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.

CONFIDENTIAL
1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

During my third week in a temporary position as the Assistant Field Manager of

Operations for PSSC (Palm Springs South Coast) FO (Field Office) I ended up in a

conflict situation with one of my staff members, Larry.

At the beginning of our weekly Branch meeting, I received a phone call from

Larry in which he yelled obscenities at me and when I tried to reason with him, he

threatened to sue me and physically harm me. Larry was extremely upset that my email

and phone message regarding an exit interview meeting had been sent while he was on

PTO; notification was sent to his work email and voicemail was left on his desk phone in

the office. Larry felt that I was being disrespectful by contacting him during his time off,

which infuriated him. I tried to mitigate the situation but he was not willing to

compromise, he felt I was being condescending. Larry wanted to see me scared, humiliate

me, and punish me for contacting him regarding a work issue while he was on PTO.

Since I had him on speaker phone and my camera and audio on the computer was turned

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 on for the meeting, the entire staff heard his screaming and threats. Through the entire

rant, I knew I had to hold my composure.

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

What led to the conflict between Larry and myself. I believe the lack of support

for Larry’s former supervisor by the Field Manager. Additionally, Larry suffered no

consequences for his previous behavior to other females in the office. I will note that the

entire organization does not condone this type of behavior by the Field Manager or Larry.

Prior to me coming onboard, the staff was already disgruntled at managements

track record; specifically Larry. According to his previous Supervisor, she informed me

that for the past two years Larry had been threatening her that he would quit immediately

or sue her. He refused to be given direction from her and felt that he did not need to keep

her inform of his progress with work assignments. She also confided in me that on one

particular occasion, Larry arrived at the office, after being off-site at one of our recreation

areas, demanding to speak to her. She was currently conducting a meeting with the

managers when he burst through the door and proceeded to threaten her. Our Law

Enforcement rangers had to come diffuse the situation.

In my situation, unbeknown to me, while I was trying to gather my composure of

what had just happened, my staff had immediately notified our Field Manager. When I

received the Field Manager’s phone call, at first I assumed that the he was calling to

check on me and show me support, I was wrong. He reminded me that this was a 62-

year-old man who was a few days from retiring and once retired he would be out of our

hair. If I decided to move forward with a grievance, then I would be interacting with

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 Larry for more than just a few days; he stressed it could be years. The Field Manager

acknowledged that Larry had a history of disrespecting female supervisors, but he

assured me he was harmless. I on the other hand believed otherwise. I was given the

choice to not attend the exit interview, I chose to attend. During the exit interview,

Larry’s attitude was very different toward the male managers (Field Manager and

Assistant Field Manager of Resources); it was an attitude of respect. When he spoke to

me, his tone was pleasant with an undertone of disdain and disrespect or as we learned in

Chapter 8, “an unconscious level of “hot” cognition.”

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

Larry was two month from retiring, when I became his supervisor. For that

reason, I do not believe that any of the lessons learned in all three chapters would be

helpful in my relationship with him. As a good ol’ boy, Larry was too set in his ways to

attempt to improve himself. Furthermore, he lacked the ability to handle his emotions

within a group.

However, for the purpose of this lesson I will assume he was not retiring. In

formulating an alternative course, my first approach would be to have everyone in my

staff take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This would give me a better understanding of

each staff members personality. I believe it would cut down on confusion and frustration

from myself and the staff. While at the same time, create better interpersonal

relationships. Years ago I took this thest and discovered that I am an ENTJ (extroverted,

intuitive, thinking, judging). Since then, I make a conscious decision to not be so quick to

judge. I can’t say I have mastered this, but I am still a work in progress.

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

As I reflect further on the situation, I realize that Larry was extremely dissatisfied

with female interpersonal relationships; one of Herzberg’s hygiene factors. Although

Larry was satisfied that he was doing meaningful work, he felt that the campground he

managed could not survive without him. He believed that his status was so important to

the office that he was indispensable and above all the females. As I read Model I of

Lurking, it gave me a better of understanding of Larry’s assumptions and how those

assumptions lead to his attempts to influence me.

Looking back, during that time I don’t think I would do anything differently

because I didn’t have the tools that I have acquired through my learning here at ASU.

However, if I had known Lurking’s Model l, I would communicate openly to Larry about

my personal medical situation (common interest). After analyzing Larry’s behavior, I

came to realize that Larry was extremely concern with his wives medical issues; she had

been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This concern was crossing over to his work life

and he did not know how to separate the two. In addition, he felt that nobody understood

what he and his wife were going through. During his phone call in the situation, he did

mention that I did not know how it felt to have a serious medical condition in which you

could die within the year. Actually I did know how it felt because I was going through

something similar. He and my staff were unaware that I was in stage 5 of Renal Failure.

Two years earlier I had been diagnosed with a rare form of Chronic Kidney Disease and

was on a nightly home dialysis; my kidneys were function at less than 5%. I would like to

think that if I had opened up to Larry about my situation, he probably would have been a

more agreeable person to me.

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 Reference

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

leadership (7th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.