OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Understand the four ethical communities
2. Apply an ethical community 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.

In 2017, venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue acquired PizzaRev from Buffalo Wild
Wings, leading to significant challenges for PizzaRev in corporate culture and
management structures. Underlying turbulence in these areas had already led to the
closure of several underperforming stores before Cleveland Avenue's acquisition,
underscoring the company's difficulties adapting to structural changes. The
unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated these issues when government
regulations forced the temporary closure of all PizzaRev restaurants. The company's pre-
existing difficulty adapting to structural and organizational change became overwhelming
when faced with the added pressure of the pandemic's ever-changing bureaucratic
regulations, culminating in a shift in organizational structure that catalyzed PizzaRev's
ultimate downfall.

I held various roles within the organization for seven years, working my way up from an
entry-level associate to Shift Manager, Assistant Manager, General Manager, and,
eventually, District Manager. My responsibilities in that final role included overseeing
five store locations, communicating corporate policies, hiring and training General
Managers, ensuring compliance with regulations and corporate policies, and managing
promotional events. Having worked in all roles within the company, I acquired a unique
perspective on the organization's structure and weaknesses.

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

PizzaRev’s failures within each frame can all be traced back to underlying questionable
ethics. The organization was rooted in unstable values, ill-defined belief systems, and
unpredictable policies and procedures. Growing evidence suggests that a concrete sense
of values and identity play a critical role in organizational success, making it no surprise

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 that PizzaRev ultimately shuttered its doors (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 412).
Organizational ethics is the underlying theme linking the structural, political, human
resources, and symbolic frames, making an organization’s ethical standards the
cornerstone of its ability to succeed. Each frame offers a unique view of an organization’s
ethical responsibilities and moral principles (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 421). Without a
strong central identity and ethical compass, an organization is likely to aimlessly navigate
the cocmplex human interactions that make up the foundation of a successful business
model. In this sense, PizzaRev’s ethical recklessness contributed directly to each unique
failure within a given frame, and can be ultimately credited with the company’s collapse.
Organizational ethics play a critical role in the ultimate success or failure of an
organization and this important concept was either overlooked or underestimated by
PizzaRev early in its development.

PizzaRev’s structural frame was mired in inconsistent vertical coordination and highly
variable lateral coordination, unstable hierarachies, erratic consequences, unpredictable
control systems, poor communication, and non-standardized training methods. The
political landscape neglected to recognize and accept the natural diversity among its
coalition, undervaluing and often ignoring its members’ vast array of unique beliefs,
values, and perceptions which was a missed opportunity in the facilitation of effective
decision-making and constructive goal formulation. The human resource frame was
arguably impacted the most severely by PizzaRev’s unethical foundation. PizzaRev
offered surface-level, empty promises of fulfillment, engagement, and appreciation while
practicing highly unethical, inappropriate, and illegal people-management strategies,
stemming from a narrow focus on expansion and profitability and resulting in a near
complete disregardd for the human factor of the business model. Similarly, the
organization’s symbolic frame was rooted in misaligned and inconsistent internal and
external applications of symbols, leading to employee dissatisfaction and confusion and
creating an irreparable rift between store-level and corporate employees. At the core of
all of these issues are ill-defined values, unethical morals, and borderline illegal behavior
patterns, which stemmed from a generalized disregard for people and generated internal
frustration, tension, and mistrust, ultimately contributing to the organization’s demise.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical community metaphors (see
Exhibit 20.1 in Bolman and Deal) for an alternative course of action regarding your
case.

An alternative course of action for PizzaRev would have required a relatively simple
course correction. Because organizational soul and ethics are intertwined, PizzaRev’s
scandalous behavior insinuated a critical need for a moral reassessment (Bolman & Deal,
2021, p. 413). Our text describes the four frames in ethical metaphors to emphasize the

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 important connection between the heads and hands of leaders and the hearts and souls of
an organization (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 415). One metaphor is a particularly fitting
representation of the change required of PizzaRev to salvage its workforce – The Jungle:
Justice and Power (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 417). This frame discusses a highly
combative environment rife with conflict and self-interest, but also an important
undertone is justice, power sharing, sautonomy, and freedom (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p.
417). The text describes a delicate balance between too tight a hold on power and too
much lienency with the workforce, and explains that within the middle ground of these
two conflicting perspectives lies the key to navigating power dynamics within
organizations (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 417).

PizzaRev’s most prominent failure is in the translation of theoretical practices into

practical applications. PizzaRev’s reframing of the symbolic framework was centered
around a brand new logo, which promoted independence, freedom, uniqueness, and
autonomy. The brand pushed an image that encouraged individuality and non-conformity,
but it failed to translate those belief systems into a tangible practice. The application of
The Jungle metaphor would have helped PizzaRev encourage its empoyees to embrace
the organization’s new philosophies and embody them in a way that empowered the
workforce to be representative of the brand. This shift in perspective could reframe
PizzaRev’s ethical community away from the suffocating authoritarian rituals of rigid
rules and strict dress codes that limited individuality (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 418).
Perhaps more importantly, embracing this metaphor in application would have assisted
PizzaRev in its ability to be flexible and adaptable, which could have been a pivotal
factor in the organization’s ability to overcome the hardships of the COVID-19
pandemic.

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

If I speak with candor here, my deepened comprehension and enhanced insight of

organizational frames would likely persuade me to leave my job at PizzaRev. As much as
I would like to generate creative solutions where I single-handedly solve the company’s
immense problems and set the organization on a path to success, the reality of the
situation is bleak. PizzaRev was destined to fail from the very beginning, when the
founders built an organization upon a foundation of unstable, ambiguous, and unethical
core values. At the time, I was too naiive and uneducated to recognize these
organizational red flags, and I was confident that my participation in the organization’s
leadership team would be sufficient to fix any problems that may have been apparent. My
newfound extensive knowledge in the structural, political, human resource, symbolic, and
ethical frames has painted a clear picture of the organization’s shortcomings, weaknesses,
and underlying points of critical failure.

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 Hindsight is always clearer, and I hope that if I was given the opportunity to go back in
time and do something differently, I would value myself enough to walk away from the
organization. I would use my knowledge to seek out an organization whose values,
mission, and purpose align with mine and I would devote myself to the betterment of an
organization that was equally devoted to me. Going forward, I hope I can use this
experience combined with my new education to ask important questions during the
application and interview stages that allow me a better perspective into the inner
workings of the organization. I hope that I have the courage, confidence, and intelligence
to ask the difficult questions in pursuit of an organization that is worthy of my
contributions.

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 Reference

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

(7th ed.) [E-book]. Jossey-Bass. https://app.perusall.com/