The document discusses whether it is appropriate for project managers to manipulate events to encourage team members to change how they see themselves for the good of the project. It argues that such manipulation is not only acceptable but imperative, as it supports diversity and allows people from different backgrounds to come together. A manager who gets diverse workers to see themselves as a cohesive team is providing a social benefit. However, manipulation is not appropriate when the goal of the project or company violates basic ethics. Examples given include covering up health risks of tobacco, cult-like groups like Jonestown, and companies involved in major scandals due to unethical practices. In these cases, manipulation encourages unethical "groupthink" that overrides

1. 1. Is it wrong for the project manager to "manipulate" events to encourage team members to
change how they see themselves for the good of the project?
Not only do I think that is not wrong for managers to manipulate events, to activate and sustain,
the process of workplace socialization for the good of the project and company, I think that it is
imperative to do so, for the greater good of society and the world community. This is especially
true in organizations the support ethnic, gender, economic and global diversity. If it were not for
diverse workplace environments, many people would never come into contact with those
outside of their homogenous groupings.
The manager that gets these diverse workers to see themselves as part of a team that they
love, is not only benefiting the project and company, but is also doing a form of social work, that
most politicians and religious leaders have failed to deliver.
The benefit not only goes to the team as a whole, it also benefits each individual team
member’s personal development and growth if implemented correctly. Team member learn how
to both speak up and to listen, collaborate, gain a respect for the opinions of others, and
develop a social identity within the greater community.
As read the material and watched the video on workplace socialization, I started to recalling the
many wonderful team that I have been a part of in my life. Some of these project teams that I
have been a part of had temporarily become surrogate family and religion. Many of my fondest
memories are for the project successes of the teams that I have worked on over the years. I’d
like to share a few of them to highlight how being on many high performance teams shapes one
identity over time.
* Information international 1st company to merge text and graphic on a computer screen for US
News & World Report, Times magazine and several newpaper companies in 1980 to do what
we call desktop publishing now.
* Successful reconnaissance images taken from Hughes satellites
* First Flights of the C17, B2 and MD11 aircrafts
* Implementation of ERP systems at GM, Western Union, Canon, Unocal, Universal Music,
John Hopkins, Norwegian Cruise lines, Toyota, Corning and many more
I hope you can see from this short list the role that workplace socialization and project
leadership have impacted my life personally and contributed to the greater social good.
2. Are there times when this method is or is not appropriate?
Yes, there are times when these methods are not appropriate. This is when the goal of the
project or company is violating basic business ethics and workplace socialization is use to get
team members participate in unethical practices.
I will a few examples
* The cover up of tobacco as a cancer causing agent
* Jim Jones and Jonestown (don’t drink the kool-aide)

2. * The 1st Saving and Loan collapse
* Enron
* Many internet dot bomb companies around 2000
* The Wall Street and Banking collapse of 2008
In all these cases, workplace socialization was used to create a form of groupthink. This type of
socialization, encourages team members to become cognitively dissonance with their own
internal moral compass. Team members are manipulated to magnify the reward from
performing well within the team while minimizing the consequence of those same unethical
actions.