C. W. Von Bergen

How Managers Use the Stockdale Paradox to Balance "the Now and the Next".

Recent discussions of leadership paradoxes have suggested that managers who can hold seemingly opposed, yet interrelated perspectives, are more adaptive and effective. One such paradox that has received relatively little attention is the “Stockdale Paradox,” named after Admiral James Stockdale, an American naval officer who was held captive for seven and one-half years during the Vietnam War and survived imprisonment in large part because he held beliefs of optimism about the future, while simultaneously acknowledging the current reality of the desperate situation in which he found himself. This contradictory tension enabled him and his followers to emerge from their situation not just unbroken, but stronger. Such paradoxical thinking has been empirically supported by mental contrasting research demonstrating the effectiveness of visualizing a positive future yet recognizing the reality of the current situation. This apparent dichotomy provides an important lesson for leaders who must remain optimistic, yet face the reality of their present condition, and is symbolic of an overarching, general tension leaders face in addressing “the now and the next.”

The U.S. FairPay Overtime Initiative

The Fair Labor Standards Act (here in after referred to as the FLSA or Act, 1938) requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and receive overtime pay at one and one‐half times the regular rate for all hours worked over 40 hours in a work‐week. Defined within the Act are certain types of employees who are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime pay, i.e., if a worker is employed as a bonafide executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or computer employee. These exempt categories are cumulatively referred to as the white collar exemption and the workers are called white collar employees. To qualify for such exemptions the job description and/or employment contract must meet certain salary and job duties tests. The past thirty years have seen these tests become outdated resulting in uncertainty and ambiguity in their application. On April 24, 2004 the Wage and Hour Division of the U. S. Department of Labor responded to these decades‐old exemption descriptions with new regulations relating to white collar exemptions of the Act called the FairPay Over time Initiative (here in after referred to asFPOI). The purpose of the new FLSA regulations was to modernize, update, and clarify the criteria for these exemptions and to eliminate legal problems that the prior regulations caused.