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.

My role with Salad and Go was Assistant Store Manager. Some of my responsibilities were

to lead shifts, ensure goals regarding speed, labor, and accuracy were being met, and develop

team members into more experienced roles. The situation that I would like to discuss is how I

navigated the transition from working with one Store Manager to a different one. The person

who was replacing the current store manager was an external hire which was rare for the

company at the time. This was a challenge for me because I had to get accustomed to this

person’s style of leadership while also training him how to properly follow store operations.

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

The ethics of the organization influenced the situation as the organization holds its

employees to certain standards to ensure that they are making ethical decisions. For example,

there are certain goals that stores have to meet each month regarding speed, labor, and accuracy

and there are specific practices to be followed to make sure that these goals are being met in an

ethical manner. As the assistant manager, it was my responsibility to make sure that I was

holding my team members accountable for making good ethical decisions. I had to teach the

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Store Manager the correct way of reaching these goals as well. Coming from a different

organization, this could be difficult at times because he was not used to Salad and Go’s practices.

The company also has a good reputation for following ethical standards which played a part

in the situation because it makes the organization an employer of choice. Because of that, when

the organization finally opened up management positions for external hires, many applicants

came from other restaurants where the work environments were toxic. The new Store Manager

was one of these candidates. For this reason, there were bad habits that he had learned from his

previous organization thar needed to be broken when he joined Salad and Go. This made for a

difficult transition because we would often disagree on how tasks should be completed.

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

For an alternative course of action in this case, I would apply apsects from The Factory

community to this situation. This is because Salad and Go relies on efficiency to operate

successfully. As discussed in the text, it is important for members at every level to be committed

to the organization’s vision in order for excellence and efficiency to be achieved (Bolman &

Deal, 2021, p. 416). Because of this, I think that Salad and Go can benefit from implementing

more practices that increase autonomy throughout the organization. This could be something like

a company-wide event where employees from all departments can join together and learn about

the company’s vision and culture. Employees can network and learn about each others’ roles in

the organization. This would not only help align employees to the company’s mission but it

would also create more transparency between departments. This would also give employees an

opportunity to build relationships with one another.

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 Implementing an event like this would provide an alternative course of action for this case as

it would help increase morale within the stores. This would improve the situation it would help

team members and most importantly leaders to understand the importance behind the

organization’s vision. If the leader does not see the value of the vision it can influence the team

members to not be invested as well. This leads to poor decision-making from the whole team

which can negatively impact the organization. This is what occurred in the situation. The Store

Manager did not see meaning in the company’s vision and it affected the morale and motivation

of the team. If the company invests more in ensuring that their leaders are committed to the

organization, there may have been a different outcome.

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

Based on what I have learned from this frame, I would have had more honest conversations

with the Store Manager about the importance of having a good attitude about the vision of the

organization. Honesty is important ethical behavior as it creates transparency in the work place.

Conflict cannot be resolved unless two people take the time to acknowledge the problem and

openly share their feelings with one another. Looking back on the situation, I realized that I was

trying to move past the problem in hopes that it would resolve itself. The Store Manager was

constantly talking about being promoted so I figured that I would not have to put up with the

issue for much longer. When he did not end up getting the promotion, the issues still remained. If

I initially was honest about how I felt about his leadership style and his attitude towards the

organization’s vision, I could have worked with him to develop a solution earlier on.

As discussed in the chapter, according to Bolman and Deal (2021), “structure matters but is

not always sufficient for leadership success” (p. 347). At the time, I was very focused on the

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operations of the store more so than connecting with the new Store Manager. I have come to

learn that structure alone does not lead to success. Building relationships is just as important as it

can assist a leader in to appeal to their followers’ needs and desires. From this situation, I have

learned that it is important to balance focusing on structural processes and building connections

with my colleagues. I will use this approach in the future if I encounter a situation similar to this

one.

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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