Reputation

I have held the position of president for a student organization for the past six months. During that time, I've slowly but surely developed a reputation for being a demanding leader. The organization have always ran a surplus and large amounts of funds are leftover each year. Although this is a good thing, it also means officers are nearly as proactive and concerned when it comes to issue of funding from sources such as SORF and sponsorship. This has landed me in trouble quite a few times with the SORF board in particular due to late forms which has resulted in missed funding opportunities. This is also largely a consequence of me being friends with a few of the officers. During the start of me taking over the organization, I let a lot of their poor performances slide. However, it quickly became apparent that the organization would be run to the ground should the situation continue. To remedy this, I started cracking down on deadlines and threatening removal from the organization should an officer miss a deadline.
To build upon this reputation, I've demanded mandatory meetings with the officers. During meetings, individuals who have not been meeting deadlines or have been performing poorly (bad poster designs, forgetting to send emails) are called out on the spot. While this method is likely not the best approach in the long run as it will lead to tension, my goal is to keep a surplus to hand down to my successor as has been the case for the past decade or so in this organization's history. I'd say, in the short run, this approach has definitely worked. Deadlines these days are submitted early, our SORF funding form for the coming month was submitted three days before the deadline and emails are sent out on time. I haven't adopted this approach for a long period of time (roughly three months) so I've yet to deviate from the reputation I'm building and I don't see myself doing so in the near future.

Triangle Principle Agent Problem

For this post I will reference one of my earlier experiences I wrote about involving my boss during my internship using bribery as a means to an end. During my internship at a financial firm, my boss who acted as my mentor throughout the three months asked me to accompany him to a business negotiation deal to both experience what it's like to interact with clients and type up meeting minutes for him. The project my boss was in charge with was critical to the future of the company as it constituted a value added proposition to our product that would have made it very attractive to the target consumers. The client was therefore a representative from the firm which we were trying to secure a partnership with and solidify their position as a value added option. The setting was at a coffee shop which made it an informal negotiation in a sense. After the usual meet and greet and chatting about each other's children and lobbing casual questions at each other, my boss and the representative got down to business. After roughly five minutes of proposals from both parties, my boss slides a thin white envelope across the table. It was only when the representative opened it up and the sun caught the envelope that I saw the cash inside. The representative simply slipped the envelope inside his briefcase and the negotiations continued. This event shocked me in two ways. Firstly, both parties involved were Fortune 500 companies which I would expect to adhere to stringent company codes and secondly, the response from the representative seemed almost staged as if he was expecting such a gesture and had experienced bribes before.
As an intern, I had my fair share of menial jobs that I had to perform and one of these was completing my boss' four hour annual company code of conduct module. As ironic as it sounds, this particular company heavily stressed the importance of both non-disclosure agreements and bribery prevention in the module. My position was both my boss' subordinate and a company employee who signed a contract which specified that I would abide by the companies code of conduct (which they force you to actually read). My boss would expect me to stay quiet and be thankful that he gave me such a great opportunity to witness an actual business negotiation. The company on the other hand would urge me to report this incident to human resources to avoid potential lawsuits. I chose to stay quiet and simply take it as an eye opener. Perhaps through popular culture, I've been conditioned to think that these sorts of underhanded practices run rampant in the financial sector and therefore it didn't particularly irk me. Nevertheless, had I faced a moral dilemma, I'd say there would have been no easy way out. Had I reported my boss, I would lose a very important connection and mentor meaning almost two months of wasted time. Staying quiet and keeping it to myself in my mind was definitely the more prudent choice of the two. It'd be very hard to satisfy the interests of all parties involved.