OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource frame 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.

The current situation I want to describe is on my current project where the client

has asked us to start work without an IFC’d (issued for construction) design package. A

quick note about construction and the design drawings are that there are 4 parts,

Schematic Design (SD), Design Development (DD), Construction Documents (CD), and

Issued for Construction (IFC). As a rule of thumb, you do not start work until the final

design (IFC) is issued for construction by the engineer to avoid any issues with changes

in the design.

One of my key roles is to review drawings as early as possible to identify the

material that is needed for the scope of work. I will also identify any long lead items

based on the historical date of material deliveries and reach out to our contractor and

vendors for lead times. Doing so helps our team build and adjust the schedule

accordingly. As each package is issued for construction, I identify any changes in the

design and log the risk. I then take the changes and risk to the owner so that the risk is

captured and change orders can be issued for the change. As one can imagine, this gets

expensive quickly. Thankfully, we are avoiding a lot of issues by reviewing previous

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 packages, spec requirements, and collaborating with the owner directly to ensure that

there are minor changes to the design between CD and IFC.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

One way human resources has influenced the situation is when it comes to the

relationship between the owner, the employees, and the organization. I think that our

company has been able to manage the human side (human needs) of this stressful project

by providing job security, social belonging, and safety. Our leadership are the individuals

who run our human resources and with that, they are open to listening to any suggestions

that employees may have. I think that they have done a good job controlling the situation

through the use of support and making sure that each person’s needs are being met when

it comes to satisfaction on the job. While the job is incredibly stressful at times, they are

good at bringing the team together to discuss concerns and ways to improve the current

process that are implemented.

         The leadership team also takes into consideration the customer and how we can

produce a desired outcome or improve our company’s performance. One thing I would

like to add about this situation is that this is our only project that we have started to build

without a complete design. Knowing that there are several risks and challenges, there is

also great growth potential for employees. Our organization has taken this into

consideration and makes sure the people are being trained and rewarded for their efforts.

This helps with overall job satisfaction. One final thing that allows us to be successful

throughout this situation is our ability to have self-managing teams that are capable of

taking on and completing work without the help of senior management.

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 3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

One recommendation I would make to the human resources side is making sure

we hire the right people for the job. There have been a few instances throughout this

project where we must hire staff augmentee employees to help staff the project and the

individuals have not always been the right people for the job. Sometimes they lack the

expertise or simply overworked due to not knowing the demands of the job. While I do

believe this also falls onto our company for not meeting the needs of those individuals.

         Another alternative I would like to see is in how we cater to the client given the

situation. I think that we could be better at shedding risk to the owner and knowing what

is in our contractual agreements as these are large documents and it’s not easy to know

what is in it. I think having a better understanding of the documents can help with

negotiating with the client and it would also help train employees on how this particular

contract is set up.

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

One thing I would like to see is our organization to focus on the interpersonal

dynamics of people. More simply put, focusing on the relationships and behaviors of

people and how they affect the current situation. There are some team members that do

not work as well together as they should and that’s going to happen anywhere. But I think

leadership can do a better job of identifying these issues to help with retention and help

foster better relationships with the customer.

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 One human resource frame I would like to add is dealing with people who feel

vulnerable and put-up self-defense mechanisms. For example, it is easy to miss

something when it comes to buyout, meaning a piece of scope was missed and now it will

come out of the company’s pocket to pay for the miss. This usually happens when there

is an RFI and it was a miss on the design team. People are quick to defend themselves

and place blame. I would like to implement the “skilled incompetence” getting the design

team to understand their mistake and that it is okay, they are working with an accelerated

schedule and mistakes will happen (Boleman & Deal, 2021). All too often I see people

placing blame and wanting so and so company to pay for the cost when there could have

been multiple reasons for the miss and that sitting down and identifying the issues and

working through it first is more practical than pointing fingers.

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 Reference
Bolman G. L., & Deal T. (2021) Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice, and Leadership 7th
Edition. Published by Jossey-Bass