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.

During my time as a server at Table 22 (a fine dining restaurant), a staffing/management issue

arose where many people quit or were fired in a short period of time. The restaurant was
understaffed and the employees were overworked, with many people working weeks at a time
without a day off. The staff felt very tired, unappreciated and taken advantage of. One of the
owners, Darren, was not honoring people’s requested time off and scheduled hours of training on
top of our already scheduled hours, and generally did not respect their employees. During this
time, the owners/ management also fired two senior staff members and a service manager
because they had refused to come in on their scheduled day off, leaving us even more
understaffed than before. Despite the manager's efforts to hire more staff, more people quit, some
people quit within their first week of being hired. Overall, the morale of the team was very low
and Table 22 was left with a small, inexperienced staff during their busiest time of year.

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

Overall, I would describe this issue as primarily a human resource issue. The actual sortage of
workers is a legitimate lack of human resources and the treatment of the staff was a human
resource issue as well. Some of the lack of human resources may have been a result of Covid,
when nearly every restaurant was struggling to have a full staff; However, I belive that the main
cause of being short-staffed was because how staff was treated. Morale was extremely low
because we all felt very unappreciated and disrespected. Everyone was also very on edge after
Darren fired some senior staff members for no valid reason. It was primarily Darren’s leadership
that caused a lot of distress among the staff, causing many to quit. On top of that, the people who
did stay were extremely burnt out and exhausted from working every single day of the week,
sometimes only having two days off a month. Boleman and Deal (2021) mention how successful
businesses like Wegmans focus on fulfilling the needs of their own people in order to accomplish

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their goal of satisfying their customers (p. 126). Table 22 did not adopt that approach in the
slightest and their neglect of their employee’s needs was a major issue.

Additionally, since management was in such a need for workers, they often hired people without
the needed experience to do the job. Hiring people who were not qualified for the job put
additional stress on the servers who were already there, because we had to pick up their slack and
there was a lot of time and energy put into training people who ended up quitting shortly after
their training was complete.

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

The answer to this is a bit tricky since the majority of the human resource issues were stemming
from the owner, Darren. It was his leadership, attitude towards his employees, and hiring
techniques that lead the restaurant into the issues it faced. Overall, I think he would need to make
a change in his approach to leadership and how he views the people that work for him. The text
notes that how you view the relationship between people and organizations affects everything
that you do (Boleman & Deal, p. 115, 2021). Darren’s view of this relationship was one that
caused Table 22 to chew people up and spit them out, which resulted in a human resources crisis.
His actions showed that he had little regard for his employees and that he viewed us just as
bodies to make his restaurant function. For the issue to be resolved, he would have to change his
views or at least allow the managers who do care about people to be the ones truly in charge of
the staff.

Additionally, the hiring and firing process would need to be changed. Table 22 hired several
people who were clearly not fit for the job and fired people who were good at their jobs. Finding
and retaining good talent are two of the basic human resource strategies mentioned by Boleman
and Deal (2021). These two strategies require knowing what you want or need in the people you
hire, being selective in who you hire, and then treating your emoloyees well when you do hire
them. I would suggest all of these tools and strategies to Table 22 to help with their staff
problem. There are many ways to treat employees well, but for Table 22, I would simply start
with respecting their time and understanding that they have lives outside of work and also
rewarding employees when they go above and beyond for you.

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

When thinking about this situation or issue, I always thought that it was a human resources issue.
Learning more about this frame has confirmed that for me. If I was in Darren’s shoes, I would
have done a lot of things differently. While I don’t have any experience with running a
restaurant, I do have experience working with people. People want to feel valued, respected, and
heard. If I was Darren, I would have tried to make it a priority for my employees to feel that way.
Additionally, I would have tried to build a more “family” feel at the restaurant. Many restaurants
have “family dinners” where everyone eats together before every shift. Table 22 did not have
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this, and in fact we were not allowed to eat at all during our shifts which often were over 10
hours long. I think that family dinners would show that the restaurant values it’s staff and wants
to take care of them outside of just a paycheck. I think it would also help people form informal
ties with one another, which helps strengthen their relationship with the organization.

Reference

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Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass