Video Clips
Ag Help Wanted: Guidelines for Managing Agricultural Labor


Nine sets of brief vignettes that illustrate approaches to one-on-one communication in problem situations can be accessed from the links below.  These approaches are described in Chapter 6, pp. 210-214 as different "types of response." 

Each of the nine sets includes one scene showing an apparent personnel problem and three scenes showing different supervisory responses to it.  Taken together, the responses form a typology of nine approaches.   Names of the three responses shown for each respective situation are in italics here. 

The online clips are viewed with Windows MediaPlayer.  Follow this link to download a free copy of the MediaPlayer application or plugin for your browser. Each scene is available in three versions, of quality and file size appropriate for delivery through a modem connection (Mod), a LAN, or a CD. 
 
Opening Credits - Mod|LAN|CD
 Tardiness - a picker arrives in the orchard where the crew is well into its work.  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Avoidance   --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Specific Warning  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Explanation  --  Mod|LAN|CD
 Slow Work - a cow feeder pitches hay as if it were lead.  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Vague threat  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Humoring  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Problem solving  --  Mod |LAN |CD
 Inebriation - a field crop irrigator is clearly under the influence.  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Imposition of Penalty  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Appeal to Values  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Emphasizing Authority  -- Mod|LAN|CD
 Poor Quality Work - a picker is filling the bin with rotten fruit, leaves, sticks, etc.  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Vague Threat  --  Mod|LAN |CD
     Emphasizing Authority  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Explanation  --  Mod|LAN|CD
 Theft - the new mechanic seems to have lifted a pneumatic drill from the shop.  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Avoidance  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Imposition of Penalty  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Appeal to Values  -- Mod|LAN|CD
 Conflict Between Workers - two pickers on the same tree are at each other.  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Specific Warning  --  Mod|LAN |CD
     Humoring  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Problem Solving  --  Mod|LAN|CD
 Insubordination - a machine operator refuses to perform an assigned task.  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Emphasizing Authority  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Imposition of Penalty (1)  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Imposition of Penalty (2)  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Problem Solving  -- Mod|LAN|CD
 Sleeping on the Job - the field man is dozing under a tractor.  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Imposition of Penalty  -- Mod|LAN|CD
     Humoring  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Explanation  --  Mod|LAN| CD
 Careless Work - a milker wipes a few cows with the same paper towel.  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Avoidance  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Specific Warning  --  Mod|LAN|CD
     Explanation  --  Mod|LAN|CD
 
Please note:  Although these vignettes have been used to support discussion in training workshops, supervisory development sessions, company staff meetings, and even employee selection interviews, they do not stand alone to make for "plug and play" instruction.  Many ideas that they can help convey are presented in a trio of articles, "Rules and Reason for Managing Farm Personnel" (parts 1, 2, and 3), from which parts of Chapters 5 and 6 were adapted.  The articles do not advocate any model of correct supervisory behavior.  They aim to build (1) familiarity with distinctions among response options, (2) recognition of situational factors that affect the appropriateness of each response, and (3) understanding of how management practices upstream may lead to problems. 

These video segments have been prepared for internet distribution by J. Hewlett and R. Weigel as a service to the Western Management and Marketing Extension Committee, 2001.  The original source of  the vignettes is a videotape produced in 1987 by H. Rosenberg, E. Agundez, G. Billikopf, K. Francisco, J. Grant, and J. Mamer, of the Agricultural Personnel Management Program, University of California.

 

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