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Future business and government leaders are learning lessons from Michigan's governor, and it's not a tribute to his leadership.
University researchers and instructors at Harvard, Michigan State, Wayne State and elsewhere are focusing attention on Flint water missteps, Ron French reports at Bridge magazine:
This is not how Gov. Rick Snyder wanted to make it into college classrooms.
Snyder’s mishandling of the water crisis that exposed thousands of Flint children to possible lead poisoning is already being used in business school lectures as an example of epic organizational failure. . . .
“Crisis researchers will see this as one of the most important events in this time,” said Matthew Seeger, dean of the School of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, and longtime expert on crisis communications.
In addition to being the theme of a WSU doctoral seminar and a Harvard forum at Harvard University, what went wrong in state, local and federal decision-making may be a case study in a national academic journal, French writes, It also "will be incorporated into management classes at Grand Valley State University in the fall," his article says. "It’s already an area of study for several political science researchers at Michigan State University."
“If he were a CEO, he’d be fired,” said Marie McKendall, a business professor at Grand Valley State University. “There was a pronounced lack of problem-solving and communication. It almost seems in the end they forgot they were there to serve the people. That’s an organization that is lost.”
McKendall and colleague Nancy Levenburg are writing a case study for the North American Case Research Association journal, and say they will present their findings at a national conference in October. If their case study is accepted for publication in the journal, business classes at colleges around the world may study for years the organizational missteps that lead to the poisoning of Flint children.
McKendall says she plans to use Flint in her business ethics classes next fall. “There are lessons about structure, ethics, culture, decision-making.” . . .
Wayne State’s Seeger said the state’s mismanagement of Flint reveals the need to “build organization systems that are very sensitive to risks. . . .We need ombudspersons and anonymous tip lines so leaders can get these kinds of concerns.”
-- Alan Stamm
