Grassroots Diplomacy Case Study : 9/10/2019

This week we looked at a case study that dealt with grassroots diplomacy.

The facts of the case are:

1. Jack is American student living at the youth center in Kenya for 5 months
2. Jack is working on a social venture
3. Jack has to work closely with the children and staff of the youth center
   1. Jack thinks having a good relationship with the children is important for his social venture
4. During a gift giving ceremony, four of the children were not given gifts
5. The children that did not receive gifts got black hats instead and they were disappointed
6. Jack felt bad for the children but the employees working there didn’t seem to care

The ethical question is whether or not he should acknowledge the children that were originally forgotten. Which is more important, his relationship with the children or potentially ruining his social study.

 

The stakeholders in this are:

1. Jack
   1. PROFESSIONAL
      1. wants to maintain good relationships with the employees at the youth center
      2. wants to collect accurate research for the social venture
      3. the employees at the youth center are technically his superiors
      4. does not want to let down his university
   2. PERSONAL
      1. wants to maintain positive relationship with the children
      2. wants to relieve his guilty conscious
2. The University Jack goes to
   1. PROFESSIONAL
      1. publish articles based on the research Jack conducts
      2. become more recognized
      3. gain more students
3. International Donor Organization
   1. PROFESSIONAL
      1. gain recognition for their organization
      2. maintain positive relationship with the youth center
4. The students at the Youth Center
   1. PERSONALLY
      1. their lives are directly impacted on this social venture
      2. they are the ones receiving and accepting the toys
      3. they feel hurt and neglected
5. The employees at the Youth Center
   1. PROFESSIONALLY
      1. they want to protect their jobs
      2. they want to remain in authority with the children
      3. when Jack leaves, they still have their jobs there
      4. they don’t want Jack causing unnecessary problems for them
   2. PERSONALLY
      1. they want the children to look up to them
      2. they want the children to be happy

Some of the alternative solutions for Jack would be

1. Listen to the Employees and Not Do Anything : For this solution, Jack would listen to what the employees at the youth center wanted and wouldn’t stir up any commotion with the children. He wouldn’t speak of the situation again and would essentially ignore that he knew there was a problem going on. This solution saves face for the employees because they don’t have to recognize that there were certain children that were affected negatively by the mishaps of the gift giving.
   1. PROS
      1. His relationship with the employees remain in tact
      2. His relationship with the Youth Center remains in tact
      3. He doesn’t have to worry about causing external problems
      4. He can continue his research in the social venture
   2. CONS
      1. His relationship with the children diminishes
      2. The five months being at the Youth Center might be awkward
   3. IMPLICATIONS ON RELATIONSHIPS
      1. Some of the long term implications of these relationships are that he could possible come back to the youth center if he remains in good graces with the employees. With the children, he can mend their relationships. I used to work with children a lot and what I noticed was they sometimes get upset with you, but if you spend quality time with them and just show them that you genuinely care of them, they forgive you.
      2. Short term implications are the children might be upset with Jack and make him gain their trust back. For the employees they would still Jack and continue wanting to work with him.
   4. IMPLICATIONS ON VENTURE
      1. The long term and short term implications of this solution on the social ventures are that Jack will be able to collect the research that he needs. It’s hard to discuss the long term implications because I’m not entirely sure what the social venture is trying to accomplish.
2. Hold 2nd Ceremony For The ‘Neglected’ Children : For this solution, Jack could just hold another ceremony the next day and present the black hats to the children who weren’t able to participate in the gift ceremony. This solution saves face for Jack because he gets to free his guilty conscious.
   1. PROS
      1. The children don’t feel neglected
      2. The children get to participate in their own ceremony
      3. The children who were upset with him would forgive him and trust him again
   2. CONS
      1. The children who got gifts the first night would not get them the second night
      2. The employees would not be happy with Jack because he would be starting unnecessary trouble
   3. IMPLICATIONS ON RELATIONSHIPS
      1. The short term implications of the relationship would be that the children would be happy but the employees would probably not trust Jack with a lot. They were suspicious of Jack wanting to start trouble and if he did this, he would raise more suspicion of him.
      2. The long term implications of the relationship would be that Jack may not be able to work with the youth center for the social venture. Long term, the children may be able to stay friends with Jack but the relationship with the employees might be tainted for a very long time.
   4. IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOCIAL VENTURE
      1. This could negatively impact the social venture because the employees may not be as willing to participate and help Jack out with his research. Again, it seems hard to gage these implications because I don’t know where he wants to go with this venture and how much involvement he needs from the children or the employees.
3.      Buy New Gifts For Children : Jack can contact the international donor and tell them of their mistake and hope that they give him another round of gifts for the children. This saves face for Jack because he gets to remain close with the children and saves face for the international donor because they can make up for their mistake
   1. PROS
      1. The children get to be involved and not feel neglected from the gift ceremony
      2. The international donor is able to stay in good graces
      3. Jack has the ability to remain friends with the children
   2. CONS
      1. The employees would still be upset with Jack because he went out of his way to advocate for the children
      2. The donor could possibly not want to give the gifts out again to the children and then the children would be disappointed again
      3. The children who received gifts the first night would now have two gifts rather than one
   3. IMPLICATIONS OF RELATIONSHIPS
      1. The short term implications of the relationships would be that Jack could remain close with the children and the international donor. The youth center would also be very pleased with the international donor because they gave two rounds of gifts.
      2. The long term implications of the relationships would be that Jack would have potential issues with the employees who would be afraid of Jack causing unnecessary problems. Also, the employees would maybe have issues with the children at the center going forward because of how they are expecting to be treated.
   4. IMPLICATIONS OF VENTURES
      1. The short term implications would be that the children would be willing to participate and help Jack out with the social venture and he would be able to have positive relationships with them during his five months there which may help. Also, if Jack remains friendly with the international donor, it may help the social venture in some way.
      2. The long term implications would be that the employees may not want Jack or anyone from the university to come back again and it may just burn that bridge to the ground.

The best solution I think would be the first one where Jack has to save face. This would be the best option only because ultimately children will forgive you. With my personal experience with working with kids, if you disappoint them, yes it is terrible but all it takes is a little more time and affection with them and they will generally forgive you. I think working with adults is a little more complicated and if Jack wants to continue working at the Youth Center on good terms, he really needs to prioritize his relationship with the adults. Throughout his time working there he can work on mending the relationship with the children.

The implication of this solution is that the social venture can continue. The relationship with the children would be able to be fixed and he kept the relationship with the employees.

There wouldn’t really need to be any steps because he would just not do anything. The only stop that Jack needs to take is on the side line he needs to show the children that they are important to him in some other way.