Evan Watkins

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.

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

The situation that I chose was the work environment in Amazon distribution
warehouses and them being unsafe and strictly monitored. Employees are always being
timed whether that be to use the restroom or just on break.My role would be an employee
in the warehouse to understand what it is like from their point of view. This would be an
internal role.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

The human resources of the organization influenced this situation unknowingly. “In the
name of efficiency, many organizations spent much of the twentieth century trying to oust
the human element by designing jobs to be simple, repetitive, and low skill” (Bolman &
Deal, 2003, pg.148). The nature of the work that the employees in the distribution
warehouses perform are very repetitive and require little skill.

With this comes the demand for efficiency and hence the extreme time monitoring of
employees…time is money right? I believe it is a rather unintended consequence that
monitoring is strict. It is sort of ironic though that Amazon puts out commercials promoting
the goodness of man kind and then treats their employees like children. Luckily there are
some changes to be made that should aid in the productivity of employees without forceful
monitoring.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

An alternative course of action using human resources that I believe would help my case
in Amazon distribution warehouses would be to foster self managing teams. “The central idea in

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the autonomous teams approach is giving groups responsibility for a meaningful whole…”
(Bolman & Deal, 2003, pg.149). I believe this would really help support efficiency and give
employees a sense of belonging to a team rather than just an assembly line sort of deal. It is of
course risky, so it would have to be an experiment.

This could be monitored by Amazons human resources department. Due to Amazons

machine buracracy nature, I think self autonomous teams would fit right in and really help with
employee morale and efficiency. Human resource teams can be very influential in organizations
so using a the human resource frame should be effective.

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

There would be a team leader which supervison over the rest of the employees would
reside. The team members would meet everyday before work to determine who is responsible for
what on that day. This would create multiple highly efficient teams…at least in theory that would
reduce the strict monitoring that goes on in the distribution warehouses.

Following the idea of fostering self managing teams, I don’t think I would take it to the
extent of having teams with the authority to fire, hire and determine pay of employees. I think
that should still be up to the management team. I do however think that having teams of workers
determine who is working on what that day would be a good way to give them a self of
belonging and have say in their work. It would also help to reduce the “boringness” of the job by
possibly introducing different tasks every day or week.

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Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2003). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership