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.

I have been with Starbucks Coffee Company for nearly five years now and I had started in
sophomore year of high school. I was a barista for 3 years and working part time and now
currently working as a shift supervisor for close to 2 years now. I am looking to further my
career with the company in management or the corporate world of the company. My situation
that was challenging for me was working alongside with my best friends and trying to balance a
personal friendship and professional friendship with them. I struggled to be their boss and friend
at the same time.

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

The ethics of Starbucks had influenced my situation by rooting back to their values and
beliefs. Starbucks has so many symbols that identify their brand including their green apron
which are associated with their third place and welcoming environment. My situation was ethical
since the reason that a supervisor cannot be close friends with a barista since they do not want
favoritism going on.

For the organization to keep a fair and honest company they need their teams to be treating
everyone with fairness. Ethical communities relate on how each of the frames come into play
with the situation. Starbucks has soul and values surrounding their company to keep their
mission statement alive.

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

Applying an ethical community as an alternative course of action regarding my situation

would be me trying to set a side my outside life within my workplace. I do not think I
handled the situation right as I should have told my boss how I was feeling on coaching my
friends and telling them what to do.

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 I would apply one of the ethical communities for an alternative course of action by
applying more of human resource frames and political. I needed the power to be able to feel
confident as a new boss at my job. I had to be able to put my sensitive side behind for me to
succeed for myself. I would probably think less of how others would feel since I was not
focused on myself which I really needed to be.

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

Since learning about ethics, I would challenge myself more to achieve my goal quicker
and more effectively. I think ethically it would be acceptable for me to reach out to my
friends and tell them how I was feeling. My friends would be understanding how I felt like
we had to change our relationship a bit to make my life easier working as their boss.

Since I was able to have ethics involved in this situation, I was having almost too much
compassion for my friends. I almost put aside my career goals just to protect my friends’
feelings. I would ethically approaches to talk to them, but make sure they knew I was taking the
position. As a leader I need to be able to handle conformation which I avoided when I was
dealing with this.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.).

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass