Peterson 1

Zack Peterson

Professor Willmott

OGL 481

25 August 2020

PCA: Choosing an Organization and Situation

1) Describe your organization.

The organization in which I will be studying over the remainder of the course is the

popularly known clothing and homeware retailer, Urban Outfitters. I first gained exposure to this

company from my older sister, Katie, at the young age of twelve. She had just discovered them at

the time, and so, naturally, I thought whatever she was interested in was pretty cool and I had to

know about it. Only, I genuinely thought this was a cool company in which I genuinely wanted

to know more about them. Urban Outfitters was established in 1970 in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, selling a curated mixture of clothing items to college kids at the University of

Pennsylvania (URBN, n.d.). In its early days, the first Urban Outfitters store became known by

students and shoppers as a hub for a unique, one-of-a-kind shopping experience for which

consumers within that particular demographic could not find elsewhere. It was a place where

similar-minded individuals, bonded by shared creative, musical, and artistic interests, could get

together within the same space to further engage in a sense of community that was being fostered

within the store. Fast forward to today, and Urban Outfitters stores are still perceived by their

core clientele to be a space of gathering for fellow creatives, as well as those who appreciate

what the company represents compared to its industry competitors. With stores found all over the

United States and in parts of Canada and Europe (URBN, n.d.), their community has expanded

far beyond belief from what could have been expected back during their initial start in 1970.
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2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).

My role in Urban Outfitters, at first, was that of an interview candidate for a Social Media

Coordinator position in January of 2016. Just shy of two months after the fact, I then became a

Sales Associate at their Nashville, Tennessee store, later working my way up to become the

store’s Women’s Accessories Team Lead. In my role as the Women’s Accessories Team Lead, I

worked alongside the Women’s Accessories Team Manager on studying the new inspiration

prior to the start of a new season, executing floor resets with our team to bring the new

inspiration and concepts to life, and working closely with our Women’s Accessories Associates,

who each specialized in an individual category within the women’s accessories division.

3) Describe the situation. (see the Canvas instructions for details, especially about how your

situation will be analyzed from five different perspectives over the next five modules)

The situation I found myself in relating to the organization was an interview process. In

total, the process itself lasted just over a month. The first stage of this situation took place on

January 3, 2016, when I had received an email from a woman named Portia Wilson. She was, at

the time, the senior talent recruiter for URBN and was reaching out to me regarding a position

which had been available for a couple of months at that point. The position was Social Media

Coordinator for the Urban Outfitters’ Men’s Instagram account, which is a position I had seen

myself pursuing for a few years because it combined two areas of my expertise: photography and

community building. I emailed her back that evening, and we had scheduled a phone call for the

next day at ten in the morning. The call went well enough that it led to a Skype interview the

following week with another woman named Rachel Albright, who held a major role in the

brand’s creative department. My interview with Rachel had gone well enough that I was then

asked to visit their headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I would have a round of
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interviews in one afternoon. My trip to Philadelphia was a week and a half after my interview

with Rachel, which permitted me plenty of time to overthink and stress about the upcoming

interviews. Once I had landed, I had to hit the ground running. I landed at 11:45 in the afternoon

on a Tuesday, arrived at the headquarters by 12:30, was taken on a tour of the office building I

would be working out of, was even shown a workspace I would have if I landed the job, and was

brought to their community space where I had five interviews from 1 until 4:30 in the afternoon.

I had the honor of meeting with a generous handful of incredibly talented people; those of whom

worked on the higher end of the corporate ladder to those who worked in other departments

outside of social media, as well as a couple of people who I would be working alongside of if

given the position. I left the next day and was given the task to prepare any questions for my next

interview, which would be held with the Creative Director of Urban Outfitters the following

Wednesday via Skype. The meeting with her lasted all of about fifteen minutes, and by then I

had a feeling I would not be given the opportunity to pursue this role I was so hoping to obtain.

That Friday, I was contacted by Portia, who had informed me that, due to my lack of a college

degree because I was still, in fact, in college at the time, they would not be pursuing me as a

candidate for the position. While the news certainly put a damper on my spirits, I was not totally

discouraged to keep pursuing what I am still so passionate about.

After being told I would not be working at the headquarters of Urban Outfitters, I found

myself in yet another interesting situation. On March 1, 2016, I started my first day of work as a

Sales Associate at the Urban Outfitters store located within downtown Nashville. The first

couple of months were somewhat of a challenge, as it is for anyone starting a new job; figuring

out the flow of an average business day at the store, achieving a consistent work schedule,

getting on good terms with the management team, and finding a work ethic within the store
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which spoke naturally to me. A quote from our textbook which I found to be quite reminiscent of

this experience I faced, states, “First, organizations are complex. The behavior of the people who

populate them is notoriously hard to predict. Large organizations in particular include a

bewildering array of people, departments, technologies, strategies, and goals” (Bolman & Deal

2017, p. 32). A few months had passed by then and I had felt confidently enough to apply for a

newly available position at the store, which was Women’s Apparel Team Lead. After

interviewing for the position and not getting it, I decided to apply for another position which was

closely similar to the Women’s Apparel Team Lead. Only, it was for the Women’s Accessories

Team Lead. Luckily, this time, I was offered the role of Women’s Accessories Team Lead in

June and maintained the role until my departure from the company in November. I worked

primarily with the Women’s Accessories Team Manager, Andy, on understanding the vision and

inspiration for the seasons ahead. Along with Andy, I also worked closely with our Women’s

Accessories Team Coordinators, Kara, Jenay, and Jamila. Each coordinator was given the duty

and responsibility of working within a category of the women’s accessories division. The

categories ranged from beauty and skincare to jewelry to our selection of intimates. From

working with each coordinator, I helped ensure the work they had executed was cohesive and

aligned with the division’s overall inspiration and aesthetic. After our work was approved by

visual and other members of management, the maintenance work began to uphold the look we

had worked so hard to achieve for the duration of the season, which would only be a couple of

months. Although my time was short, the work ethic I gained from the situation is something I

still use to this day in my current role as a barista at Starbucks.

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References

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

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

URBN (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.urbn.com/our-brands/urban-

outfitters/about-us