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 was an assistant director on the 2022 summer musical at Paradise Valley Community
College. There were difficulties and numerous situations to maneuver, including COVID
related issues, peer conflict, ambiguous management, and a lack of
transparency/accountability among the cast and crew in reference to the director.

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

Fortunately, there was not a negative instance of unethical behavior from management or
any of the positional leaders. However, there was a cast member who frequesntly
mistreated other cast members and attempted to get rid of a costume piece that they did
not like by hiding it and blaming it on another person. This caused a delay of that
rehearsal which happened to fall on the week before we opened, a wrongful discipline of
an innocent cast member, and gossip between everyone who saw what happened, which
put the show in a challenging spot.

Eventually, the truth was discovered, and the damage done to the innocent cast member
was mended. However, the director chose to remove the costume piece from the show as
a result of everything that happened, which I disagreed with. She said it was “not worth
the drama it caused” so she just got rid of it. This made me want to handle other
complaints about certain creative aspects of the show personally, as it is not the
performers’ call to decide what the audience sees or doesn’t see – it is the directors’.

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

I would have liked to have used the ethical community involving an emphasis on human
resource leadership. The passion for this particular cast member was clearly forgotten, as

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 he resorted to needless tactics to get his way. If I had practiced more human resource
leadership, I would have been seen as a “facilitator and a catalyst who uses emotional
intelligence and social skill to motivate and empower subordinates” (Bolman & Deal,
2021). This may not have prevented his choice to hide the costume and blame others, but
it could have drastically affected how the situation was handled.

In hindsight, the frustrated cast member just needed to be heard. This could have been
accomplished if the management team was more in touch with human resource
leadership. There was too much emphasis on structural power, and not enough attention
to motivational power. A growing presence of symbolic leadership would have also
helped to unify the cast and re-align them to the common goal we all have – putting on a
great show.

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

I would have pushed harder for keeping the costume piece in the show. It was not right
for the cast member to handle the situation how they did, and then to get what they want
after all of the chaos that occurred. This made other cast members try to change what was
onstage and what wasn’t all of which wasted time because this is not something that they
traditionally have a say in. I could make the argument that what the director decided to do
was on the unethical side of things. It made me and others question her ability to lead, it
weakened her overall leadership abilities.

I wouldn’t change how I managed the other cast members. I gently reminded them of
their place and told them I was open to hear their concerns to help them solve, but their
creative input stops at their character creation. This initial cast member showed everyone
that the boundary of performer and director can be intertwined, and I helped restructure
that boundary. After I did that, I earned more respect from the cast, crew, and even the
director.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership. Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand.