Assignment
Facebook is a free social-network website that allows you to find groups of people with similar interests and then befriend them virtually. Facebook provides a "public" area where you can post a profile of yourself along with pictures and links, and a "private" area where you can share more intimate details about your life. Access to the private area is by invitation only, but as many unhappy users have discovered, their privacy can be violated. Stories abound of pictures or comments meant only for a select group of friends being seen by a much wider audience, including potential or current employers. For example, two MIT students used an automated script to download over 70,000 Facebook profiles. Also, unauthorized strangers can search the Facebook site and discover the preferences you record (religious, sexual, political, etc). Wired News searched for women in a major U.S. city who were interested in random hookups with men and found the names and photos of two high school girls! While Facebook allows you to find out what your friends did last night, are doing right now, and plan on doing tomorrow, it also can blindside you when your private area is made public. Consider setting up your own Facebook profile or modifying the one you already have. You can think of Facebook and other socialnetwork sites as a means to obtain certain objectives. What exactly are your objectives in setting up your public and private areas? Using Table 3.2, develop your own fundamentals objective hierarchy. What is it you want to accomplish and why? How does knowing that your private area can be broken into change your objectives?
TABLE 3.2
Techniques for identifying objectives
1. Develop a wish list. What do you want? What do you value? What should you want?
2. Identify alternatives. What is a perfect alternative, a terrible alternative, some reasonable alternative? What is good or bad about each?
3. Consider problems and shortcomings. What is wrong or right with your organization? What needs fixing?
4. Predict consequences. What has occurred that was good or bad? What might occur that you care about?
5. Identify goals, constraints, and guidelines. What are your aspirations? What limitations are placed on you?
6. Consider different perspectives. What would your competitor or your constituency be concerned about? At some time in the future, what would concern you?
7. Determine strategic objectives. What are your ultimate objectives? What are your values that are absolutely fundamental?
8. Determine generic objectives. What objectives do you have for your customers, your employees, your shareholders, yourself? What environmental, social, economic, or health and safety objectives are important?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.