Diane Jackman Eastern Illinois University

Publish Date: April 25, 2013

What is the governance structure of your farm? Do you have your operation’s governance structure clearly outlined for yourself – and – those involved in the management of your business? What comes to many producers’ minds when they hear the word “structure” is their legal, or tax, structure. Much effort is spent emphasizing the importance of the farm’s legal structure, including discussions around tax implications of various business structures and the impact on ease of transitioning the farm to future generations. But, what is often forgotten how critical the farm governance structure, including a clear articulation of who is responsible for what aspects of the business and how reporting takes place, can be for the efficient and effective operation of the farm business.

Publish Date: August 1, 2012

If you are like other producers, there are rarely, if ever, enough hours in the day. Between feeding, sorting, loading, human resource management, and dropping the kids off at school, you might find yourself bouncing to and fro at breakneck speeds. But, do you know where you are going – and are you focused on what you are doing - when you are moving that fast? Time management is an important skill to develop and consciously allocating your time to various activities can make you more efficient, effective, and ensure that you are spending your time on the activities that are moving you in the direction you want to go.

Publish Date: July 2, 2012

Progressive Discipline is a process for dealing with work behavior that does not meet expected and communicated performance standards. The purpose of progressive discipline is to assist the employee in 1) understanding that a problem exists and, 2) that a plan for improvement is in place.

Publish Date: July 2, 2012

Time and energy available for human resource management is often in competition with time and energy available for financial management, strategic planning, or production-oriented decision making. Farm owners and managers are faced with a finite amount of time – as are all of us! Therefore, managers must make tradeoffs in determining how they will spend their management time and energy on the farm.

Publish Date: April 26, 2012

There are a variety of strategies available for coping with conflict. Some of us are more comfortable with some of these strategies than with others, but we all can be better conflict managers if we develop skills to implement several strategies and adapt resolution strategies to suit the particular conflict situation. Johnson & Johnson (1994) describe five possible approaches to conflict management: avoidance, accommodation, compromise, competition, and collaboration.