OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

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

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation or HART, a semi-autonomous

agency of Hawaii’s government, is responsible for completing the Honolulu Rail Transit.
This project is supposed to be completed with a budget of $4 billion and end in 2022. The
original plan for the project is to build an above-ground rail system that is 24 miles long
going from Kapolei to Monoa on the island of Oahu, to minimize the traffic. But because
of internal and external problems surrounding the project, the project has accumulated
cost overruns of $12.4 billion in 2021 and is estimated to finish in 2033 with an
additional price tag of $11 billion. (Honore, 2020) It has also been shortened to a 20-
mile-long rail system that will stop at Ala Moana

I play an external role as a tax-paying citizen of Hawaii, I also live on Oahu and
am affected by traffic caused by the project. Because of the cost overruns and the
additional price tag to finish the project, the government needed to raise the General
Excise Tax or GET in Hawaii to get approval for federal funding, or else the project
would never be completed. Even if the project is completed on the island where I live, it
still won’t benefit me since I live on the other side of the island from the project.

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

There are 4 different ethical communities within an organization. There is the

frame, metaphor, organizational ethics, and leadership contribution. From an external
view of the situation, the HART organization is influenced by the political frame and the
significance of leadership contribution. For the political frame, the project was started by
the City and County of Honolulu but was heavily protested against. Because of the
protests and the petition to stop the rail, the project was put to a vote. Putting it to a vote
was able to give a false sense of control to the public, but the move was political in
nature. The rail was going to benefit the east side of the island that held the most
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 population, but the west side of the island won’t have easy access to the rail. So when it
came to a vote on Ohau island, it was able to pass with 54% approval, with a majority of
those votes coming from the east side of the island.

The significance of leadership contribution was also a factor that influenced the
situation. Honolulu has had one of the worst traffic in America in 2011, in 2013 Honolulu
was even ranked number 2 for having the worst traffic in the United States. The mayor of
the city used the Honolulu rail project to signify its mark in the city’s history. But now,
the city of Honolulu has dropped its rankings as one of the worst cities for traffic,
changing the significance of the rail from benefiting the community to burdening the
community.

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

The ethical community that I would use to alter the course of action regarding this
situation, would be the symbolic frame. It would be a long shot because of the different
perspectives that people have on this project, but to change the negative ethical start of
the project, it would probably better focus on the symbolism behind the rail. Currently,
rail is being viewed as a burden to the city, since it’s lost its value in easing the flow of
traffic.

To be able to gain its value it needs to symbolize progress and prosperity. Having
a positive symbolic frame for the project would ease the external stakeholders that are
being affected by the project. This would also boost morale within the organization by
having a belief that they are contributing to the city’s success. Having that boost of
morale would motivate the employees to be more productive with their time.

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

I always viewed ethics as a simple yet complicated aspect of an organization.

Simple because it follows the spirit of the culture that the organization follows which can
sometimes take a simple conscious thought to decide. It can also be complicated since
each individual has their perspective on the situation that is at hand, which creates
different ethical views that can make any decision the wrong decision depending on the
community.

Just like how organizations can be looked at from different frames simplify a
decision. The ethics of the organization can also be viewed in different communities. The
only thing I would do differently would be not to concentrate on the different frames of
the organization, but also view the ethical aspect of the organization.

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 References

About. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. (2022, March 10). Retrieved from
https://honolulutransit.org/about/

Au, L. (2008, October 19). Voters can derail $4B project. Voters can derail $4B project - Hawaii
News - Starbulletin.com. Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20100601215930/http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/
30935624.html

Au, L. (2008, November 10). Hawaii News Archive. StarBulletin.com. Retrieved from
http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20081110_Voters_on_route_drive_rail_victory

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Honore, M. (2020, April 11). How Honolulu lost its top ranking for the nation's Worst Traffic.
Honolulu Civil Beat. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/04/how-
honolulu-lost-its-top-ranking-for-the-nations-worst-traffic/