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

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

(My company is anonymous, as to not reveal secrets, as such the name is made up)

At Blowfish Services, residential and commercial construction, there is an issue of bloat,

debt, and an extensive amount of quality issues. My role as the contractor is to fix and
repair the long list of issues. The primary issue involves a lack of control from the project
managers, lower, middle, and higher management as by freeing highly trained experts to
do what they do best produces many benefits but leads to challenges of coordination and
quality control (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 8).

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

Human resources as they exist in the project are primarily managers, with
additional support through financiers, and additional supintendent staff, that failed to
manage the project. As a result of managers, failing to manage the project, quality issues,
debt and poor decisions plague the operation. This additional support is akin to a contact,
or connection to an expert in the area. One additional human resource is the inspectors,
land management owners, and other public or private services in the area. Overalls, the
influence of the issues were primarily as a result of higher management, failing to
recognize issues, implement solutions and ensure human resources are utilized
effectively. Many of the issues of mis-managing human resources could have been easily
avoided which makes my frustration with the company more pervasive in my writing.
They are mistakes, and ultimately issues that reach the core principles of human
resources and the very nature of social behavior. Mistakes that in the hands of certain
roles, such as management, mishandling their power and “potential ability to influence
behavior” to catastrophic results in this scenario (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 192).

Higher management failed to “get it right”, in the failure to utilize and approach
to people in the organization’s strategy and human capital needs (Bolman & Deal, 2021,
pg. 142). As such many human resource techniques, management resources, and
information technology lacked any approach to use human resources effectively. They
dropped the ball, and over the course of many years during the project duration the
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 effects are apparent: failure to utilize experts, failure to ensure quality from contractors,
and a lack of managerial professionalism. Instead of trying to maintain a “positive and
professional relationship”, higher management was condescending to everyone but the
owners and inspectors on site (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 161). Which also negatively
contributed to the toxic culture that preceded further unsatisfactory, and “self-defeating
behavior” from all levels of human resources (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 163). The
culture was not a proactive environment in which one could be productive, instead every
level was negatively “affected by social relations” in their behavior ((Bolman & Deal,
2021, pg. 164). Many of the long-term issues were ultimately the result of “patterns of
behavior” that were unprofessional in the workplace (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 163).

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

My alternative course of action regarding human resources, would be to use the

companies headquarters staff, and relocate a particular manager to oversee the human
resources of this satellite project. This would include training, and development of
managerial staff. I’ve spoken previously on my last worksheet about the inherent need for
quality management. However, I did not mention how the lack of training might have
affected this issue. Being a satellite office in another state from its headquarters, a lack of
assurance surround the quality of superintendents, and general managers may have been a
significant issues that has hindered this project. I am not privy to the hiring process of the
managers, or superintendents at the company, so I cannot say it failed. However, often we
had superintended remark their inadequacy performing on company mandated checks,
and we experienced several instances of travel to train. The results of that training were
negligible.
Perhaps a solution that implemented on-site or satellite training of management,
would also not results in weeks of absent super-intendents and absent quality control. The
cost of training is immediate and easy to measure (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 149). As
such I think the issue of training these managers may have assisted in the management of
these particular resources, management hires. As I mostly hold the issues of the company
as stemming from management, and only superficially outside human resources, such as
contractors. It is the managerial responsibility to ensure outside human resources are
utilized effectively, they failed to do so. As mentioned before, the contractors often did
make mistakes over the many years, yet only years later, did management realize these
mistakes. This shows a failure in managing human resources.

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

The frame of human resources is not easy, there are often more abstract issues to
deal with beyond. It is to “hire the right people, keep them, invest in them, and empower

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 them” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 143). What I witnessed was a lack of effectively using
human resources. Case in point, the topic I discussed earlier, where superintendents were
openly speaking about failing company mandated testing. It shows a lack of care from the
company itself to correct such action, later on in the project the solution was to fire the
many lower-level managers, often higher management would say that they were the
issue. Yet after all these purging of low-skill or inadequate human capital, issues
continued, some worsened. As such I would not have treat the human resources of
management, or lower-level workers as poorly as the company did. They did not reward
us, with incentives, they did not “share the wealth” at any point in the project despite long
periods of workdays and dedication.
The company failed to hire the right people. Perhaps they did not “fit the mold” of
this particular project with negative attitudes and treated as lesser than by the company
(Bolman & Deal, 2021, pg. 144). A poor evaluation with the testing system of the
company should not have resulted in firing. I would have personally, changed the way the
company treats the employees if the only solution to a poor test results, or poor results in
general is to shift blame and purge the issue entirely. The issue should have been
examined more thoroughly, instead higher management, disregarded the issue entirely,
went on with their day, and when the time was right, used that information to fire
valuable human resources for monetary and personal gain. I was aware of such behavior
because of how closely I worked with management, able to witness the toxic culture of
blame shifting, and unprofessional workplace behavior taking place. While there were
moments of levity, I would not have allowed such behavior to take place. I certainly
would not have allowed it to grow out of proportion and to the extent it did.

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 References

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