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.

The situation that I am currently examining is the cancellation of flights back in

December of 2022 with Southwest Airlines. I was traveling home to see my family for

Christmas for 4 days until I realized that 4 days was turing into 10 days. As I went to go

check my flight status to ensure that there were not any delays, I found myself looking at

a canceled flight. Not understanding what was going on or being able to get on the next

flight out, I was beginning to panic due to needed to be at work the next day. All the

customer service lines were down as well as the app beginning to fail. I decided to pack

my bags and head on over the the airport to try and speak to an agent. When I finally was

ablet to speak to someone, she had informed me that due to winter storms I would not be

able to leave till the next flight out on Firday. Being 15 hours away, I had no other option

then to head back home with my family and wait till Friday. Although I got an extended

vacation with my family, I knew that there were many families stuck in different cities

with lost baggage and no place to stay other than a hotel. My focus is to understand as a

customer, what happened and how Southwest’s organzition structure created this

problem.

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

Ethics of Southwest Airlines influenced the situation by utilizing the soul of the

company. “At Southwest, soul and the Southwest spirit are shared throughout the

company” (Bolman & Deal, 2021). Due to this, the airline was able to be consistent at

each airport that was affected throughout the United States. CEO also stated that “When

they are authentic and part of everyday life, such core ideologies, love at Southwest,

gives a company soul” (Bolman & Deal, 2021). During the airlines numerous

cancellations, the love that Southwest was trying to provide as well as it still trying to

provide is what brings the ethical soul out in the company. Even if families were highly

stressed and understandably upset, they still ensured that every moment was made right

for their customers.

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

If I had to apply one of the ethical communities for an alternative course of action,

I would choose the temple of faith and significance. “In organizations, faith is

strengthened if individuals feel the organization is characterized by excellence, caring,

and justice (Bolman & Deal, 2021). For this situation, excellence of the airline was put at

risk and customers saw that. For an airline that is in top three most profitable, we need to

be realigning what excellence looks like. Ensuring that no matter what, a crisis like this

will not happen again and instead the airline will envision what excellence looks like to

faith in human possibility.

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

After completing this chapters reading and analyzing Southwest’s ethical frame, I

don’t think I would do anything differently other than ensure that excellence is a main

factor in the root cause analysis. “Work is exhilarating and joyful at its best arduous,

frustrating, and exhausting in less happy moments” but never losing sight of the

organization’s soul is going to be key in crisis’s like these (Bolman & Deal, 2021).

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 Reference

Bolman, Lee G., and Terrence E. Deal. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership. Jossey-Bass, 2021.