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

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

The situation that I will be analyzing in my PCA is that of a tough decision that had to be
made regarding the employment of two people. A new District Manager was hired and after the
hiring decision had been made it was found out that one of the locations that this new DM would
be covering had employed his niece as a barista. The difficulty was that we were unsure if this
would be a conflict of interest, or what our next steps would be if it were a conflict.

The relationship was determined to be a conflict and the barista was separated to eliminate
the conflict. My role in the organization is that of an internal District Manager and I was charged
with supporting the decision and communicating that to the barista and new District Manager.

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

My organization prides itself on being ethical, and as stated in the text, soul, and ethics are
intertwined (Bolman & Deal, 2021). All the decisions made in my organization take into
consideration the ethical impact. We have many ethical commitments globally and strive to make
a positive impact wherever we do business. With that being said, the ethical frames that
influenced my situation were the byproducts of the political and human resource frames. These
two frames of the ones that are most present within my organization.

To make the best ethical decision, the situation was looked at from both frames. The
organizational ethic of caring is what complicates the decision-making process. If we had just
been approaching the situation politically, justice would have required a quick decision based on
the potential conflict involved. However, when adding in the caring piece, we had to determine
not only what the best decision for the organization was, but also how would the individuals be
impacted. We did not feel it was ethical to simply remove these employees when they had no
involvement in the situation. In the end, there were many discussions, around how we could find
an ethical solution that would meet the needs of all. However, the political frame won in the end,
and we had to lean into justice. It would not have been right to allow a potential conflict despite
the ethical quandary involving the individuals.

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

In this situation I would have applied the ethical community of excellence through the
leadership contribution of authorship. Authorship involves trusting people to solve problems
and generate higher levels of motivation and solutions (Bolman & Deal, 2021). In this ethical
quandary, we could have utilized this approach and asked those involved to be personally
involved in this decision-making.

This alternative course of action would have increased the level of ownership Both parties
had in the outcome. In addition, it would have increased worker satisfaction as both parties
were directly involved in the deliberations. Regardless of the outcome, it would have
positively influenced the situation by allowing those affected to share opinions and
participate. This ethical approach would have allowed for additional collaboration and
efficiency in the situation and eliminated the excessively long decision-making period.

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

Now that I’ve learned more about the ethical communities, I would have leaned into the
human resource approach and continued to push caring. Caring presents itself within
organizations as compassion and concern for the needs and wishes of those within the
organization (Bolman & Deal, 2021) . Treating each member as family and using that as a
strength to unlock future, potential rather than something to be taken advantage of. This
challenges leaders to engage with their employees as people and have a realistic
understanding of the environment in which they create and the decisions they make.

The caring ethical community may not have changed the decision, but it would have
allowed me to fight for additional benefits. My one regret in this situation was not being able
to obtain a severance package for the employee let go. This two-year employee was in good
standing and had done nothing wrong. Terminating their employment with no severance did
not seem like an ethical decision to me. If we had put more thought into how to prioritize the
ethical outcomes for both employees, we could have shown our care through appreciation
and investment to the employee despite the decision being made.

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 Reference:

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (7th ed.). Wiley.