OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

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 situation describes my fear and processes throughout the time that I was transferring
to a new and busier Starbucks location. I was hired at a moderately paced location that
was not built for a drive-thru, also known as a café store. The store is at the center of a
large outdoor shopping center in a small town adjacent to San Jose, CA. We rarely dealt
with ‘call-outs’ (calling out of a scheduled shift with less than 2-hour notice for coverage)
because it was slow enough to manage our tasks promptly and just about busy enough to
keep us engaged in our work. It seemed like the perfect mixture for my work-life. After
a little over a year into my role as a barista, I found that my days became monotonous
and I put my interest in being promoted to supervisor for my location.

Week after week, I waited patiently for an opening but discovered that my best chance at
a promotion would be to transfer out. The only other store that had an opportunity for me
was the drive-thru location that more than tripled our earnings in a day. The pattern of
stories I have heard about this store was their excessive and appalling partner turn-over
rate and call-outs. I promptly fastened my fear and anxiety and attempted to change that
feeling into excitement for something new and challenging. Fast-forwarding my situation
as a new supervisor for this new location, I had learned that the stories were unfortunately
true. My team grew from 2-4 partners at a time to 6-9 partners. What seemed like every
other day, I would receive a call from a partner that would explain to me why they could
not make their shift that day. Nothing was ever done to hold the partners accountable.

It was not until we received a new manager that structure, cohesiveness, synergy, and
accountability were applied. My new and current manager worked closely with me to
help change the atmosphere and culture of the store. We discussed and aligned our vision
to provide support and encouragement for our partners. We changed how we operated
almost completely while still fostering an environment that was being built on trust,

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 inspiration, and passion. We did end up letting go of a very few partners that could not
adjust from the old habit of calling out of their shifts minutes to hours before they started.
In Chapter 2 of Reframing Organizations, it quotes, “Targeting individuals while
ignoring larger system failures oversimplifies the problem and does little to prevent its
recurrence.” (Bolman, L. & Deal, T., pg. 28). What worked was reframing the store
almost completely and although it took time, a ton of planning, and hard work, we found
our way. At our highest point throughout this process, we managed to have the quickest
drive-thru time in California

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

Starbucks hold a very strong ethical place in each store location. Our company vision
and mission statements reflect a culture that nourishes the human spirit and this trickles
down into each partner that is hired. As leaders, we are the ones that reinforce these
traditions and uphold the values of ethical judgement. Doing the right thing can be foggy
at times when our jedgement is not as clear during high stress or bias’s that also cloud
initial proceedings.

Our responsibility is to adapt to these stressful sitations and learn how to avoid unwanted
outcomes that tarnish our reputation and leadership. In reference to the situation above,
the first manager described, had a lower sense of influence regarding the strong ethics
that we were trained in. How it has failed this manager is due to the ambitious corporate
ladder this person wanted to climb and their willingness to achieve power by sweeping
disagreements under the rug. Ultimately, it comes down to a poor sense of judgement.

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

The text makes a great quote that I thought is relevant to my situation in which could
have been a greater reinforcement. The text says, “Caring – one person’s compassion
and concern for another – is both the primary purpose and the ethical glue that holds a
family together” (pg. 392). I believe what happens in a great number of people’s
working experience is that a company will talk about treating their team as if it were a
family. What happens is this value gets overshadowed by stress and political situations.

Developing a culture of empathy, understanding, and high charisma, helps with building
more on showing each of your team members that you truly care about them. The sense
of ‘family’ and caring for your team increases motivation, passion for work, and
communication. In this case, ethically – the first manager has failed in that aspect.

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

Given what I have learned in the following chapters regarding ethical communities, there
are a number of ways that I could have changed this situation. In my case, I have failed
just as much as the manager has. I did not carry the confidence to become a voice for my
team members. I did not speak much on how the situations were developing in a tone
that left our partners in higher stress dillemas. They felt over-worked and they felt like
they were not listened to. In return, we had a higher turnover rate.

Reflecting on this situation, I teach my team to become their own voice to start a new
wave of strong and confident partners that feel comfortable enough to bring out topics
that are of concern. I like to bring an open door policy for partners to feel comfortable
enough to change the course of their work days. A higher ability of autonomy in the
workplace could have diluted our situation going further.

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 Reference or References

BOLMAN, L. G., & DEAL, T. E. (2017). REFRAMING ORGANIZATIONS.: JOHN WILEY &
Sons.