OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and 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) Describe your organization.

CONFIDENTIAL

A large local organization involved in the administration field. This organization had
various departments involved in one large organization that I will exclude the name of for
confidentiality reasons. This organization has thousands of employees in a variety of
different positions, jobs, and assignments. Some employees are full time, others are
contract. Additionally, this organization has a mixture of skilled workers and entry level
positions.

2) Describe how Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).

I had an internal role in this organization. My position changed in a variety of ways, from
entry level, to more specialized position. In these roles I saw the organization from
several different perspectives and the day to day operations. My main role in this scenario
was primarily teaching classes / training and keeping updated files on employees with
certain certifications. Although I focused on the files involving the employees I tracked,
while we looked for information on these employees, we discovered the overall problem
with all employee file tracking. To access records on employees I would have to speak to
2 to 3 different employees to access the different tracking system we were using.

3) Describe the situation. (see the Canvas instructions for details, especially about how
your situation will be analyzed from five different perspectives over the next five
modules)

We needed to upgrade and improve a file system that had been mismanaged for over 5
years. The files were in disarray and our inspections were showing flaws in our ability to
track data, completion of tasks, training, personnel files, and other important pieces of
information. When information was requested it often times could not be found. Not only

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 did we have 2 different digital tracking systems, we also had random pieces of paper
jammed into files that had not been inputted into the digital systems. Sometimes these
pieces of paper would be found in the completely wrong file.

We determined we needed to go file by file (Through hundreds of employees) to organize

all the files and get them the proper tracking and keep a running file for each employee.
Importantly was the tracking of personnel file data that was needed. For example, at
times we could find a personnel file and a document that dated back to 1991 but could
not find the employees completion of mandatory training in 2012. Another challenge was
the file system had to not only be digitally tracked but also on backup on paper. Many
files came in and needed to be verified, scanned, tracked, and digitally inputted. Another
issue was we were no longer using an older digital system and needed to input them into
a new system that was not currently fully functional, thus information also needed to be
tracked on Microsoft Excel.