OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities
1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The organization that I chose to analyze for my Personal Case Analysis is Horizon Air,
the primary regional air carrier for Alaska Airlines. My role with Horizon Air is what we call
a Team Captain (TC). As a TC I oversee the day to day operations for Alaska and Horizon
flights in and out of the airport in Fresno, CA. I came across a situation about a year ago in
which I had to help my manager decide whether to demote another member of leadership,
or to terminate him entirely. This situation arose from a series of events where he showed
unprofessional conduct and disregard for the safety culture of Horizon Air. My manager
chose to use my input as part of his recommendation because I worked closely with this
individual on a daily basis. He felt that I could provide a more thorough insight on some
other aspects of his work habits. I ended up recommending that my manager simply
demote him and let him remain employed. To come to this decision I contemplated his
behavior prior to being a member of leadership, and concluded that his actions were a
result of the overall organizational culture along with the pressures of leadership, not of a
poor work ethic or blatant neglect for safety procedures.

2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

The ethics of the organization played a significant role in the way this situation played
out. Horizon Air has an internal mission to always do the right thing. This applies to doing
the right thing for one another in our roles by following procedures to maintain a safe
operation. We all have the same organizational mission to keep the operation safe so that
we can all return home to our families and a huge part of this means trusting one another.
Just like in any organization, everything goes along smoother when you know you can trust
your employees. As Horizon employees, we expect to be able to count on our coworkers to
be present and focused on the operation when the situation demands. This a big part of our
safety culture because distractions are a big contributing factor to unsafe situations.
Honesty and transparency are a big part of our ethical ideology.

Carl did a few things that were ethically questionable during his time as a TC. The main
occurrence was when he came to work without his employee badge. We have a policy that
states you can not work in the operation if you do not have your employee ID badge with
you. Carl told the rest of the team, indcluding myself that he received permission from our
manager to work without his badge. This was later found out to be false, and that he had
not gotten permission to work without his badge.While it may not seem like a huge issue,

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we are very good at our station at holding everyone to the same standards and people have
been sent home a number of time for not having their badge. Carl tried to undermine our
manager by using his personal friendship with him as a way to circumvent a policy. This
showed poor ethical judgement and was a contributing factor in carl being demoted.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical communities for an
alternative course of action regarding your case.

If Carl had continued to be in a leadership position and his actions went un-punished,
he would have created a toxic environment and an even greater gap between leadership
and other employees. Carl’s tendency to exploit his power directly relates to Bolman and
Deal’s (2017) idea of justice and the sharing of power. They state that “leaders who hoard
power produce powerless organizations” and that “people stripped of power look for ways
to fight back” (p. 393). The course of action that would have been more positive would have
been if Carl had a better understanding of the role of leadership and the expectations that
there would be.

I would apply the ethical community that relates to the political frame for an alternative
course of action that would have mitigated the negative effects of the situation. Carl’s idea
of power in this situation gave him a false sense of entitlement that allowed him to feel
justified in sidestepping a company policy. Had Carl had a better understanding of the
organization’s ethical guidelines which hold everyone to the same standards, leadership
included, he hopefully would made a different choice.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have
learned about ethics.

Based on what I have learned about the ethical frame and ethical communities, I still
believe that the right decision was made at the time given all of the circumstances. The
right decision was made regarding whether or not to terminate Carl or to demote him from
the leadership position. Many people misunderstood why he was not terminated but he is
still with the company and he has since regained a lot of the respect that he lost during his
short time as a TC. People seem to collectively understand that he was simply not ready to
move into a leadership position. I think that had he had a little more preparation for the
role that he could have succeeded.

I personally wish that I had taken more time to mentor Carl and helped him ease into
the role that I had already grown accustomed to. I believe that I could have offered him
some insights that would have made sense and clarified the expectations.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass