
Get ready for a big dump of staff, administrators and Vice-Chancellor as a consequence of the University of California Berkeley Organization Excellence (OE) initiative championed by Cal Chancellor Birgeneau.

]]> By: Milan Moravec http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/comment-page-1/#comment-23459 Milan Moravec Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:45:49 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com/?p=5108#comment-23459 UCB Chancellor Birgeneau Loss of Credibility, Trust The UCB budget gap has grown to $150 million, and still the Chancellor is spending money that isn't there on expensive outside consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the "innovative thinking, expertise, and new knowledge" the consultants would bring. Does this mean that the faculty and management of a world-class research and teaching institution lack the knowledge, impartiality, innovation, and professionalism to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from interviewing faculty and the UCB management that hired them; yet solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor were doing the job HE was hired to do. Consultant fees would be far better spent on meeting the needs of students. There can be only one conclusion as to why creative solutions have not been forthcoming from the professionals within UCB: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility and the trust of the faculty as well as of the Academic Senate leadership that represents them. Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants' recommendations - disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy - the underlying problem of lost credibility and trust will remain. UCB Chancellor Birgeneau Loss of Credibility, Trust
The UCB budget gap has grown to $150 million, and still the Chancellor is spending money that isn’t there on expensive outside consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the “innovative thinking, expertise, and new knowledge” the consultants would bring.

Does this mean that the faculty and management of a world-class research and teaching institution lack the knowledge, impartiality, innovation, and professionalism to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from interviewing faculty and the UCB management that hired them; yet solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor were doing the job HE was hired to do. Consultant fees would be far better spent on meeting the needs of students.

There can be only one conclusion as to why creative solutions have not been forthcoming from the professionals within UCB: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility and the trust of the faculty as well as of the Academic Senate leadership that represents them. Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants’ recommendations – disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy – the underlying problem of lost credibility and trust will remain.

]]> By: Marjorie http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/comment-page-1/#comment-11578 Marjorie Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:36:13 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com/?p=5108#comment-11578 Excellent site. Good work. Excellent site. Good work.

]]> By: Todd Rhoad http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-millenniums-best-college-business-scandals/comment-page-1/#comment-8347 Todd Rhoad Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:22:45 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com/?p=5108#comment-8347 This almost implies that education is a business, since they appear to be acting like one. This almost implies that education is a business, since they appear to be acting like one.

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