Planning – Page 7 – understand-culture

German Works Council — An Essential Guide For Employers

Germany has some of the strictest labor laws in the world, with a key focus on protecting the rights of employees. To ensure a balanced relationship between the employer and employees, two systems exist alongside legislation to bridge the gap that can exist in corporate systems. The work undertaken by a German Works Council within companies is the system that focuses on company-level matters for decisions that impact employees.

Key Takeaways

1. A German Works Council (‘works council’, or, ‘Betriebsrat’) is a group of elected employees that represent the interests of a company’s workforce. A works council collaborates with management on key decisions within the company.

2. Although it is formally mandatory for companies with five or more permanent employees to set up a works council, this does not mean that all companies do. Companies can operate without a works council until it is formally requested by employees to hold an election to set one up.

3. The Works Constitution Act grants elected members of a works council a range of rights to effectively conduct their purposed tasks: This includes a right to information, a right to consultation, a right to decline, and a right to co-determination.

4. There are various pros and cons to having a works council within any given company. The pros include that works councils protects employee rights, provide a unified voice for negotiation with employees, are free for employees, and increase productivity. The cons include the costs of operation and maintenance, arguably lesser employee freedoms, and longer decision-making timeframes.

Leaked German military documents

The Guardian. 2017. A leaked defence document has revealed the country’s worries about the breakup of the global order – a scenario with serious consequences for post-Brexit Britain.

The German defence ministry set out its worst-case scenario for the year 2040 in a secret document that was leaked to Der Spiegel last week: “EU enlargement has been largely abandoned, and more states have left the community … the increasingly disorderly, sometimes chaotic and conflict-prone, world has dramatically changed the security environment.”

The 120-page-long paper, entitled Strategic Perspective 2040, is a federal government policy document – and the scenarios it imagines are grimly realistic: an east-west conflict in which some EU states join the Russian side or a “multipolar” Europe, where some states adopt the Russian economic and political model in defiance of the Lisbon treaty.

Volunteerism and US Civil Society

Everyone in the public and nonprofit sectors has a role to play in fostering volunteerism, and engagement can pay dividends for all.

As a former public sector leader now working in the social sector, I have witnessed the tremendous impact volunteerism has on American society—on both the people providing social services and the people receiving them.

These altruistic interactions often serve a broader purpose: They bond together neighbors and communities in a common cause, and enable us to see and appreciate each other’s humanity.

When we recognize the humanity in each other, we lay the foundations of understanding, empathy, and compassion. These then form the building blocks of a healthy civil society in which citizens are more likely to focus on what unites us than what divides us.

Experiential learning

Arguably the most natural and powerful form of learning is through experience, or more precisely through reflection on doing. This is also known as experiential learning.

Contingency Planning with proxies

In Germany, proxies are used for contingency planning, especially general proxies (Generalvollmachten) and precautionary proxies (Vorsorgevollmachten).

The general proxy entitles the authorised representative to take decisions for the principal in a large number of cases. The precautionary proxy focuses on decisions which have to be taken if the principal is no longer able to take care of his financial or personal matters, e.g. due to an illness.

Covid

February 2020. Deutsche Welle. Germany has already faced its first coronavirus infections. Officials have remained calm, and border closures or lockdowns are not yet on the horizon. But the country has no specific pandemic plan for COVID-19.

“We assume it can and will have a slight impact on the global economy,” said Germany’s Economics Minister Peter Altmaier. “The extent will depend on how quickly this virus is contained and how quickly the number of infections slows down again.”

How Short-Term Thinking Makes the U.S. Worse at Fighting Wars

The Atlantic. 2012. In 2010, the U.S. adopted a new tactic in southern Afghanistan: it began to bulldoze entire villages to clear them of IEDs. The policy — reminiscent of Vietnam, of destroying villages to save them — spoke to a deeper issue with how the war was being fought.

Short-term objectives were emphasized over long term planning or consequence management. Destroying villages carries enormous long-term costs for a region, and the U.S. military just wasn’t paying attention to what those would be.

The Perils And Pitfalls Of Short-Term Thinking

Forbes. 2021. Life and work can at times prove to be exceedingly difficult, as the past year plus has shown, and we can all be forgiven if, in our current circumstances, we look not towards the future but the next moment of relief.

All the platitudes about tough times making for tough people are well and good, but they’re easier to offer from the outside rather than during a trying period. Let’s face it, this period of uncertainty is seemingly ever-ending. In these circumstances, it’s easy to see how people can make decisions aimed at the short-term amelioration of their problems that might work against their long-term interests.

Purposes of a plan

A plan is a detailed proposal or scheme for achieving a specific goal. In Germany, as in any other country, a plan can serve a variety of purposes, depending on the context in which it is being used. Some possible purposes of a plan might include:

Setting out a clear strategy for achieving a particular objective, such as increasing sales or improving efficiency
Providing a roadmap for the implementation of a project or initiative, outlining the steps that need to be taken and the resources that will be required
Facilitating communication and coordination among team members or stakeholders by clearly outlining roles and responsibilities
Allowing for the tracking of progress towards a goal and making adjustments as needed to ensure that the goal is achieved

Plans can be created for personal, business, or organizational purposes, and can range from simple to-do lists to complex, multi-faceted proposals.

Source: ChatGPT. Question: For Germans what is the purpose of a plan?

Degree of Detail

Americans believe in less detail. The degree of detail of their plans is based on the given situation. Americans plan A to C in great detail, begin executing, then continue planning as they proceed.