About all I did in junior high and high school was play football and basketball, and for one year about all I did in college was play basketball. That’s me Number 37 second row from bottom fourth from left, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal probably the youngest and smallest Class A high school starting quarterback in the United States, thirteen years old, one hundred ten pounds, five feet three inches tall.
In the interests of full disclosure, here is a video created by the Statesboro Herald showing what I look like now (February 19, 2020) in context with the members of the Southeast Georgia Scottish Heritage Society carrying in the haggis at our 17th annual Robert Burns Supper at the Forrest Heights Country Club (https://statesboroherald.cdn-anvilcms.net/media/media/2020/02/15/media-6478/ren-6682/1351620000001-100020/SHR_21420.mp4Ann).
Curriculum Vitae, last update April 15, 2024
RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON
Born November 3, 1940, Corpus Christi, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, United States
Reared in Wolfforth, Texas ten miles southwest of Lubbock on the South Plains in Nothwest Texas, 1941-1963
Professor Emeritus, Business Policy, Small Business Management, Operations Management, Management Information Systems, Organizational Behavior, Entrepreneurship, and Business Ethics
Academic career at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, fifty-three miles northwest of Savannah, on the Atlantic Coast, 1970-2005
Now involved
STAPLETON LEARNING COMPANY
32 East Main Street
Statesboro, Georgia 30459
website: https://blog.effectivelearning.net/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/richard.stapleton.397
POST RETIREMENT
Since retiring from Georgia Southern in 2005 I have published four books—Business Voyages, Recommendations for Waking Up From the American Nightmare, Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning, and As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases, all shown at Amazon.com and on this website under the Effective Learning Publications tab—and scores of Internet articles in the genre of social, political and economic entrepreneurship, samples of which I have posted on the Business Voyages Archives page of this website.
Debbye and I founded Effective Learning Company and Stapleton Learning Company in 2005. I founded Effective Learning Publications in 1979
See reviews and blurbs for my books at Amazon.com and on the Effective Learning Publications page of this website.
You can find other samples or my writing in Internet journals and at various Internet addresses by typing Richard John Stapleton into Google or any browser or by going to https://blog.effectivelearning.net/.
CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Wrote the first syllabus for the computer-based Management Information Systems course at Georgia Southern and supervised its incorporation into the curriculum and course catalog in 1971. I was the only teacher of MIS in the business school from 1971-1978 laying the groundwork for MIS study at Georgia Southern
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Was the only operations management (originally called production management) teacher in the Georgia Southern business school from 1970-1978. Taught Production I and added Production II to the curriculum, which led to the creation of the operations management emphasis area in the College of Business Administration
BUSINESS POLICY & STRATEGY
Added the capstone case method business policy course to the undergraduate core curriculum for all majors of the business school in 1971, enabling the Georgia Southern business school in 1974 to achieve accreditation by the AACSB, the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, the highest academic accrediting association in the business field in the United States. I was the only teacher of business policy and strategy using the case method in the undergraduate business curriculum at Georgia Southern during 1970-2005, teaching approximately four case method business policy courses per year.
SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Taught all but three small business management courses offered by the business school at Georgia Southern during 1970-2005, at least one per year, all with the case method
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Founded the teaching of entrepreneurship at Georgia Southern. Wrote the syllabus for the first entrepreneurship course in 1987. Taught most entrepreneurship courses offered during 1987-2005, all with the case method
SMALL BUSINESS INSTITUTE
Supervised approximately 350 Small Business Institute student teams consulting with area small businesses during 1974-2005. Served as the Small Business Institute Director during 1987-2005. Supervised students producing approximately ten SBI cases per year funded by the US Small Business Administration at $500 per case during 1974-1992, at which the SBA discontinued funding the SBI program because of decisions of the Clinton Administration. Served as the SBI Director at Georgia Southern during 1987-2005
RUNNER-UP NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Supervised Hartie Cliatt, Reagie Eakin, and Scott Johnson, a Georgia Southern Small Business Institute team, runner-up winners of the National 1992 Case of the Year case research and writing contest conducted by the US Small Business Administration, competing with some 3,000 undergraduate SBI teams at some 500 Small Business Institutes at colleges and universities throughout the US. The team was recognized and presented undergraduate Runner-Up in the Nation awards by Erskine Bowles, national SBA Director, at the Annual 1992 Small Business Week luncheon, Washington, D.C.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP/SMALL BUSINESS EMPHASIS AREA
Founded the Entrepreneurship/Small Business (E/SB) emphasis area at Georgia Southern in 1987, which has become one of the most successful emphasis areas in the College of Business Administration to the present time, now known as the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership. Developed the E/SB area and taught all courses required for the emphasis from 1987 to 2001, three courses per year, all with the case method
E/SB BOARD OF ADVISORS, ANNUAL, MEETING, AND CASE OF THE YEAR CONTEST
Started an advisory board for the E/SB emphasis area in 1996 composed of area entrepreneurs, retired executives, and former students who own and operate small businesses. Conducted an Annual Meeting in the spring of the year at which E/SB advisory board members interacted with students and judged the Small Business Institute Case of the Year contest. First, Second, and Third place winners were selected from among ten or so cases developed in the Spring Applied Small Business course by students in teams of three members
THE BUSINESS PLAN
Was instrumental as a member of the COBA Task Force 2000 committee in 1996 in the creation of a new course The Business Plan to be taught by faculty in all departments, a one-hour course that was required for all undergraduate business students at Georgia Southern, along with two other new innovative one-hour courses, requiring students to analytically and creatively think using their Adult and Free Child ego states. The business plan course required undergraduate students of all majors in small groups to research and write a plan for a new business. The course provided a unique environment in which students integrated all business functions—accounting, finance, management, marketing, operations management, and management information systems—while developing communication and inter-disciplinary teamwork skills. I taught one or two business plan courses per year for two academic years after the course was added to the required core curriculum and tried to teach the COBA (College of Business Administration) faculty, now the Parker School of Business faculty, how to teach the business plan course by disseminating teaching notes dealing with the course process and discussing the course with faculty. Unfortunately COBA faculty in specialized disciplines after a few years organized a coup and voted to eliminate the business plan course, and the other two one-hour courses, from the core curriculum for all majors, despite its value according to student feedback, because it was inconvenient for departmental administrators to schedule and stressful for teachers in various disciplines to teach. Most faculty preferred to teach their three-hour courses in their specialized disciplines in their departmentalized wormholes dispensing standard doctrines and techniques with their Critical Parent—>Adapted Child ego state teaching and learning processes (using lecture and telling methods of dispensing information, militaristic row and column classroom layouts, and multiple-choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and solve-the-arithmetic-problem tests), rather than lead and coordinate three one-hour business plan courses in which class members had to use Adult ego states integrating what they had been taught in a team of three or four class members researching and writing a real business plan for a new business that included pro forma income statements and balance sheets using realistic financial data, who had to be graded wholistically using Adult ego states based on overall performance, not graded based on ostensible percentage of course content memorized for so-called objective tests using multiple-choice questions, and the like.
