RUNNING HEAD: ETHICS 1

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet
Madison Connolly

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

At Starbucks, I’m a shift leader and I have been doing this for a little over four years. I
have developed a lot in this role and so far, it has taught me how to problem solve, keep
composure and time management. At my store I have various responsibilities, for example, I run
the floor, make sure partners follow standards, handle call offs, do inventory and cash handle.
Many times, my boss relies on me too much on the and this puts a lot of pressure on me.
A specific example is last Fall a supervisor had a mental health crisis and my boss was on
vacation. We were left to figure out his shifts. To make things worse my boss got mad because a
few of us contacted the store manager that was covering our store about the situation. We needed
some guidance and help and didn’t think anything about it when we contacted her. A few of us
ended up working way too much and we didn’t feel properly supported by our boss in this
situation. When he came back, we sat down with him to tell him how we felt.

2. Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation(Insert 2 Long
Paragraph Description Here to Earn Excellent)
In this situation, violation of Starbucks ethics has been taken place. According to
Starbucks, “Starbucks Ethics & Compliance supports Our Mission & Values and helps protect
our culture and our reputation by fostering a culture that is committed to ethical leadership and
conducting business with integrity by providing resources that help partners make ethical
decisions at work” (2020, para 2). With this being said, Starbucks takes pride in their leaders and
believe each one of them has the best intentions. In this case study a partner had a mental health
crisis and a manager who was not giving his all to the partner and the other shift leads. It affected
how the leaders felt towards him and this affected many of deeply.
Also, we felt as if our voices were not being heard clearly by him and this made us feel
that he was ethically letting us down and he was not giving his best integrity to the situation.
According to Bolman and Deal, “people with a voice in key decisions are far more likely to feel
a sense of fairness than those with none” (2017, pp 394). This quote by Bolman and Deal
explains perfectly how the shift team felt as whole and we did not know where to go. Starbuck’s
ethics and compliance were not in place in this situation. Now from my boss’s perspective he
may have felt he did everything correct in this situation to correct it and may have not affected
others the way it actually did.
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3. Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical communities for an alternative
course of action regarding your case.(Insert 2 Long Paragraph Recomendation Here to
Earn Excellent)
The ethical community that I would use in order to take an alternative course of action is
the, Family (love and caring) Community or human resrouces frame. I believe that our team
is missing the true sense of care. We all are hard workers but sometimes we get let down and
do not know where to turn for guidance and support. Caring can be defined as one person’s
compassion and concern for another.... this begins with knowing; it requires listening,
understanding and accepting” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p 392-393). If my boss would have
taken the time to hear us out on why we needed another store manager’s help, then maybe he
would not have jumped to conclusions on why we did. This also, needs to be understood that
it was an unforeseen circumstance and that he needed to accept that his team was doing the
right thing for the store. A good leader understands there will be issues that arise at times that
cannot be planned for and they must be ready to react and handle the situation.
The second part of this community is about using the word love and using it as a normal
word in corporate America. This does not mean using it in romantic terms but instead to
show appreciation for the partners and even the customers. People have difficult times in
their lives that sometimes affect their workplace and that in turn can affect other employees
as well. My boss wanted to pretend it did not happen and sweep the event under the rug.
Instead it needs to be understood that mental health needs to be taken seriously in the
workplace and he could help someone with their personal life by hearing them out and
understanding why they feel the way they do. Starbucks also provides resources to
employees with crises going on that he could have mentioned or even used. Having an open
line of communication with the team as whole could have helped play a different outcome in
this situation.
4. Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about ethics.(Insert 2 Long Paragraph Reflection Here to Earn Excellent)
After reflecting more on the ethical communities, a few different things could have been
changed for everyone to feel a little more supported in this situation. According to chapter
19, “ Bakken met personally with every new employee, reviewed the mission shared stories
and more” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, pp 388). This is one thing I think my boss could have
done better on was really taking the time to listen, understand and accept every partner on his
team. He knew the shift lead has mental health issues, but he never fully understood it and or
accepted the fact that it was bad. If I were in this situation, I would understand that the shift
lead needed to take some personal leave and would not have thought twice about it. I then
would have helped my team cover the shifts. I felt that this situation could have been a
teaching moment for my boss as well as other shift leads on how to handle the situation,
understand the severity of anyone with a mental health crisis and even use some of the
Starbucks resources.
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“Leading is giving...Leadership is an ethic, a gift of oneself... Critical for creating and

maintaining excellence” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, pp 392). I know being a store manager is a
tough role, but you do need to understand that every decision you make is a representation of
your character, morals, ethics, as well as the company you represent. In this case study giving
my full support to my team would have been critical to have a more positive outcome in this
situation. By fully understanding the team dynamic and roles within the store my boss would
have understood how during a time of uncertainty and worry we were looking to him for
guidance and direction and felt we were not fully supported. A few more directions would
have gone a long way as well as bring us all together as a stronger team to help support one
another as well as make the store an even better place.
RUNNING HEAD: ETHICS 4

References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Ethic and Complince. (2020). Retrieved, from https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-
information/business-ethics-and-compliance