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 have been a Starbucks partner for almost 6 years now. Starbucks has provided me with the
opportunity to hold positions of barista, barista trainer, and shift supervisor. Starbucks has
always challenged me to strive towards continuously becoming more accepting, welcoming, and
progressive. One way that Starbucks did this, was by shutting down all United States stores for
an in-store nationwide training regarding the importance of addressing bias, promoting inclusion,
and preventing discrimination. This training was set in place as a response to an unfortunate
event that took place within a Starbucks corporate store. This event was an act of racial bias and
discrimination, and ultimitlay, went against all of Starbuck’s missions and values. This training
was developed in order to educate Starbucks employees on racial injustices and bias and to
ensure that something like that never happens again.

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

I believe that the ethics of Starbucks as a corporation is what most heavily influenced this
specific situation, more than any of the other frames. Starbucks prides themselves on the third
place environment that they provide. This third place environment is welcoming, inclusive and
most importantly, ethical. The textbook discusses that, “ethics comes down to the slippery
concept of “’the morals of the marketplace”’ (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Starbucks holds
themselves accountable for the actions of its employees and customers. With that said, when
there was an unethical and discriminatory occurance, Starbucks was very responsive in finding a
way to not only fix the situation, but also prevent it from happening ever again. The day of
training and development was a great way for Starbucks to re-educate partners on the morals,
values, and ethics that Starbucks as a corporation holds themselves accountable to.

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

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The textbook illustrates that, “the frames also carry implications for creating ethical communities
and for reviving the moral virtues of leadership” (Bolman & Deal, 2017). As an alternative
course of action to this situation, I would apply the Political Ethical Community. The political
frame as an ethical community serves justice and power from the organization and its leaders.
“The key gift that leaders can offer in pursuit of justice is sharing power. People with a voice in
key decisions are far more likely to feel a sense of fairness than those with none” (Bolman &
Deal, 2017). In this specific situation I believe that I would have been extremely beneficial to
have speakers dicuss their personal experiences which would provide a real-life, tangible
experience for partners to learn and listen. It woukd have been very effective for the Starbucks
offcicials to share their power with those who have been directly affected by racial
discrimination in order to allow them to use their voices and be heard.

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

I do believe that Starbucks handled this situation in a very ethical way by standing by their
missions and values and demanding that every Starbucks partner hold themselves to the same
standard. Starbucks creates a “Third Place Environment” that is intended to be welcoming and
inclusive and they do everything n their power to maintain that environment. Overall, I think that
developing this day of education and training was very ethical and I would not have done much
else differently. I do believe that now after learned about the ethical frame, I would have opened
the floor more to partners that have been personally vicitimized by racial discrimination or even
anyone that has any experience or input. I think that sharing the power and creating an inviting
and safe environment for people to speak up if they wanted to would have been very beneficial
to the ethical cause. “Ethics ultimately must be rooted in soul, an organization’s commitment to
deeply rooted identity, beliefs, and values” (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership

(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass