OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource frame 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.

Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The Lozenge Company or TLC is a small, specialized group in the United States Military
that is segregated away from the larger force for most of its operations. While TLC is
relatively small and numbers in the very low thousands, it’s still part of the US military
apparatus and falls under the overall leadership umbrella making it a section of a
multinational organization. TLC owns and controls a massive amount of physical
property, most of which is incredibly valuable. The organization is known for leadership,
logistical excellence, and rigid accountability.

The situation arose when a department with sensitive property began having subversive
issues between the new PM (Arizona) and the Assistant PM (Ohio) who was there prior,
and then grew to include a senior leader above all of us (Kentucky) as well as Kentucky’s
boss, Dominic. I had previously held the lead position in this department and was brought
back to oversee professional development of both Project Managers and to ensure the
stringent accountability standards of the department were being maintained. However, I
would be exiting the service entirely within a few months and could only control so much
for so long. Along the way I uncovered theft and other illegal behaviors from the
Assistant PM and alerted the leadership department above to the happenings with their
subordinates. The leadership that had brought me in to manage the situation turned a deaf
ear to my warnings, completed no investigation of their own and wound up with an
enormous issue down the road resulting in six figures worth of property loss.

Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

One of the major human resource influences was that it’s a military organization so the
emphasis is on what the individuals can do for the organization and explicitly not the
other way around. Everyone in the organization is a tool and is treated that way most of

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 the time rather than as a person. Because people are just tools and there’s a separation
from the feelings and nuance of humans and their needs, it’s easy to discard the thoughts
and opinions of other people depending on how you feel. In this situation the leadership
of Kentucky and Dominic (the senior leadership team) easily discarded what I was saying
because I must be a defective tool that was in essence giving a false reading. Nothing that
I was reporting had ever happened before and there was no precedent, so, I must be
wrong. From that point onward I suffered a significant amount of abuse from Kentucky
to squelch what I had reported upward as well as did Arizona who was still stuck in the
position with Ohio and Kentucky against them even after I had exited the situation and
service entirely.

Sadly, because of this behavior toward Arizona and myself, Arizona immediately began
seeking options to leave the position even though they were great. Shortly after I exited
the organization the situation devolved even further when the misdeeds of Ohio that I’d
brought to light previously were then thrust onto Arizona as the “responsible party” to
protect Kentucky and Dominic. Again, a person was treated as a tool, first as a broken
one and then as a convenient one to alleviate stress and culpability from the senior
leadership. It was a terrible situation because the organization known for leadership and
accountability did a horrible job at both and hung multiple PM’s out to dry to protect
others in the same organization.

Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

I would invest more trust in the people around me in the organization. “Managers rarely
face well-defined problems with clear-cut solutions” (Bolman et al., 2017), but everyone
in their position was there for a good reason and by distrusting their professional opinions
and findings, you diminish them as people and professionals. In this situation, at the very
least, I would have brought about an investigation into what my PM’s were saying
regarding the subversive behavior and theft until I got the answers I needed.

If the investigation had found nothing, I would have also lost nothing other than time
(and respect for the people making false accusations). However, if the investigation had
included the reporting individuals and then found truth in the accusations, it would have
prevented massive theft as well as established greater trust and communication between
myself as a leader and my staff/team. Even when people are in a situation that they’re
utilized as a tool, there is still a human dynamic that shouldn’t be dismissed by leaders as
it sets a terrible precedent on what to expect from you and the organization when things
go wrong.

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 Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else that could be done in the situation. I was
constrained by not only structure but also by actual individuals who I couldn’t possibly
bypass without targeted repercussion. The people above me had the relationships and
ability to do whatever they wanted inside the organization and because of that those
below them (me included) were at a significant disadvantage based on the
disproportionate power dynamic in interpersonal relationships of the leadership.

Knowing what I know today, I could have tried to appeal to Dominic in a different
fashion or privately pressed for a heavier response from them. However, I don’t think the
result would have been any different because of the fashion in which Dominic viewed us
as people and professionals which was to say not highly. Unfortunately for Dominic, he
would later pay the price (literally) for dismissing his team and their competencies in
favor of their friendship with Kentucky. Watching it all unfold from inside and out gave
me a masterclass on what happens when you dismiss a person outright because of
personal feelings.

Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Introduction: The Power of Reframing. In Reframing
organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. essay, Jossey-Bass, a John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
imprint.