OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the four ethical communities
2. Apply the ethical communities to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

To summarize, I was working as a host for the restaurant Yard House when a couple walked
in who hadn’t ever dined with Yard House before. I tour-guided the menu for them and
afterward they decided to get a table. A few moments later, their server Seth approached me at
the host stand and made a very racist and disrespectful remark about the couple. I was so
infuriated by the comment but never got the chance to correct Seth. Instead, while fighting back
tears, I informed the general manager who made the ultimate decision to fire Seth and let Human
Resources handle the rest. I learned a lot from the situation but do think I handled it as best I
could in the heat of the moment. Although, I was not prepared for the responses I received from
my coworkers afterward regarding the incident.
2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

a. The main reason why I continued to work for Yard House for almost 4 years was
because of the ethics of the organization. They had very clear values and a direct
mission statement, supporting inclusion and equality. They also created a diverse
work environment with employees from all walks of life. In terms of their ethics,
there are many decisions regarding ethics that CEOs, general managers, trainers,
etc have to make every day in a restaurant because the customers also come from
all walks of life and should each be treated with respect, as well as, the
employees.

b. If Yard House was not clear on their ethical standards in my eyes, the outcome of
the situation may have been much different. I am not sure if I would have trusted
the managers to handle the situation accordingly if their ethical decision making
standards were not up to par with my own. Although, luckily I had plenty of hope
in the management to make an ethical decision and relieve Seth of his job.

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

1
 “If people have a sense of efficacy and an ability to influence their world, they are more
likely to direct their energy and intelligence toward making a contribution rather than
making trouble” (Bolman & Deal, 2017p.394). As a trainer within Yard House I should
have made the organization’s ethics more apparent in my training so people like Seth
might question their decisions to be discriminatory towards others. There is no reason for
myself or other trainers to feel as if our voice doesn’t matter when training when we
obviously were given those positions for a reason.

The best course of action would have been to use justice and power during training to
prepare people for the type of repercussions that may come from discriminatory actions
against employees or customers.

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

Once again, there is not much I could have or would have done differently in this situation as it
was handled in a way that Seth could hopefully learn from his decision, while also relieving him
of his job. Although, as mentioned in my other worksheets, the response I got from my
coworkers did upset me quite a bit and could have been dealt with better.

Once some of the staff members learned that Seth was fired and why, more people began coming
forward, recalling statements of other racism remarks Seth had made in the past. I realized that
even though I trusted my fellow managers and their ability to make ethical decisions, that was
not the same for all of my coworkers. They stated that they feared Seth would find out that they
“tattled” and would confront them. I explained this to my managers and explained that they
needed to be clear with their standards and values with everyone in the restaurant so everyone
had faith in their decisions and discretion.

Reference or References