OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource frame 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.
• Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.
I am a Supervisor at a global coffee chain. I have been with the company for 10.5 years,
being in my current role for 7.5 of them. As a leader within my store I played an active
role in navigating my team through the Corona Virus pandemic. In addition to my
expected responsibilities as an employee, I also served as both a listener and voice for
those working alongside me, the vast majority of which worked directly under me.
During this pandemic my company has vocalized and written many times that the
"human approach" is their focus. That is, the needs, wants, and concerns of the employee
base are taken seriously. A lot of the staff is new and young. The world they just got
thrown into got turned upside down. Every decision our store, and most stores, were
asked to make (at least in my area) were not made without input from the staff. Most
often than not my boss rely on the testimony from the Supervisors as to what the feelings
of the general store were. She would then take that information, break it down to see the
general concerns, and then engage in conversation with the store. This approach made it
easier for my boss to digest information from only 3 people rather than 15 at once. But
this also required us, as supervisors, to engage with the baristas and ask them questions
and pay attention to what they say throughout the day, observe their behaviours and
whatnot.
• Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.
The human resources of my organization played a major role in this situation. Matter of
fact, it continues to play a role heavily. The current global situation, especially as it
pertains to orgnaizations, is incredibly volitle. Early on, I was getting changing
information every few hours. Look around any town or city and you can see stores closed
up for good. You can even see staple insitutions decide to finally call it quits. No one is
immune. 2020 raised a whole new set of questions for organizations, chiefly, "how do we
stay afloat?" A business can only take a loss for so long. In the retail world especially, the
margins are paper thin. A business now has to balance productivity while maintaining the
safety and health of its workers. Operating at 100% means little if your entire store gets
knocked out by a virus a week later. If that happens enough times, or across enough
storefronts, then that's pretty much it.
The human resources frame works to highlight the backbone of any organization: it's
workers. It highlights that "organizations exist to serve human needs rather than the
 converse. People and organizations needs eachother. When...both (organizations and
people) suffer...both become victims" (Bolman, Deal, p. 117). This frame works to
emphasize the symbiotic relationship between organizations and the humans that work
within them. This is a relationship that my company also understood.
In addition to the in-store actions outlines above, the corporate side of the company was
incredibly vocal. Daily updates were posted to internal boards and weekly video
conferences were streamed company wide with an extensice Q&A session afterwards.
Corporate heads were also active on internal social media and would engage with the
greater employee base in comment threads. The human resources element of their
approach was very much solidified.
• Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.
I think that the approach on the corporate level could have been better mirrored at the
area or district level. I rarely saw communication from my district manager nor my area
manager. I also did not have a very good grasp on how stores in my immediate area were
doing. As with many aspects of life up until this point, our store felt isolated from
everyone else. I had a "pulse" on the company as a whole, but not so much in my
immediate community. Additionally, there was a sense among the staff that, at the end of
the day, the scales would always tip in favor of the dollar rather than the employees as a
lot of the information we got was from the corporate level. Having consistent
communication with people not so far removed from myself position wise would ease the
nerves on the staff greatly I think. A familiar face is a lot easier to express concerns to as
well.
During this time I have seen my organization change drastically. Turnover of staff
company wide was massive. Some quit, some took severence packages, some got sick,
people transfered, or just stopped showing up randomly. Page 117 of the text Chris
Argyris identifies ways that employees try to stay sane during periods of frusttration. We
can apply these observations to the pandemic. Frustrations within the organization, or
with the organization can lead to people "withdraw(ing)" physically, withdrawing
"psychologically, becoming indifferent, passive, and apathetic," "resist by restricting
output, deception, featherbedding, or sabotage," and "form alliances such as labor
unions." There is a lot going on. People need their paycheck but they also don't really
want to be at work. To this day I can still see some of that passiveness playing out.
• Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.
I think I could have been more open about my concerns regarding communication. I have
strong communication channels with my boss, and from her to her boss. I should have
trusted in that relationship. Additionally I feel like there is more I could have done as a
leader as it pertians to engaing with my staff. There were behaviours I noticed like
passiveness, anxiety, and frustration but I did not investigate the reasons why nor did I
really do anything to address them meaningfully.
 Reference or References

BOLMAN, L. G. (2017). REFRAMING ORGANIZATIONS. Place of publication not

identified: JOHN WILEY & Sons.