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 job within Beach Life Fitness Boutique is administrative assistant, where my main
tasks are housekeeping, confirming payments, creating social media content, and managing our
cryotherapy service. To expand, in terms of housekeeping, I do tasks such as refilling towels
and water in each unit, and I also make sure that our pilates reformers are reset after each
class. I also utilize software that is in place to go through our schedules for the week to ensure
payments are processed correctly. This also includes charging members for unpaid bills. In
terms of social media, I assist our office manager in creating informational instagram posts.
Lastly, I am in charge of managing our localized cryotherapy machine, which consists of
marketing the service, scheduling the service, and administering the service.

The situation that I am choosing to focus on is a conversation that I had with Danielle,
the owner of the business. I am fairly new to working at Beach Life Fitness Boutique, so this is
the most significant event that I have encountered thus far. For context, I spent two months
interning for free at the business, gaining experience and information. We treated this as a trial
period for all parties to see if it was a good fit. My situation happened after this trial period, when
Danielle and I sat down to discuss payment and availability moving forward. There were two
large differences in the expectations that we each approached the conversation with.

I was hoping to work the same hours of my internship at $21 an hour. She wanted to
change my schedule to very different hours and at $16 an hour, which is slightly above minimum
wage here in California. We discussed our reasonings for our expectations and actively listened
to one another. I was initially very stressed, because I am a full time student so I could not be
very flexible with the hours, but I need an income at the moment. Ultimately, we compromised
with me coming in for the hours that I preferred, with the pay that she could afford. We agreed to
follow up after 90 days to see what modifications can be made to benefit each party more.

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

Ethics played a large role both in my response to the situation and the owner’s response
as well. Even though Danielle, the owner and I had different goals entering this interaction, we
share similar values, which is one of the causes for our positive outcome. Beach Life Fitness
Boutique has one thing above all else- soul. Their soul is the reason why their community came
together and actually gained more business during the pandemic. Their soul is the reason why
every employee comes in smiling and dreads leaving. Their soul is what convinced me that this
was a job worth compensating for.

This is important within the topic of ethics because “Ethics ultimately must be rooted in
soul: an organization’s commitment to deeply rooted identity, beliefs, and values.” (Boleman &
Deal, pg. 420, 1991). Although Beach Life Fitness Boutique may have its downfalls in margins,
scheduling, and organization, it absolutely strives in soul and ethics. If any member of our staff
or clientele feel wronged or uncomfortable, it is taken care of. Danielle, the owner, is wearing
neon prints and patterns every single day with a loving smile on her face. This type of soul is
infectious and is the reason why our conversation went into the direction that it did.

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

One alternative course of action that could have occurred would have been the result of a
formal HR department. Since Beach Life Fitness Boutique is such a small business, there is no
human resources to go to in a formal manner. Had this been an option, my situation would have
been much more clear from the very beginning. Currently, Beach Life Fitness Boutique relies on
the owner to handle the hiring process, pay agreements, and more serious conflicts. The office
manager is responsible for the everyday questions and concerns. While the lack of a human
resource department does not take away from the ethics, soul, or values of the company, it can
lead to some confusion and discrepancies in the experiences of the employees.

Having designated people for human resources is important to the health of an

organization, especially in regards to ethics. Human resource management can improve decision
making, guidance, communication, and uncomfortable finance-based conversations, (Gordon,
2021). If I had this tool, I feel as though I may have pushed for higher pay or asked for a clearer
path for when a pay raise would happen. During our conversation, a lot of decisions were being
made as we went. Finances were visited, and the opinions of staff were given in regards to the
situation. This is not inherently negative, but more preparedness and organization may have
taken stress off of both of our shoulders.

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

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 I feel strongly that I made decisions that coincided with my own values during this
situation. Therefore, I would not have changed much if I had the opportunity to. If anything, I
believe that my new understanding of ethics within organizations has made me feel better about
my decisions during the situation. Even though there are flaws within my negotiation skills and
within the organization itself, we both value the idea of having a family within the workplace,
which meant there was love and respect for one another. Although love is not a requirement for a
successful workplace, after finding Beach Life Fitness Boutique, I decided that it was a
requirement for myself to have.

If I were to make any change, perhaps it would be that I would have appreciated the
attention and care that I was receiving in the moment, as opposed to being stressed and slightly
frustrated. Compared to many other organizations, I was being heard and my opinions were
being taken very seriously. It was not until learning more about organizational ethics that I
realized, “Love is largely absent from most modern corporations. Most managers would never
use the word in any context…” (Boleman & Deal, pg. 416, 1991). This claim made me
remember why I chose to work here in the first place. The word love is said every single day and
people greet one another with enthusiasm no matter how frequently they see each other. Overall,
it is a happy, bright place to work and I am so grateful to have experienced it, regardless of what
comes out of our next meeting.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L., & Deal, T. E. (1991, September 6). Reframing Organizations, 7th edition.
https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-481-org-leadership-pro-seminar-i-2024-spring-a-753
029498/_/dashboard/assignments/7jhNm6R9PFdcxfXR9

Gordon, C. (2023, November 5). Importance of ethics in human resource management. HR

Lineup. https://www.hrlineup.com/importance-of-ethics-in-human-resource-management/