PCA-Choosing an Organization

1) Describe your organization.

The organization I chose to study for this course is the Arizona Humane Society (AHS),

an animal welfare organization. The Arizona Humane Society is a nonprofit/501c3 that focuses

on helping homeless pets in the community, primarily on the sick and injured pets in Arizona

and, sometimes, outside of Arizona. For AHS to remain operational, they offer various services

ranging from veterinary care, pet training, adoptions, and grant funding. Like most nonprofits,

they receive donations from the community – money and goods. An essential ability within

animal welfare is to change and focus on how to enrich the lives of both the pets and the people –

internally and externally. Change helps ensure new ideas and ways of doing things are considered

and implemented to help provide the best care for pets and employees and that the community

supports the organization's direction. The Arizona Humane Society is a major champion for

change, and the organization's core values are innovation, compassion, and excellence (Our

Mission, 2023). By living up to the core goals, the organization has introduced various programs

to help save more lives, new processes, and procedures to ensure an excellent experience for the

employees, customers, and supporters. By living up to these values, the organization continues to

gain more support which, in turn, allows the opportunity to continue saving lives! Without the

support of the community and those passionate about pets, AHS would not be able to fulfill the

lifesaving initiatives for pets, and they would not be able to provide additional support to the

community.

2) Describe how Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).

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 My role in the organization is internal, as I am the off-site adoptions and retail supervisor.

I help oversee a small adoption facility, one retail store, and an e-commerce website. While I

have various responsibilities, some of my top priorities include creating and implementing

strategies that help grow and increase revenue for our e-commerce and retail store, along with

increasing pet adoptions at our off-site location. I am responsible for hiring, onboarding, and

training new pet adoption specialists, retail specialists, and volunteers. I also ensure all training

manuals and standard operating procedures are current and updated as needed. Next, I am

responsible for researching, purchasing, and tracking all retail and operational merchandise that

generates revenue and ensures operational readiness. Lastly, I support the adoption manager in

implementing new initiatives, policies, and programs.

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 have decided to study more about throughout this course is when the

organization decided to move forward with a rebrand in November 2021. This was a highly

impactful event because all the departments needed to launch the new logo and because it was

unknown how the community and employees would feel about it. When the organization decided

it was time for the rebrand, the executive team created a team of individuals with experience in a

specific area. It can help execute the needs and requirements of launching the logo. This is where

I come in! I was asked to be a part of the rebranding committee and serve in the uniform

department. This was because of my experience and expertise in ordering uniforms for the

organization. While rebranding was highly impactful, so was my role, as it allowed me to

understand various areas, project management, moving an organization forward, teamwork, time

management, and so much more. My role on the uniform team provided some obstacles as there

were a few risks that needed to be taken more seriously, and we needed to problem-solve a

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 solution appropriately. The committee for the rebrand met weekly, and during the weekly

meetings, we would discuss specific successes and setbacks in our department. Deciding on

uniforms was difficult because the supply chain was a significant issue the team lead should have

considered. Despite meeting and discussing our success and setbacks, the supply chain needed to

be pushed to the side.

Also included in the rebrand was the launch of our new e-commerce websites. Because I

am the retail supervisor, the launch of the e-commerce website was a project given to me. This

was an impactful yet challenging situation as there were a variety of challenges that came into

play. Since the retail website fell into my domain, I was responsible for the creation and launch of

the website at the same time the organization launched the new main website and at the same

time, we launched the new logo. This was exciting; however, the challenges and obstacles that

occurred were a lack of communication with my director regarding a specific responsibility, a

timeline of due dates or milestones, and a need to specify who was responsible for creating the

webpage. With a lack of clarification, it did leave me to believe that all responsibility for the

creation and timeline of the project was up to me despite my efforts to obtain more information.

So, I started working on the website, only to find that website design was not my responsibility. I

needed to ask the right questions to help break away from what I believed to be my role (Bolman

& Deal, 2021, pg. 13). Asking questions such as can you help me determine who is responsible

for website design? Or how can we work together to move this project forward? Asking the right

questions can eliminate the unknown and lessen ambiguity.

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 References:

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Our Mission & Values (2023). Arizona Humane Society, retrieved from https://www.azhumane.org/our-

mission-values/.