Read BORN TO LEARN by RJS for more on how classroom layouts, teaching methods, and testing methods used by teachers of all sorts affect the ego states learners have to use to succeed in teaching and learning processes, showing why most learners are confined to memorizing dogma, doctrine, and procedures for so-called objective tests in Parent—>Child learning processes, in which Adult ego state thinking ability and Free Child ego state creative ability are squelched in the learning process, not recognized and graded at all in most teaching and learning processes in most learning venues, such as families, churches, schools, universities, businesses, political organizations, military units, etc., in which learners are mostly taught how to memorize and obey what their “teachers”—parents, sunday school teachers, preachers, public school teachers, university professors, supervisors, department heads, drill sergeants, admirals, presidents, fascist dictators, etc.— tell them or show them.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN STUDENT EVALUATIONS
Conducted research and writing during 1990-2000 that resulted in Georgia Southern adding study production, learning production, and expected grades questions to the student evaluation form used campus-wide in all departments and schools. These questions were formally adopted by Georgia Southern in 2000.
Data and analysis showing why these questions should be included on all student evaluation forms and weighted in all faculty evaluations are published in “Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations: A Study of Correlations Between Instructor Excellence, Study Production, Learning Production, and Expected Grades,” by Richard John Stapleton & Gene Murkison (2001), published as the lead article in the June 2001 issue of the Journal of Management Education, published by the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, a national professional association composed of business professors from leading US universities.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations” has by now (April 15, 2024) been cited in 89 refereed professional journal articles in several academic disciplines, including 21 citations since 2021, proving the article is still being read and cited as a reference in refereed professional journals.
FORMAL EDUCATION
Diploma, Frenship High School, Wolfforth, Texas, 1958
Attended Hardin-Simmons University, 1958-1960, Economics major, Accounting minor
B.S., Economics, Texas Tech University, 1962
M.B.A., Organizational Behavior, Texas Tech University, 1966
Ph.D., Business Administration, Management Science major, Economics minor, Texas Tech University, 1969
CTA, Certified Transactional Analyst, International Transactional Analysis Association, 1978
Undergraduate GPA, 2.79; Masters GPA, 3.4; Doctoral GPA, 3.67
High Pass, Management and Finance doctoral comprehensive exams, 1969
TEACHING POSITIONS
Teaching Assistant in Management, Texas Tech University, 1965-1966
Part-time Instructor in Economics, Texas Tech University, 1966-1969
Associate Professor of Management, University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana—Lafayette), 1969-1970
Associate Professor of Management, Georgia Southern College, 1970-1976
Graduate Faculty, Georgia Southern University, 1975-2005
Professor of Management, Georgia Southern University, 1976-2005
Visiting Professor of Management, Troy State University-Europe, 1982-1983. Taught systems management in a management master’s degree program conducted by Troy State University (now Troy University) of Alabama in the US on US Air Force NATO bases at or near Adana, Turkey; Athens, Greece; Soesterberg, Holland; Hessich, Germany; Aviano, Italy. The program included all ranks of Air Force personnel and their dependents and some local business people in Greece and Holland.
Senior Professor, Parker College of Business Administration, 1990-2005
Senior Professor, Georgia Southern University, 2005
SUBJECTS TAUGHT
Economic history, systems management, entrepreneurship, small business, organizational behavior, quantitative methods in business, transactional analysis, operations management, management information systems, control, business policy
Taught Eco 133, a sophomore economic history course, two courses per semester, during the fall and spring semesters at Texas Tech University during 1966-1969 as a part-time instructor, paid $3300 per academic year as a part-time instructor, while taking a full load of courses each semester working on a doctor’s degree in business, majoring in management science, minoring in economics, taking doctoral courses in all business fields.
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
Acting Head, Department of Management, Georgia Southern, 1970-1972
Chairman, Department of Management Self-Study Steering Committee, 1971-1972
Member, Dean’s Search Committee, School of Business, 1971
Chairman, Admissions Committee, AACSB Self-Study, 1972-1973
Member, Athletic Committee, 1971-1973
Member, Library Committee, 1973-1974
Member, Dean’s Search Committee, School of Business, 1974
Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Business, 1974-1976
Chairman, Graduate Program Committee, School of Business, 1974-1976
Chairman, Graduate Curriculum Committee, School of Business, 1974-1976
Chairman, Faculty Evaluation Committee, School of Business, 1976-1978
Chairman, GSC Continuing Education Committee, 1977-1979
Long Range Planning Committee, Department of Management, 1984
Dean’s Search Committee, Division of Industrial Technology, 1984
Library Committee, 1986-1988
Director, Small Business Institute, School of Business, 1986-2005
Member, Tenure and Promotion Committee, School of Business, 1987-1989
Chairman, Tenure and Promotion Committee, Department of Management, 1988-1989
Chairman, Academic Affairs Committee, Department of Management, 1989-1993
Member, Strategic Planning Committee, School of Business, 1990-1992
Chairman, Entrepreneurship/Small Business Committee, School of Business, 1993-2005
Member, COBA Task Force 2000 Planning Committee, 1993-1997
Member, Georgia Southern Institutional Effectiveness Committee, 1993-1998
Member, COBA Governance Committee, 1997-1998
Entrepreneurship/Small Business Emphasis Coordinator, 1997-2005
Member, GSU Judicial Review Board, 1999-2002
Member, COBA Tenure and Promotion Committee, 1999-2001
Member, Dept. of Mgt. Tenure and Promotion Committee, 1999-2001
CREATIVE AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
AN ANALYSIS OF RURAL MANPOWER MIGRATION PATTERNS IN THE SOUTH PLAINS REGION OF TEXAS, published in the National Technical Information Service (PB 188048), 1970. This research was funded by a $6500 grant awarded by the Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation and Research of the U.S. Department of Labor pursuant to the provisions of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1964. Summaries of the dissertation were published in MANPOWER (1970) and MANPOWER RESEARCH PROJECTS (1970), U.S. Department of Labor, still available free from Texas Tech University by clicking on the title highlighted in blue above.
