Ahmad Hamid

OGL 481

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet
Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the four ethical communities
2. Apply the ethical communities 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 want to reference a situation within my first team. The situation refers to my team
meeting we had about talent and succession planning. This meeting referred to touch on all
five perspectives; Structure, Human Resource, Political, Symbolic, and Ethical. The
meeting's overall summary had to do with the how, when, and what ways we approach
succession planning and talent acquisitions.

Throughout the meeting, many indicators of our structure were not well built for a
successful meeting. Our team's few indicators were the lack of alignment with how we assess
talent and identify we pipeline talent upward within the organization. The second was the
work's human resources side; our organization has taken an aggressive approach to our
inclusion and diversity agenda. This opened up many areas that we are weak in that do not
contribute to the I&D initiatives. We have taken additional steps to ensure that our talent
across the entire US business has an equal and equitable opportunity to apply for any
job/position within the organization as long as they have the basic qualifications. Our market
is piloting this program until the full rollout occurs. This is causing our team to disagree and
different views on how we approach this work, but our HR team has set expectations about
the initiative and allows no room for error. As for the meeting's political side, many personal
opinions and biases were present during the discussion about how we approach this work and
the steps it takes. I find it interesting how many political views show up about succession
planning meetings that can cause some to be offended or disagree. These views help us grow
as we challenge one another's thought and help us work through the biases and political
views we may bring up. The organization has created chief officer roles to hold ourselves
accountable for a more inclusive and diverse company. The plan laid out to be a more
inclusive and diverse organization is symbolic. I come to this organization as a diverse
individual who struggled to see myself in a higher role than a store manager. Our region had
a leadership change that converted our senior leadership's mindsets committed to leaning on

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all individuals for growth within the organization. I was leaned on and grew my career with
this change. I find it symbolic that we now have many visible changes and publicly shared
our initiatives and goals to hold ourselves accountable. Finally, our organization prides itself
as one of the most ethical companies globally and has continued to hold ourselves
responsible for our goals and initiatives. As the one I am referencing, these meetings were
meant to be tense and not aligned as there is no such idea that can identify "what I & I&D
looks like" in an organization that strives to be diverse and inclusive. (Starbucks named one
of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, 2018). (Company Information, 2021)

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

Ethics is one of the key contributors to this orgainzations well-being as it has been known
as one of the most ethical organizations. The organization has a checks and balance approach
with ethics & compliance that supports the ‘mission and values’ and helps protect the culture
and their 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.
The organization advises and enabling leaders to drive ethical business practices,
partnering with the business to ensure effective legal risk management and encouraging
employees to speak up if they have questions or concerns.The majority of reports we
receive involve employee relations issues. This trend is consistent with other companies
retail or otherwise that provide alternative reporting mechanisms as part of a comprehensive
ethics and compliance program.

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

There are three different leadership approaches I learned throughout my OGL journey.
First approach is Utilitarianism Theory, which sees the leader maximizing the welfare of the
subordinates. The focus is on ensuring the subordinates feel good and are happy, before
deciding on an action. Concern is on the proper ends of the action, not necessarily on how
you get there. The approach is closely associated with John Stuart Mill and the ethical cost-
benefit analysis.

The second approach focuses on the Libertarianism Theory. The leader is to protect the
freedom of the individuals as the main concern. If an action or decision would restrain the
subordinate’s freedom, then the leader would not proceed with the course of action. The
concern is on the intent of individuals. The approach follows Aristotle’s idea of virtue ethics
or eudaimonism.

Finally, the last approach to leadership emphasizes Immanuel Kant’s Ethical Theory of
doing the right thing. The approach to decision-making is therefore looking at the proper
means. Moral and ethical actions come from understanding what are the rules and customs of

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the organization and following these. The idea is that by understanding these common,
agreed values, a leader can make the right decisions.

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

I would continue to challenge the status quo as that is one of the values and will continue
to shape our organization and how it shows up. When we fail to demonstrate behaviors that
we have set out for ourselves, it sets us up for failure and diminishes our integrity with our
shareholders, customers, and employees. Therefore I find it essential to hold everyone within
the organization accountable to our mission and values statement.
Creating a sustainable culture that is connected with the ethical behaviors within the
organization will uphold its integrity. Holding all employees accountable will prevent this
from straying away and making poor decisions like the one described above. This will
contribute to a more aligned organization that practices ethical, unbias, and healthy business
transactions.

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Reference or References