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 have chosen for this case study will be one that I have experienced in
my own store during the time at Starbucks in Colorado.Our store was capable of training
Assistant Store Managers, so they eventually can become a manager at their own store.
There was an ASM at our store a few months ago, and she was all trained within three
months, and went on to have her own store. As time went on, our store manager decided
that it was time for her to do her own family thing, which meant that she would have to
move to another town, and no longer be our manager. At this time, our store needed
another manager to fill the role, as our current manager was leaving. As I mentioned
before, the ASM we trained at our store had left, but ended up coming back and taking
the spot for our current store manager. This was all a win win, because we loved to have
the trained ASM back!

As things started to progress with this new transition, not everything was smooth.
I started to hear some things that I didn't think would arise, but it's something that was
noticeable. At this point, our new manager started to lose sight of work quite quickly, and
for sure not in the right path of success for the store overall. This relationship that was
started to form between a worker and the new manager needed to be addressed quickly,
considering many members of the team came to me about this concern. This concern was
starting to affect not only me, but the entire team, and the team operation in the store. I
decided that out of respect and care for my team, I needed to address this issue in private,
in order to change some things going forward, and in the hope to stop this issue from
affecting the store, and the team. I went ahead and addressed this with the new manager,
and laid out the fact that something needs to change. This issue would be solved either by
transferring to neighboring stores, or simply end things completely. The manager was
very understanding in the wrong doing, and addressed what was all going on, so things
were all clear, with a great amount of apologies in the process. After a couple days, I

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 received a call from the District manager, and was asked about the conversation a couple
days prior, and was told that this was all going to be handled, and no concerns should be
left on me. This was a sense of relief considering I was just a barista at the end of the day,
who cared so much about the team. The district manager proceeded to transfer the
manager, in order to gain control of the team, and the damage that had been done already.
The transfer helped our store, and the help was all taken care of.

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

When it comes to Starbucks, the one thing we focus on is that “ we are more than just a
cup of coffee”. We want to protect and foster the relationships when it comes to the
partners and or customers we face every single day. The one example that I can say when
it comes to fostering and taking care of each other in this company, comes down to the
time of the pandemic, where things were all very unstable, which creates a great amount
of loops to get through. This all included the different steps and procedures that needed to
be taken in the aspects of putting team members' health as the highest priority, which was
a great challenge at times. It all started from the sanitation practices we had to enforce in
the store, to the call outs we would get every single day. it all came back to providing the
best possible product and service to the community during the hardest time as a world in
the same boat.

The ethics of this organization was the main thing that influenced the situation. Every
single decision that was made, was made because of the ethics of Starbucks as a
company. This process all stood and was managed in the right directions because , ‘those
with a voice in the decisions had the fairest ways to make the change, than those who did
not” ( Bolman & Deal). Meaning, Starbrukcs was making sure to listen to every single
partner, and make sure that those decisions were all reflected on the voices that were
spoken, and heard. Starbucks as a company did not fire and or let go of anyone, but
instead made sure that each team member had enough to eat, and be able to work the
house they needed during this time, but also provided the hours to stay at home, but still
get paid.

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

When it comes to the ethical side of things, there could be more options and alternative
routes taken, when it comes to balancing the workload on those that are still present and
the stores. There should be a sense of staying at home, and getting paid for those that
could not make it in, but there should be enough support for those that are still working at
each store. In this case, providing more help with the load of stress and the help in the

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 unstaffed stores. There are steps that can be taken when it comes to relocating some
members to other stores to support during some leaves of absence.

I feel like my organization dealt with these situations very well, especially when it
came to the community and the love and the support for the ones that needed the extra
care when they were not capable of making it. It's all about balancing the staff that is
available to the stores in the area, which may have more volume than others, but not
enough workers. It's all a balance that takes a great amount of effort and that is all seen.

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

I think looking back there is not much that could have been done, so overall its all great
things that were done. Its all about the extra support, but that is all seen, and understood
when it comes to the volume. Starbucks did the best they could to support the team
members and the community when it came to the service.

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 Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass