Spencer Moros, Noah Weaver, Skyler Martinez, Anneke Roy
Blog #8
- If you are the Chief of Police for Afghanistan, what solution would you develop to pay the cops that are actually working, reduce corruption, and boost their morale.
This issue is a web of interrelationships. However, one long standing causal factor which if fixed would create a snowball effect is the establishment of strong leadership. As Police Chief it is important to set an acceptable standard for the rest of the police force. This also would mean personally investigating corruption from the top down. An example of such would be that if a Lieutenant is participating in illicit activities such as corruption that he would be fired, and severely punished. Doing this and publicizing it to the public and the rest of the police force serves two functions: to help reestablish public trust in law enforcement and set an example to other police officers what may become of them if they continue to participate in corruption. Replacing these high-ranking officials with individuals who legitimately perform their duties will be transferred down the hierarchy creating a positive-feedback system of regulation. This also will help improve morale because the police officers will not endure the abuse and be taken advantage of for their commander’s personal gain and they will be reassured that they will receive the resources required to conduct their job. After establishing a legitimate leadership (or at the same time) a better system of financial accounting at the level of each local station (chance of corruption is reduced due to strong leadership). By doing so, this creates another barrier to corruption and also will help to eliminate “ghost” policemen. By adjusting the salaries so that everyone who is supposed to receive some receives the correct amount it is expected that additional money is likely to be left over. Using this surplus, awards could be given to officers who report corruption. Lastly, the issue of defection to the Taliban is the most difficult issue to solve. The Taliban have represented the norm for pseudo-government power for decades and are more prevalent throughout the country. In order to create effective change regarding this dynamic a potential solution is to concentrate police resources in a smaller region and create a strong relationship with the locals, while cooperating with the Taliban (who are not committing terrorist acts and are religiously extremist, the Taliban in many regions only serve as a regulatory power for the locals). By leveraging this existing power and creating an interdependence between the existing local customs (Taliban) and organized police the goal of providing security and governance can be achieved (equifinality).
- If you are the entrepreneur, what multi-final solution will you develop so that you succeed, your venture succeeds (takes water hyacinth off the lake), and the people living along the lakeshore also walk away happy. Please be specific on how your solution might function and precisely whom you would work with. For example, refrain from including vague stakeholders like entire communities.
As the entrepreneur, one must shift their focus from making money to how you can leverage your solution to create even more opportunities for the surrounding community. The people living along the lakeshore have an invested interest in removing the water hyacinth due to it’s obstructive and invasive nature so they would be motivated employees. Instead of hiring employees to collect, I would create a system where people in the local community can harvest the water hyacinth themselves and bring it to my workshop where it can be exchanged for a set price based on weight. By leveraging relationships with prominent fishermen and community leaders, I can begin to gauge the potential interest in this partnership and even have them encourage participation among community members as it benefits them by both creating a profit and getting rid of the water hyacinth. This plays on the Multifinality and interdependence tenets of systems thinking because it leverages the differing goals of the stakeholders to reach a larger goal while creating a mutually beneficial system for all involved. This plan also relies heavily on regulation specifically when it comes to the pricing of the hyacinth. If there is no regulation, community members may try to raise the prices for the hyacinth and the system will be broken.