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.

The organization New Age Homes is currently in between investor funding rounds and
barely surviving on a limited budget. The two major divisions, research and development,
and field production, are competing for resources as both contribute to company success
and are deemed essential. Without research and development there is no more innovation,
inventing, patents, and startup investor attraction. Without field production there is no
feedback for development, secondary income source, or in-use product to show investors
and or gain new production contracts. The company cannot continue to support both
fully, and it also cannot afford to lose one or the other. Currently both are fighting for the
bulk of the resources, splitting manning, and blaming the other for lack of success. My
role is robotics operator, I control the machines in the field division and contribute to the
project of home building.

Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

The overreliance on select systems while ignoring ethical approaches to business

contributed to the scenario in a multitude of ways. The company was founded with the
focus of filling labor market gaps, building affordable homes, and sustaining the
American dream. There was originally unity in the mission and all participants believed
they were working for something bigger than themselves. The thought of using
technological innovation to reinvent the home-building process was attractive, as was the
promise of building cheaper, sturdier homes, all while maintaining the standard home-
building labor force. Employees bought into the mission purpose and aligned themselves
with the company, dedicating their time, effort, and attention.

Where things went wrong was when profit became a goal of the directors. Building a
home in 30 days was no longer a goal, 10 days became the new mandate. Jobs were cut to

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 conserve money while additional tasks were placed on the remaining. The job became
more like a factory assembly line and less like an innovative place to work. The
employees lost their purpose. “Above all, people must believe that the organization is
doing something worth doing – a calling that adds something of value to the world,
making a positive difference” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, Ch. 20). This breakdown of
morale, purpose, and sense of innovative accomplishment resulted in a shift of focus by
both divisions, polarizing their missions and raising tensions.

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

I would start by creating rituals that unite the team and celebrate our accomplishments.
We are in the home-building business and our goal is to create affordable homes.
Regardless of the method, 3d printing, or manual labor, building a house is building a
house, and it is a tangible thing that can be evaluated from many angles. We can look at
how long it took, how many man-hours were used, resource efficiency, and so on. By
planning get-togethers to celebrate accomplishments based on these metrics we can start
to gather the team around a combined effort to increase productivity. I would start by
celebrating these types of events like homes completed or blocks of homes completed
highlighting individual contributors and team players.

By taking time away from work to celebrate the work completed a sense of pride and
ownership should start to develop. “ The magic of special occasions is vital in building
significance into collective life. Moments of ecstasy are parentheses that mark life’s
major passages. Without ritual and ceremony, the transition remains incomplete, a clutter
of comings and goings” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, Ch. 20). Gathering to celebrate
achievement is a way for management to show that they understand the sacrifices made
by the team and value their success and improvement. The main cause for the issue
presented was an increased ask by management and a profit-driven model that turned
members against each other. We need to get back to working together to accomplish a
combined goal and then celebrate those successes.

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

Before learning about ethics and the four frames, I did not make connections on how
things like organizational structure, meetings, diversity, and other aspects of
organizations intertwine to create inefficiencies. It is clear to me now that all functions of
an organization are rooted together and impact one another in both subtle and drastic
ways. Ethics in an organization is crucial because it is essentially the values and
principles in which the organization and individuals of the organization operate. A lack of
good ethics creates bad actors, organizational dysfunction, and chaos in the workplace.

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 After learning about ethics, I can take a whole organization approach to problem-solving
looking at how structure or politics are creating breakdowns in ethical principles, or how
a lack of combined values and goals breeds workplace turmoil that creates political
dependencies. I would now focus on seeing how decisions impact organizations through
the various frames and how they alter employee motivation, sense of accomplishment,
and sense of purpose. Going forward I will take note of these aspects of employee quality
of life and use them to create a safe and meaningful workplace.

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 Reference

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