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.

I am technical product manager, the team I am on is responsibe for Retail Hardware and
evaluating, selecting, and implementing new technology hardware, such as POS
(registers, both fixed and mobile), printers (receipt, desktop, label), digital displays,
scanners, etc. The situation I described in module 1 had to do with a new hardware
product that I was inheriting from a peer on my team who was working on a contract. The
new product itself was replacing a 30yr+ piece of technology with something
significantly different and more modern (androidOS + touch screen computer). As soon
as I started my immersion into the product and project, I quickly found out there were
lots of questions around roles and responsibilities and there was no clear “owner” that
would be the decision maker. As a result, issues plagued the project through its entirety
(which included a six week break to re-group).
2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

In my situation, the one area or ethnical community metaphor that resonated with me and
I believe influenced my situation is, the jungle. As Bolman and Deal state, the jungle is a
politically charged environment of conflict and self-interest (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p.
417). Why this resonated with me, in prior worksheets I had mentioned that some project
team members were prioritizing their team’s work (work outside of the project) ahead of
the project tasks that had agreed upon due dates. Not to say that each team members first
team is not important, along with the work they had. In this instance, each team member
was fully allocated to the project and as with any project, we spent time refining tasks
and agreeing on due dates. Even though we had that agreement, we still ran into
competing priorities.

Another issue we faced regarding conflict and self-interest was around the lack of
leadership and decision making for the project. From the leadership perspective, I believe
we had many strong willed individuals who each believed they were capable of being a

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 leader (myself included). I feel like where we all differed was how we prioritized this
project. Some would lead from their own team’s perspective and want their work
prioritized because of their outside conflicts, which necessarily is not an issue, but when
it impacted the order of operations for tasks being completed, we could not come to a
consensus on the path forward. Some led with a perspective of trying to please everyone,
which again, is not a terrible thing. Although for our project, it was a matter of order of
operations of tasks that needed to be completed. As a result of the different type of
personalities and the lacking overall leadership we had on the team, we would often find
ourselves in a stalement on decisions we needed to make progress, because we could not
come to a consensus on a path forward.

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.

I feel like the ethical community that would have benefitted my situation would be “the
factory” or the structural frame. The reason I chose this community metaphor is because
of the meaning behind it. Our reading says the imperative of the factory is excellence,
ensuring work is done effectively and efficiently (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 415). While
some good work was done, it was neither efficient nor effective. As I have mentioned
previously, our teams were siloed and some teams were concerned with the work they
had prioritized and not what was being prioritized for the project to be successful.

Another aspect of the factory is authorship, which goes hand in hand with excellence, it
balances it out, the yin to excellence’s yang, if you will. Bolman and Deal state
“Authorship transcends the traditional adversarial in which superiors try to increase
control while subordinates resist them at every turn (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 415).
There are kind of two sides to this for me and my situation. Part of authorship is to enable
others to take ownership of their work, I feel like I was doing this, but also giving too
much benefit of the doubt. With that said, I feel like I would not change that aspect
(trying to enable others), but perhaps I would have used tools and resouces to make sure
the team was aligned on the path forward and those who were responsible for completing
tasks, completed them. This could have been done with more frequent communication,
creating transparency amongst the team, and using tools like a project plan that breaks
downs tasks and who the owner is, etc.

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

Intially, I was unsure how I would respond to this. I have always though of ethics/ethical
behavior as knowing the difference between good and bad. Not harassing people, not
using offensive language, etc. After reading through the chapter though, I realize that it is

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 still about good and bad, but in a different context. The context being, how are my own
individual actions impacting the situation? Am I ignoring a situation on purpose or sub-
consciously? Am I unwilling to speak up to address an issue because of an internal fear or
worried about how others will perceive me?

I feel like I was so worried about internal insecurities that there were times I could have
and should have brought up situations with the team, there is always the possibility I was
misunderstanding the situation. By not saying anything though, that was doing a
disservice to the project team and further down the line, the customer. By not trying to
address the issues I was perceiving, in a light that was not placing blame on anyone, not
critiquing an individual, but calling out the problems/issues with the project, I was not
thinking of the greater good. So the one thing I feel like I would differently is be more of
a change agent, in a respectful way. To help enable others to feel like they are making
their own impact, but at the same time making sure we were all holding each other
accountable.

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 Reference

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (7th ed.). San Franciso, CA: Jossey-Bass.