OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and the 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 it for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Name and describe your organization.

The organization I chose to analyze and talk about is In-N-Out Burger. During the year
1948, Harry Snyder introduced the first two-way drive-thru hamburger stand in Baldwin
Park, California. In-N-Out Burger is an American burger chain that is family owned and
only found in six western states, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas.
It amazes me how this establishment only has three items on the menu, burgers, fries, and
drinks. In-N-Out Burger’s mission statement is “To provide the freshest, highest quality
foods and services for a profit, and a spotless, sparkling environment whereby the
customer is our most important asset.” (2023)

2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be an internal or external role).

During my time at In-N-Out Burger, I was able to promote from a level 1 associate to a
level 6 associate during the five years I was working with the organization. I started as a
cash handling associate where I greeted customers and provided excellent customer
service. I then moved up levels working French fries, the salad table, and lastly a cook.
My role as a cook was to be in charge of drive operations ensuring every order goes out
to the customer promptly with the highest quality. It was when I was a cook that I began
learning about the management role and began leading a group of approximately 15
associates ensuring a smooth shift using all of the available resources provided to me.
Training for a management position consisted of ensuring all products were available and
communicating with team members, managers, and store managers on daily operation
goals.

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 3) Describe the situation, including information you think will help the reader
understand the most important elements of the situation. (This will require
selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the
mass of information that might be included).

In-N-Out Burger is a fast-paced environment with a high volume of customers in nearly

every location. In my experience, they are an organization that claims to have a team-
oriented environment where they value quality and cleanliness rather than building
relationships with their associates. I worked at store #151 in San Pedro, California where
the first two years were great. Many associates welcomed me into the workplace and
gave me the feeling of being in a family-oriented environment. Early on in my In-N-Out
Burger career, I noticed that it was the associates that took the new hires under their wing
and help them promote so they could promote to a higher position. What I enjoyed
working in this type of environment was that there was some sort of chain of command as
there were 6 levels to an associate. Within the organization, everyone held each other
accountable and when slack needed to be picked up another associate would be present to
help each other out.

During the first two years, it was great and I learned a great amount but then it all went
downhill. At In-N-Out Burger, managers get paid significantly well depending on how
many goals they hit during the year. Some goals were maintaining an accident-free
environment, the number of burgers and fries sold each quarter, the cleanliness score, and
how many associates can the store manager promote during a set period. Unfortunately, I
feel that even though the Store Manager was compensated greatly for achieving certain
goals, it negatively affected everyone else because resources were cut to a limited
amount, people were promoted without having the proper training or reason, and if they
did not need a certain person on a scheduled shift they would send them home one hour
into their shift. These issues cause my store to have a high turnover rate which affected
the remaining associates because shifts were understaffed. It was during this time that I
spoke up and let my store manager know that I wanted to promote to a management
position to help minimize these issues. For 5 months I trained and managed a group of
individuals, but unfortunately, I was not given a management position because I worked a
second job and they exclusively wanted me to work for In-N-Out.

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 Reference or References
(Choose appropriate Title if Applicable and Delete the Rest)

IN-N-OUT BURGER EXISTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF: In. (2023, May 9). https://www.in-n-
out.com/mediakit/#:~:text=Providing%20the%20freshest%2C%20highest%20quality,is
%20our%20most%20important%20asset.