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND BOOKS
“The Process of Environmental Structuring–A General Perspective,” THE BUSINESS SYMPOSIUM, Texas Tech University, 1:1, 1969
“Terminations: Lower-Level Dismissals,” PERSONNEL, Vol 48 (May-June, 1971)
“When You Have to Say ‘You’re Fired’,” SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT, Vol 16 (September, 1971)
“The Velocity of Youth Mobility,” ATLANTA ECONOMIC REVIEW (March-April, 1973)
“Terminations: Lower-Level Dismissals,” reprinted in PRIMER IN SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT, McCullough & Fryet (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, 1974)
“The Chain of Ego States,” TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS JOURNAL, 8:3, July, 1978
“Classroom De-Gamer,” TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS JOURNAL, 9:2, April, 1979
“How Managers Influence Superiors: A Study of Upward Influence Tactics,” LEADERSHIP ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL, 9, 4, 1988, with B. Keys, G. Murkison, and L. Dosier
“Scripts and Entrepreneurship,” TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS JOURNAL, 20:3, July, 1990, senior author with G. Murkison
“Academic Entrepreneurship: Using the Case Method to Simulate Competitive Business Markets,” THE ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TEACHING REVIEW, Vol XIV, Issue IV, 1989-1990, pp 88-104
“Scripts and Decisions: An Empirical Analysis,” JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC STUDIES, 3, (4), 1992, 123-127, senior author with G. Murkison
“Scripts and Entrepreneurship,” translated into French and reprinted in ACTUALITES EN ANALYSE TRANSACTIONELLE, 17:66, April 1993, Brussels, Belgium
“The Significance of Schemata and Scripts in Entrepreneurship Education and Development,” (1997), senior author with D. Stapleton and G. Murkison, in T.G. Monroy, J. Reichert, F. Hoy, and K. Williams (Eds.), THE ART & SCIENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION: VOLUME IV, pp. 89-104, Akron, Ohio: The Project for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education
“Teaching Business Using the Case Method and Transactional Analysis: A Constructivist Approach (1998), TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS JOURNAL, 28:2, April, 1998, pp. 157-167, senior author with D. Stapleton
“The Formulation of Strategies for Teaching Business Policy or Strategic Management” (2000), BUSINESS RESEARCH YEARBOOK: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES, Volume VII, J. Biberman and A. Alkhafaji, editors, International Academy of Business Disciplines, pp. 928-932, senior author with D. Stapleton. Saline, Michigan: McNaughton & Gunn, Inc.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations: A Study of Correlations Between Instructor Excellence, Study Production, Learning Production, and Expected Grades,” lead article, JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION, 25:3, June 2001, pp. 269-291, senior author with G. Murkison . (this article has now been cited as a reference in 89 refereed professional journal articles in several disciplines, 21 since 2021, proving it is still being read and used)
BOOKS
MANAGING CREATIVELY: ACTION LEARNING IN ACTION (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1976), 318 pages (sometimes available used at Amazon.com or eBay)
EXPLORATIONS IN LEARNING LEADER’S GUIDE (Statesboro, GA: Effective Learning Systems, 1980). Contains detailed instructions for conducting EXPLORATIONS IN LEARNING seminars and using the Classroom De-Gamer™
EXPLORATIONS IN LEARNING: AN INNOVATIVE ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (Statesboro, GA: Effective Learning Systems, 1981). Demonstrates how to apply the de-gaming process to organizations in general
BUSINESS VOYAGES: MENTAL MAPS, SCRIPTS, SCHEMATA, AND TOOLS FOR FINDING AND CO-CONSTRUCTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS WORLDS (1998), Class Notes, Georgia Southern University, used in The Business Plan course, 88 pages
GEORGIA SOUTHERN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: ACTIVITIES, CONTRIBUTORS, CASES (Reprinted 4 times, originally printed 2000), Class Notes, Georgia Southern University and Georgia Southern COBA Office of Publications and Faculty Research Services. Contains cases about businesses owned and operated by ex-COBA entrepreneurship students written by students in the Applied Small Business course during 1999-2004, an overview of the E/SB program, and feedback from ex-COBA entrepreneurship students 1972-1999.
PROCEEDINGS ARTICLES
“The Classroom De-Gamer,” RESEARCH IN EDUCATION, November, 1978, School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Implications of Business Prospectuses Developed by Small Business Students,” PROCEEDINGS of the 1984 Southern Management Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 1984
“Causes of Unsuccessful Entrepreneurship,” (abstract), ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH, Fourth Annual Conference on Organizational Development and Policy, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky, Spring, 1986
“A Total Systems Approach to Simulating Free Enterprise in a Small Business Course in a Business School,” published in PROCEEDINGS of the 1987 National Meeting, Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Hilton Head, SC, March, 1987
“Entrepreneurial Learning and Small Business Failure Rates, ” with G. Murkison, PROCEEDINGS of the Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Institute of Management Science, October, 1988
“What is Most Important: Entrepreneurial Teaching or Entrepreneurial Unlearning,” (abstract), JOURNAL OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, Vol IV, No. 1, Fall, 1988
“Entrepreneurship, Decisions, and Scripts,” with G. Murkison, PROCEEDINGS of the Annual Meeting of the Southeast Region of the Decision Sciences Institute, February, 1989
“Entrepreneurial Autonomy and Success,” PROCEEDINGS of the 1989 Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of The Institute of Management Science, Columbia, SC
“Scripts and Decisions,” with G. Murkison, (abstract), bulletin of the National Meeting of the Operations Research Society of America and The Institute of Management Science, New York, October, 1989
“The Value of Entrepreneurial Experience: What Entrepreneurs Learn When they Start and Operate Businesses,” PROCEEDINGS of the 1990 Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Institute of Management Science, Myrtle Beach, SC, with G. Murkison
“Game-Freer Teaching and Learning: How to Increase Productivity in Schools by Decreasing Psychological Games,” The Stamford Papers: Selections from the 29th Annual ITAA Conference, Bruce R. Loria, Editor, Stamford, Connecticut, October, 1991, pp. 250-267
“Feedback Regarding the Use of a Game-Free Case Method Process to Educate General Management and Entrepreneurship Students,” (1993) with G. Murkison and D. Stapleton, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Chapter of the Institute of Management Science, October, 1993, Myrtle Beach, SC.
“The Case Method, Business Success, and Masculinity,” with G. Murkison and D. Stapleton, 1994 Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Chapter of the Institute of Management Science, October, Myrtle Beach, SC
“Randomly Selecting Participants to Lead case Method Discussions: Problems and Pitfalls in Performance Evaluation,” (1996), with D. Stapleton, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 32nd ANNUAL MEETING, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Myrtle Beach, pp. 117-119
“The Selection and Assessment of Teaching Methods in Business Schools (1997), with G. Murkison and D. Stapleton, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 33rd ANNUAL MEETING, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Myrtle Beach, pp. 107-109
“The Student Evaluation of Teaching Process Revisited,” (1997), with B. Price, C. Randall, and G. Murkison, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 33rd ANNUAL MEETING, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Myrtle Beach, 178-180
“The Scripting of Family Businesses” (1999), with D. Stapleton, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 34TH ANNUAL MEETING, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, CD-ROM, October, Myrtle Beach
“In Search of a Better Mousetrap: Can a Composite Profile Accurately Evaluate Teaching Effectiveness?”, C. Randall, B. Price, L. Tudor, and R. Stapleton (1999) PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL DECISION SCIENCE INSTITUTE, New Orleans, November, pp. 266-268
“What Do Entrepreneurship Teachers and Students Know?” (2000), senior author with D. Stapleton, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Allied Business Disciplines Association, Ft. Myers, FL, CD-ROM November 2000
“An Investigation of Script Decisions in the Creating, Operating, and Disposing of Family Businesses,” (2001), senior author with D. Stapleton, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL USASBE/SBIDA JOINT NATIONAL CONFERENCE, CD-ROM, February, Orlando, FL
“Basic Policies Affecting the Longevity of Family Businesses,” (2001), senior author with D. Stapleton, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 36TH ANNUAL MEETING, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, CD-ROM, October, Myrtle Beach, SC
“Attitudes of Family Business Owners Regarding Policies for Transferring the Wealth of Family Businesses,” with D. C. Stapleton, Annual Meeting of the Small Business Institute Director’s Association (SBIDA), San Diego, CA, February, 2002
“What is Good Business Teaching,” with D. C. Stapleton, Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, October 2002, Myrtle Beach, SC
“The Nature of SBI Learning,” with D. C. Stapleton, Annual Meeting of the Small Business Institute Director’s Association (SBIDA), New Orleans, LA, February 2003
“The Morality of University Grading,” with D. C. Stapleton, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and The Management Sciences, CD-ROM, October 2003, Myrtle Beach, SC
“Factors in Family Business Planning,” with Deborah. C. Stapleton and Meredith Tomlinson, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Small Business Institute Director’s Association, Clearwater Beach, FL, February 2004.
“Factors in Family Business Planning” was reprinted in the 1 April 2004 edition of the SBANC Newsletter, the online newsletter of the Small Business Advancement National Center, Don B. Bradley, editor, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas, http://sbaer.uca.edu/ and in The Script, Vol. 34, No. 6, the newsletter of the International Transactional Analysis Association, August 2004
“Mixing Business and Family,” with Deborah C. Stapleton, Proceedings of the 2004 Annual Meeting of SEInforms, Myrtle Beach, SC, October 2004
CASES
“The Dig-Deep Mining Company,” with Grady L. Allen, INTERCOLLEGIATE CASE CLEARING HOUSE, Harvard University, 1971
“Tesk: The Upside-Down Desk,” ICCH, November, 1971
“Model Cities Program,” ICCH, August, 1972
“Regency Estates,” ICCH, September, 1972
“Graham Repair Shop,” ICCH, January, 1973
“Igo and Green,” ICCH, January, 1973
“Berry’s Home Builders,” ICCH, January, 1973
“Mitchell Foods,” ICCH, January, 1973
“David Handlen and Frito-Lay,” ICCH, January, 1973
“T.J. Morris Company (A),” with Arthur G. Butler, Jr., ICCH, November, 1974“T.J. Morris Company (B),” with Arthur G. Butler, Jr., ICCH, November, 1974
“Business Skylab Conference,” ICCH, July, 1976
“Charles N. Aronson,” a 163-page longitudinal case showing the development of a highly successful entrepreneur from ages 14-59, Harvard Business School Case Services, June, 1982
NEWSPAPER AND INTERNET ARTICLES
“Entrepreneurs Face Many Challenges When Starting a Small Business,” Savannah Morning News, Business Exchange, July 5, 1998, p. 2D
“Is Your Business Plan a Plan or Is It a Script?” Savannah Morning News, November 21, 1999, p. 4D
“Newspapering Business Has Changed with the Times,” Savannah Morning News, August 26, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 11
“Microsoft Uses Its Clout to Build Its Market, Keep It,” Savannah Morning News, September 9, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 7
“Attacks also Assaults on Global Business,” Savannah Morning News, September 23, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 7
“Economic Development, Tariffs, and Trade Wars,” Savannah Morning News, October 21, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 6
“Making Money in America Not as Easy as One Thinks,” Savannah Morning News, November 4, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 6
“Globalization Creates Ethical Dilemmas,” Savannah Morning News, December 30, 2001, The Business Exchange, p. 5
“Even in Information Age, Everything You Read is not Whole Truth,” Savannah Morning News, January 27, 2002, The Business Exchange, p 6.
“Difficult to Gauge Scoring in the Big Game—Super Business,” Savannah Morning News, Februrary 24, 2002, p. 8
“Steel and Other Tariffs Show the Customer is Not Yet King,” Savannah Morning News, March 24, 2002, The Business Exchange, p. 8
“Living with the CEO Disease,” Savannah Morning News, April 21, 2002, The Business Exchange, p. 5
“Today’s Stock Market: How Safe,” Statesboro Herald, February 2, 2004
“Scripting in Family Business Planning,” with Deborah C. Stapleton and Meredith A. Tomlinson, feature article in SBANC Newsletter, online newsletter of the Small Business Advancement National Center, Don B. Bradley, editor, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas, http://.sbaer.uca.edu, April 2004
“Scripting in Family Business Planning,” with Deborah C. Stapleton and Meredith A. Tomlinson, The Script, International Transactional Analysis Association, Vol. 34. No. 6, August 2004
“Scripting in Family Business Planning,” with Deborah C. Stapleton and Meredith A. Tomlinson, feature article in SBANC Newsletter, online newsletter of the Small Business Advancement National Center, Don B. Bradley, editor, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas, http://.sbaer.uca.edu, February 2005
“Market will determine if you’ve got goods,” Savannah Morning News, Business Innovation Section, page 01, June 29, 2019
Internet Journals, 2005-
Too many to list, primarily in the Intrepid Report and the Effective Learning Report. For a partial listing go to https://blog.effectivelearning.net/
PROFESSIONAL MEETING PARTICIPATION
New Manpower Researcher’s Conference, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., September, 1970, presented grant/doctoral dissertation findings, “An Analysis of Rural Manpower Migration Patterns in the South Plains Region of Texas”
Southwestern Management Association Meeting, 1970; presented a paper “In Pursuit of Equilibrium,” Dallas, Texas
Southern Management Association Meeting, New Orleans, 1973; discussed a paper “Experiences with Policies Regarding Employees on Drugs of Twenty Large New Orleans-Area Firms,” by Gerald Langdon
Trained and consulted with the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, NC, during monthly weekend training sessions, 1975-1977. Participated in 24 training sessions of approximately 16 hours each at the Southeast Institute, co-conducting 12 of the sessions
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute (of Chapel Hill), Atlanta, GA, March, 1977; conducted a three-day organizational development workshop and presented a paper “The Chain of Command Re-visited”
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute, Atlanta, GA, 1978; conducted a workshop and presented a paper “De-Gaming the Classroom”
Southern Management Association Meeting, November, 1978, New Orleans; served as Program Chairman of the Policy and Organization Planning area; chaired Session I of Policy and Organizational Planning on the program
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute, Washington, D.C., March, 1980; conducted a workshop and presented a paper “De-Gaming the Organization”
Southern Management Association Meeting, November, 1980, New Orleans; served as Chairman of the Public Sector section of the program
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute, Nashville, TN, March, 1981, conducted a workshop, “Elements of Entrepreneurship”
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute, Raliegh, NC, March, 1982; conducted a workshop and presented a paper, “An Analysis of Business Fantasies”
First Annual Conference on Classroom Communication, Georgia Southern College, 1984, presented a paper, “Establishing Relevant Oral Communications Among Students in Classrooms”
Southern Management Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 1984, “Implications of Business Prospectuses Developed by Small Business Students”
Spring Conference of the Southeast Institute, “Relevant Communications in Classrooms through TA,” March, 1985, Myrtle Beach, SC
Fourth Annual Organizational Development Conference, Center for Continuing Studies, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, May, 1986, “Causes of Unsuccessful Entrepreneurship”
1987 Annual Meeting of ABSEL, Hilton Head, SC, presented “A Total Systems Approach to Simulating Free Enterprise in a Small Business Course in a Business School”
Co-conducted two 2-hour Organizational Development sessions and presented a paper, “Positive Organizational Ego State Trips in the Land of Harkaval,” at the International Transactional Analysis Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, August, 1987
Presented a plenary session program entitled “Entrepreneurial Unlearning” at the Region IV Small Business Institute Director’s Association Annual Conference, Savannah, GA, April, 1988
Presented “Entrepreneurial Learning and Small Business Failure Rates,” 24th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of The Institute Of Management Science, Myrtle Beach, October, 1988
Presented “What is Most Important? Entrepreneurial Teaching or Entrepreneurial Unlearning” at the annual meeting of the Association for Private Enterprise Education, Cleveland, Ohio, September, 1988
Presented “Entrepreneurship, Decisions, and Scripts,” Annual Meeting of the Southeast Region of the Decision Sciences Institute, Charleston, February, 1989
Described the activities of the Georgia Southern Small Business Institute to the Southeast Georgia Small Business Consortium, May 25, 1989
Conducted two Catalyst Sessions at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, Columbia, MO, June, 1989, demonstrating how to use the Classroom De-Gamer™ teaching organizational behavior
Attended U.S. Department of Commerce Export Conference for Small Business, Savannah, GA, January 16, 1991
Presented material on how to direct a Small Business Institute and conduct an SBI case course to the State of Georgia Small Business Institute Director’s Conference sponsored by the Small Business Administration, Atlanta, August, 1992
Attended all Small Business Institute Director’s Association (SBIDA) Region IV meetings, 1987-1992
Attended National SBIDA Conference, San Antonio, TX, 1992
Attended National SBIDA Conference, San Diego, CA, 1993
Attended National Small Business Week luncheon, Small Business Administration, Washington, D.C., June, 1993
Attended National SBIDA Training Conference, Small Business Advancement National Center, Little Rock, Ark., August, 1993
Participated with 12th Annual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, Washington, D.C., September, 1993
Particpated with 13th Annual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, Washington, D. C., September 1994
Attended National SBIDA Conference, Nashville, TN, 1994
Attended International Transactional Analysis Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 1995
Attended International Transactional Analysis Association Annual Meeting, Calgary, Canada, August 1996
Refereed presentation, “Constructivism in the Classroom,” (1998) 2nd Major International Transactional Analysis Conference, Irchel University, Zurich, Switzerland, August 1998
Attended International Transactional Analysis Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 1999
Attended Annual Meeting of International Alliance of Business Disciplines (AIBD) Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, Spring 2000
Presented “Managing Transactions in the Classroom,” with D. Stapleton, and served on two examining committees for certified member oral examinations, at the Annual Meeting of the International Transactional Analysis Association, Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 2000
Presented “De-Gaming Teaching and Learning,” with D.C. Stapleton, 2002 World Transactional Analysis Conference, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 2002
Served as program and session chair and refereed cases and articles in various years for meetings of the Southern Management Association, the Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, the North America Case Research Association, and the Small Business Institute Director’s Association
GRANTS
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation, and Research, 1968, “An Analysis of Rural Manpower Migration Patterns in the South Plains Region of Texas,” received $6,500 to write doctoral dissertation
Georgia Southern College, 1973, received $1,000 in funding for case research
Georgia Southern College, 1987, received $1,900 in funding for a national study of entrepreneurial startups, with G. Murkison
Georgia Southern College, 1989, received a $600 travel grant to attend the 1989 Annual Meeting of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society
Spring 1989 wrote a grant proposal to Georgia Power Company for computer and laser-disc hardware and software for an entrepreneurial laboratory at GSU which was funded for $13,000
Georgia Southern University, Spring, 1991, received $600 for “A Longitudinal Study of GSU Management Graduates,” with G. Murkison
During 1987-1994 supervised the development of 96 Small Business Institute cases for the Small Business Administration, generating $48,000 in funding
CONSULTING
Jones and Hill Insurance, Savannah, March-April, 1976, Organizational Development
Zetterower-Oliff Realty, Statesboro, July, 1976, Organizational Development
Department of Biology, OD, May, 1977
Brooks Instruments, Organizational Development, September, 1977. This program lasted five years, involving teaching transactional analysis to some three hundred employees from all areas and levels of the plant and conducting Game-free, I’m OK—You’re OK intermittent meetings with groups of ten or so participants from all areas and levels of the plant discussing interrelated actual problems and issues on an as needed basis.
Brooks Instruments, Organizational Development, October, 1977
Brooks Instruments, OD, November, 1977
“Steps in Starting a Small Business,” conference at Sea Island Bank, Statesboro, November, 1977
“Adventures in Attitudes,” DeSota-Hilton Hotel, Savannah, February, 1978.A three-day goal-setting and communications conference for middle and upper level management. Sixteen people attended representing organizations such as Piggly-Wiggly Southern, Ft. Stewart, Vidalia Hospital, Oxford Industries, and the Savannah WMCA
“Transactional Analysis for Educators,” workshop presented to the Georgia Association of Adult Educators at their annual meeting, Jekyll Island, GA, March, 1978
“Adventures in Attitudes,” Hinesville, GA, August, 1978; a three-day goal-setting workshop for the senior-level civilian management of Ft. Stewart
“Adventures in Attitudes,” Hinesville, GA, September, 1978; a three-day workshop for the middle-level civilian management of Ft. Stewart
“How to Start a Small Business,” short course taught through the Georgia Southern Small Business Development Center, GSC, November, 1978
“Adventures in Attitudes,” Continuing Education, GSC, Winter, 1979
“Explorations in Learning,” Continuing Education, GSC, Spring, 1979
Brooks Instruments, OD, July, 1979
“How to Start a Small Business,” Small Business Development Center, GSC, Spring, 1979
“Explorations in Learning,” Continuing Education, GSC, Fall, 1979
Candler Hospital, Savannah, Spring, 1980, Organizational Development
Brooks Instruments, Organizational Development, January-April, 1980
Cullman City Schools, Cullman, Alabama, August, 1980; a two-day workshop, “Explorations in Learning”
Landmark Realty, Statesboro, GA, Organizational Development, Spring, 1986
“Strategic Planning in Small Business,” 2nd South Carolina Minority Business Networking Conference, Orangeburg, SC, November, 1989
Supervised approximately 350 student teams consulting with area small businesses since 1974 through the Georgia Southern Small Business Institute program
Taught two business plan short courses sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Development Center, Chamber of Commerce building, Statesboro, Spring 2000
Assisted the Chamber of Commerce in a study of past Chamber of Commerce Directors in Statesboro and Bulloch County since the inception of the Chamber of Commerce, Spring 2000
Taught accounting and financial professionals how to construct business plans, Accounting Seminar for Financial Professionals, Continuing Education, Brunswick and Savannah, May 2001
BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
Worked in family businesses during public school and college years, Stapleton Lumber Company and Spear X Ranch. Involved in lumber and hardware retailing, construction, farming, ranching, banking, and insurance at Wolfforth, Hamilton, and Eastland, Texas
Founded, owned, and operated the WOLFFORTH-FRENSHIP GAZETTE, a weekly newspaper, and Rick Stapleton Agency, a fire and casualty insurance, real estate, and mortgage loan agency, 1963-1965
Owned and operated a forty-acre cattle farm, Statesboro, GA, 1971-1977
Founder and Owner, Effective Learning Publications, 1979-present; invented, wrote, produced, and marketed DE-GAMING TEACHING AND LEARNING and the CLASSROOM DE-GAMER™ to approximately 400 school systems throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Turkey, Greece, Holland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and India. DE-GAMING TEACHING AND LEARNING has been reprinted and updated retitled BORN TO LEARN, 2016
HONORARY AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Sigma Iota Epsilon, Honorary Management Fraternity
Omicron Delta Epsilon, Honorary Economics Fraternity
Beta Gamma Sigma, Honorary Business Fraternity
SEInforms, Southeastern Chapter of the Institute for Information Systems and Management Science
Certified Member, Education and Organizations, International Transactional Analysis Association
Small Business Institute Director’s Association
Organizational Behavior Teaching Society
Statesboro-Bulloch County Chamber of Commerce
MISCELLANEOUS AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Founding President, Graduate Students Society, Texas Tech University, 1969
High Pass, Management and Finance doctoral comprehensive exams, Texas Tech University, 1969
Passed comprehensive exams, International Transactional Analysis Association, 1977, as a certified transactional analyst
Football and basketball statistician and clockkeeper, Sports Information Department, Georgia Southern, 1985-1989
Member, Board of Directors, Georgia Southern Faculty Club, 1990-1991
Member, 1906 Society, Georgia Southern University, 1990-
Writer/Editor, GSU Entrepreneurship News, 1991-1997
Associate Editor, Southern Business Review, 1974-1986
Editorial Board Member, Transactional Analysis Journal. 1993-1997
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Small Business Strategy, 1994-1996
Editorial Board Member, TAJnet, (http://www.tajnet.org/) an internet journal published by the International Transactional Analysis Association presenting articles to readers in medical, consulting, organizational, and educational fields worldwide, 1998-2002
Listed in Outstanding Educators of America, Personalities in the South, and Contemporary Authors
All-district four years in high school basketball, Frenship High School, Wolfforth, Texas, 1953-1957, honorable mention all-state one year, all-tournament five tournaments
Youngest and smallest Class A high school starting quarterback in the US at age 13, 5’3″ tall, 110 pounds, 1954
All-district, all-regional, second leading scorer in Class A high school football on the South Plains of Texas at age 17, 1958
Played varsity basketball on scholarship two years, Hardin-Simmons University, 1958-1959
Member, Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity, Texas Tech, 1961-1962
Member, Scottish Heritage Society of Southeast Georgia, 2004-
Member and Director, Georgia Southern Retired Faculty Association, 2016-
Editor & Publisher, the Effective Learning Report and The Earthian, both Internet Journals.
Published one hundred or more Internet articles from 2005-present, most still accessible using Google or any search engine.
SCORE MENTOR, US Small Business Administration, pro bono mentoring of entrepreneurs, 2018-2020
Member, Board of Advisors, Business Innovation Group, Center for Entrepreneurial Learning, Parker College of Business, Georgia Southern University, 2016-
Founder & Moderator, The Ogeechee Economic Forum, Effective Learning Company, Statesboro, Georgia, United States, 2019-
Founder, Owner, Writer, Editor, and Publisher, Effective Learning Report, an internet journal, 2016- . at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/
Writer, Editor, and Publisher, The Earthian, an Internet journal, in the Effective Learning Report, 2018- . Now (April 15, 2024) in its 43rd edition, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/
HOW TO EMPOWER EARTHIAN HUMANS
Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA would spin the spinner of his Classroom De-GAMER™ in his classes to randomly select a student at the beginning of each class session to lead a discussion of the case assigned for the day, a case taken from a planned or operating business prepared by case writers at Georgia Southern University, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Alabama. He taught management systems, researched, published, and conducted a small business institute at Georgia Southern University thirty-five years, 1970-2005.
All case analyses entail considering three existential questions:
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES? WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?
Whomever the spinner of the Classroom De-Gamer™ selected when it wound down after spinning by an imaginary line of fire extending from the point of the spinner to a class member sitting in the circle classroom layout would become the “Leader of the Moment” required to answer the three existential questions shown above laying out the case to all class members.
The overall purpose of the Game-free I’m OK—You’re OK Adult-Adult democratic teaching and learning process is to produce comprehension of the relevant facts and focal points of the case among class members in order to create rational policies and strategies for successfully managing the states of affairs of the case. All humans have Adult ego states that can be cathected, even children at young ages.
Cathecting an ego state is turning on energy, cognition and emotion in the human psyche for transacting with fellow humans. There are three basic types of ego states that can be cathected: Parent, Adult, and Child.
A soft drink bottle as in playing the childhood game Spin the Bottle works about as well as a Classroom De-Gamer™ to randomly select the Leader of the Moment to answer the Three Existential Questions. No one can interrupt anyone once someone has the floor. Communicating overtly or covertly with individuals in the room for the whole session is not allowed. Anyone can respond to any speaker once the speaker has finished, disagreeing or agreeing with what was said, and may bring up another problem if appropriate in the context of the discussion.
How long should a discussion last? Long enough for group members to comprehend the system under consideration, a system including interrelations between relevant focal point entities of the system—relevant facts and issues comprising the problem, alternatives and recommendations.
According to R. Buckminster Fuller in his Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969) comprehension of a system entails separating the relevant points from the irrelevant points in the system under consideration. It takes time to do this. According to Fuller, Comprehension = (N2 – N) / 2, where N = Number of total focal point entities in the system, counting the number of focal point facts or issues and all the inter-relationships between the focal point entities.
It can be seen that Comprehension required and produced expands exponentially as the size of the system increases. One has to wonder if most Earthian systems today are ever fully comprehended by Earthian humans. Rather than most Earthian human systems being managed today based on comprehnsion in general they are managed based on dogmas, doctrines, rules, algorithms, scripts, and the like, many of which are irrelevant. As matters now stand about the best Earthian humans can hope for is that somehow the smartest, wisest, most knowledgeable, most ethical, and most empathetic Earthian humans somehow manage to become top leaders in major systems.
When most members of the discussion group seem to generally comprehend the system it’s time to stop. Most paper cases in Stapleton’s classes of about 30 students took about one hour. Real cases and systems in your organizations and groups may take more or less time, perhaps several hourly sessions for one system. Stick with the discussion until most members have comprehended the relevant problems, alternatives, and recommendations of the system under consideration as best they can. In most cases this will produce a solution considered the most rational of alternatives for most members of the group, about the best that can be hoped for at present. Perhaps at some future date supercomputers will be able to comprehend large systems well enough to develop answers that are provably true.
Since all members of the group will not have been caused to develop the same pictures in their heads about what should be done in the case before the discussion starts, a high percentage of the discussants will learn in the discussion as they comprehend what is really going on that their initial conceptions were wrong, causing both unlearning and learning. Sometimes unlearning is more important than learning for creating better Earthian human states of affairs. Unlearning, in fact, might be what is now needed most in order for Earthian humans to develop peaceful and sustainable systems around Spaceship Earth.
Most discussants will not leave the discussions with the same mental pictures they started out with caused by the greater comprehension caused by the back and forth dialectical arguing caused by the Game-free I’m OK—You’re OK Adult-Adult democratic discussion process, proving both unlearning and learning happened.
Stapleton’s De-Gaming process insured that everyone would be relatively GAME-free transacting in class discussions. They all agreed to a learning contract at the outset of the course that they would read assigned cases and would be graded on the quantity and quality of ideas sold in the class market. Anyone caught obviously unprepared by the spinning De-GAMER would lose a whole letter grade from the course grade. No one could feel or think that s/he was being persecuted or rescued if selected to start the class discussion of the day by the Classroom De-GAMER™. The psychological GAME Drama Triangle roles of Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim were largely banished from the course learning process. The actual grades received—A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s—were relative grades, not absolute grades, Excellent, Good, Average, Poor, and Failing relative to the class. There were no numbers ostensibly proving what percentage of the course “content” was retained in memory for so-called objective exams.
Stapleton sat in the same circle in the same kind of chair as students, and the De-GAMING rules also applied to him. If the Classroom De-GAMER™ landed on him he had to lay out the case just like any other student and discuss what was the problem, what were the alternatives, and what he recommended.
Grades were based eighty percent on class participation in dialectical discussions about what to do about problems and opportunities found in cases; the rest of the final grade was based on two case write-ups. One write-up was about what the student observed, researched, analyzed, and wrote about an existing business in the local environment or a business plan the student created. The other write-up was an analysis of a case researched and written by professors about a business assigned as the final exam. Cases used in his courses contained processes, problems, opportunities, and data occurring in all functional areas of business such as entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, operations management, control, management information systems, and business policy and strategy.
He has published refereed journal articles and books explaining how his democratic GAME-free Adult-Adult I’m OK—You’re OK case method system works, by banishing Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims playing psychological GAMES from the teaching and learning process, first documented in an article titled “The Classroom De-GAMER” he published in 1978 in the Transactional Analysis Journal. He has published seven books and over one hundred articles in various media containing cases, research data, and essays on teaching and learning and management systems, policies, and practices.
Stapleton learned and trained using transactional analysis with Martin Groder, MD; Graham Barnes, PhD; Vann Joines, PhD; and many others at the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1975-1978).
He learned how the Harvard case method works teaching with Bernard Bienvenu, DBA and Rexford Hauser, DBA, Harvard Business School doctorates, at the University of Louisiana–Lafayette in 1969-70.
He has a BS in economics (1962), an MBA in organizational behavior (1966), and a PhD in management science (1969) from Texas Tech University, and an organizational and educational certification in transactional analysis (CTA) from the International Transactional Analysis Association (1978).
He taught his own case method track at the undergraduate level in the management department in the business school at Georgia Southern University offering four or five different elective case method courses each academic year during 1970-2005 in which he led, coordinated, and graded about twenty-five or so students each year who took all or most of those case method courses in their junior and senior years, of about two hundred students who signed up for all his courses each year. He used a democratic circle or amphitheater classroom layout in all his classes. He also taught most semesters two sections of a capstone integrative business policy course he added to the business school curriculum in 1970 that was required for all undergraduate business majors that could be elected by any student in any major. He was the only professor in the business school to use the case method in any course.
His students agreed to a course learning contract that stipulated they would read the facts of the case before class and would lose a whole letter grade from the course final grade if the De-GAMER randomly caught them obviously not having read the case before class, if they had not slipped a note under his office door before class telling him they had not read the case, which they could do twice during the course without penalty.
About ten percent of his students made A’s and about five percent made D’s. Most made C’s, which is about right, since C = Average. There were few F’s in his courses. The main criterion for course grades was the quantity and quality of ideas sold by students in case method discussions. He used peer ratings to give students feedback showing what their fellow students thought about the quantity and quality of their ideas sold in class, having made it clear the final decision about final grades was his. He did not believe in Lake Wobegon grading.
No student was ever forced to take one of his courses to graduate, and the most hardened GAME-players in the school did not sign up for his courses after he issued his Edict of 1972 in which he clearly spelled out in his syllabi the penalty for getting caught unprepared. His Classroom De-GAMER™ was roundly discussed by students in bull sessions across campus every year and was labeled various things, such as The Wheel of Fate and The Death Wheel. Most students near the end of his career simply called it The Spinner.
He appreciated Georgia Southern honoring his academic freedom by allowing him control of his teaching methods, classroom layouts, grading procedures, and course books, cases, and materials, some of which he researched, wrote, and published. He was promoted to full professor with tenure at age thirty-six and was the senior professor of the university when he retired in 2005.
He solicited anonymous longitudinal research data using questionnaires in 1992 showing his case method students during 1972-1982 reported higher yearly incomes in 1992 than students electing the same courses in 1972-1982 taught by professors using the authoritarian lecture method and the militaristic row and column classroom layout, who graded students based on memorizing or calculating “right answers” for tests, indicating learners learning in Adult—Adult I’m OK—You’re OK GAME-free democratic learning processes graded subjectively became more successful in the real world of business than learners lectured to and graded using Parent-Child transactions, row and column classroom layouts, and so-called objective tests.
Only former students who had worked in the real world of business ten or more years after graduating from the Georgia Southern business school were included in the study. The data are shown, analyzed, and discussed in full in “Evidence the Case Method Works” published in his book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2008, pg. 475. The data were also used in several refereed articles.
See also Stapleton, R.J. (1989-1990). “Academic entrepreneurship: Using the case method to simulate competitive business markets.” Organizational Behavior Teaching Review. Vol. XIV, No. IV, pp. 88-104; Stapleton, R.J., Murkison, G., and Stapleton, D.C. (1993). “Feedback regarding a game-free case method process used to educate general management and entrepreneurship students.” Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Meeting of the Southeast CHAPTER of the Institute for Management Science. Myrtle Beach, SC, October, 1993; and Stapleton, R. J. and Stapleton, D.C. (1998) “Teaching Business Using the Case Method and Transactional Analysis: A Constructivist Approach.” Transactional Analysis Journal, 28, no. 2: 157–167
The ancient Greeks used a similar random-selection democratic process in the Third Century BCE to select leaders of political discussions, learning, and policy formulation in their halls of government. Such a process is called sortition.
For more information on related classroom management ethical issues in universities see Stapleton, R.J. and Murkison, G. (2001), “Optimizing the fairness of student evaluations: A study of correlations between instructor excellence, study production, learning production, and expected grades,” in the Journal of Management Education, 25(3), 269-292.
Stapleton had one of the lowest student grade point averages among professors in the business school and was one of the lowest-ranked professors as an instructor on computerized campus-wide student evaluations that weighted only instructor excellence scores up to 2000; but he was one of the highest-ranked professors in a computerized student evaluation system he designed that generated data also showing and weighting study production, learning production, and expected grades scores for each professor, published in “Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations.”
To read the Optimizing Fairness article in full, go to https://studysites.sagepub.com/holt/articles/Stapleton.pdf . After this research was published, Georgia Southern in 2001 added study production, learning production, and expected grades questions to the student evaluation form used campus-wide.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations” has by now (December 30, 2023) been cited as a reference in 89 refereed journal articles concerned about the ethics and fairness of student evaluations in several academic disciplines, including 21 new citations since April 2021, proving the article is still being read and used.
As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein propositioned in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, “The case is all there is.”
If so, everything else said about Earthian human states of affairs is a rendition of what was or might be.
His latest book is As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases.
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