Real-Life Decision Making
You've been working on a farm as a laborer for a few weeks. You're enjoying
the job and like the fact that you have quite a bit of independence as a worker.
If decisions need to be made, sometimes you have to make them, and you like
that.
Today, a decision needs to be made, and fast. A farm in a neighboring county
has put up a large amount of cattle for sale at a fairly low price. You had
just been talking to your boss about buying more cattle in eight months. Although
he was a bit hesitant due to finances being a bit tight currently, he also
seemed impressed with your knowledge on the subject and even gave you the
go-ahead to purchase some cattle for the farm when it was a good business
decision to do so.
You're torn: the timing is not right because finances are tight; but on
the other hand the timing is good because the cattle are cheap and the farm
needs to buy some more in the near future anyway. On top of this, forecasts
for the farming sector are pretty bleak at the moment, with experts saying
farms will be seeing low profits over the next year or so. What do you do?
John Youngberg, vice president of governmental affairs at the Montana Farm
Bureau Federation, says that typical agricultural employees work somewhat
independently from supervision a good part of the time. So, an ability to
make decisions is important.
"They are required to make decisions that affect the productivity of the
operation,"he says of farm laborers.
What do you do?