OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and the 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.

SEMI-CONFIDENTIAL
1) Name and describe your organization.

The organization I am choosing for my Personal Case Analysis is a medical eye

clinic I will call “BDP”.
Note: While a quick Google search may reveal the official name of the organization, I am
choosing to leave that out for semi-confidentiality (and to avoid potential search engine
hits once I publish my Electronic Portfolio).
BDP has many locations throughout Arizona, and they provide eye care services
such as measuring for glasses, cataract surgery, refractive eye surgery, and treatment for
many diseases of the eye.
The structure of the organization was that of a hierarchical nature—there were C-
Suite executives (an ever-expanding list of more than I could count), Directors, and
Managers—none of which had patient-facing roles. There was also a hierarchy amongst
the staff that worked directly with the patients: Doctors, Nurses, Team Managers, Team
Leads, and Technicians. In general, the Technicians did the bulk of the work for patient
testing, and provided the results to the Doctor for analysis and treatment.
We worked in teams, usually assigned to one of five specialists in our division.
For instance, I was on the Retina Team, so I primarily worked with one of our five retina
specialists (and would occasionally fill in for other retina clinics as needed). We traveled
to all of the locations across Arizona with our assigned physician, bringing specialty
retina care to patients all over the state.

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

My role at BDP was a Senior Retina Technician. I spent 12 years with the
company, but had a total of 20 years experience working in various sectors of eye care. I
worked primarily as an angiography camera operator, providing critical testing

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 information for the retina specialists. I worked closely with the nurses to intraveinously
administer a fluorescein dye, which would highlight any pathology in the blood vessels of
the retina (the tissue in the back wall of the eye that provides visual signals/images to the
brain). The testing I did was essential in diagnosing vision-threatening diseases of the
retina, and helped guide treatment options and efficacy for the physician.
I also participated in other general testing and work-up processes for the patients,
assisted in retina micro-surgery, and was often the “go-to” technician for onboarding and
training new employees.

3) Describe the situation, including information you think the will help the reader
understand the most important elements of the situation. (This will require
selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the
mass of information that might be included).

The situation I will cover in my Personal Case Analysis revolves around the
Covid-19 pandemic, and how it impacted our lives and jobs as members of the healthcare
community. Specifically, the challenges brought forth from a worldwide supply chain
shortage—leaving us ill-equipped for patient care and employee safety, while continuing
to work through an unfolding pandemic.
Like a lot of folks during the early stages of the pandemic, there was a lot of
uncertainty on how to navigate this invisible, deadly force that was becoming more
frightening by the day. When the severity of the situation became clear, C-suite
executives worked from home, “non-essential” workers were furloughed, and “critical”
or “essential” workers were issued minimal basic personal protective equipment (PPE)
and told to keep coming to work. Upper management told the retina team that we had to
keep working, but called us “family” and “heroes” for doing so (even though we were
given very little choice).
In his Ted Talk, “Perspective is Everything”, Rory Sutherland (2011) notes that
oftentimes the same situation is “rebranded” with different words or terminology, but
essentially means the same thing. Calling our job as retina technicians “essential” and
“critical” was a way of reframing the dangers we were asked to endure in our patient-
facing roles.
While we understood the importance of continuing treatment for our retina
patients, we also felt ethically torn: If we refused to work, patients would go without
vision-saving treatments and procedures (such as injectable medications that stop retinal
vessel bleeding or retinal detachment repair). If we chose to keep working, we put
ourselves and our families at risk for exposure to a virus that was killing people all over
the world.
Bolman & Deal (2021) refer to this family-centric view of the work team as
Human Resource Framing. We felt insecure about our health and safety, and we were

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 forced to work abbreviated hours to minimize exposure. While others were furloughed
and safe at home, we faced exposure to a deadly virus. We were told our presence was
necessary because of how “critical” we were to operations. We were left with very little
choice but to keep showing up at work in a patient-facing job—exposing ourselves to the
dangers of the virus, all while having shortened work hours (and, subsequently, less pay)
to do so.
Bolman & Deal (2021) also note the complexity of organizations, and that
changing systems, technologies, and people can add to the already-challenging
environment. The world around us changed by the day, and we struggled to keep up with
each new rule, regulation, and restriction presented by the changing environment.
Even though we worked in the healthcare sector, Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) such as gloves and masks went to hospitals first, before filtering to specialty clinics
like ours. In the hierarchical structure of our organization, the PPE we did receive first
went to the on-site managers and doctors as it trickled in. Regular on-the-ground patient-
facing staff got PPE last. I, personally, had to wear the same N95 mask for an entire
month before being supplied with another.
We also had a revolving door of shortages of medications for retinal diseases,
cleaning supplies, syringes (once vaccines were developed), and staff—on any given day,
each team of 5 workers was short 1 to 2 persons due to Covid illness or exposure.
During this Personal Case Analyis, I will be covering the major points of
frustration and uncertainty brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. I will discuss how
our corporate structure contributed to the challenges we faced, how limited resources
affected everyone involved, the ethical quandaries presented, and the takeaways that had
a lasting effect on BDP operations.

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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.

Sutherland, R. (2011, December). "Perspective is Everything" Ted Conferences. Retrieved from

Ted.com: https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything