OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Understand the four ethical communities
2. Apply an ethical community 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.

Recently there has been management changes in my department, my old boss,

KB, is no longer my direct manager. They created a new management role for my team,
the CMSS Manager role, that I will to report directly and they will report up to KB. The
new manager, ER, is in Ohio with half of our team (4), and the rest of us (5) are here in
Arizona. Since the changes there have been issues with the dynamics of the teams. The
Ohio team has been working a considerably lighter case load, continuing to work a
flexible schedule of their start and stop times, and have less inbound phone time. The
Arizona team no longer operates the same way. We now have a set time of 7am- 4pm
(Arizona time), and our scheduled inbound phone time increased. We can see how
many cases each person is working, I work about 100 cases more than the Ohio team a
week. Before the changes I only worked about 50 more cases than my Ohio
counterparts. The situation seems to be that the new manager is favoring the Ohio team
by delegating responsibilities to the Ohio members, that have negatively impacted the
Arizona team. Since he was recently a team member and built relationships for years
with the Ohio team he is leading them with trust and giving them responsibilities. Since
the Arizona team is new, we have not had the same time to build trust and closeness
with him and therefore have not earned his trust.

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

Overall I do not feel the situation is very ethical at all however, I can see how
ethics have influences the situation. In Boleman and Deal it says “ The key gift that
leaders can offer in pursuit of justice is sharing power.” (Boleman & Deal. 2021) I do not
believe that ER was ever malicious or doing things intentionally to benefit Ohio. I think
he has built trust and relationships with the team in Ohio over time, and I think he trust
them and delegates responsibilities to the team. As a good leader, I think he wants people
to feel like they have autonomy and can take ownership of their roles. Unfortunately, the

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 people of Ohio have not taken everyone into consideration and have skewed things in
their favor and ER does not check in to see how things are going.

Over the last year or so we have established a decent relationship with the Ohio
team. We will say good morning in our group chat and have fun and light conversations
throughout the day. If anyone has a question about a product or process we are all more
than willing to jump in and help out. However, we have not been able to build deep
relationships with them. “Significance is built through the use of many expressive and
symbolic forms: rituals, ceremonies, stories, theater and music.” (Boleman & Deal. 2021)
in Business Banking our larger department they hold a lot of events throughout the year
to get as motivated and let the department bond. In Cash Management the managers do
monthly lunches, happy hours, and things of that sort. But we don’t do these events with
people outside of our state. Ohio has built strong bonds because of this, and I think it has
influenced them to feel like we are an external team that assists them instead of feeling
like we are all in this together.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical community metaphors (see
Exhibit 20.1 in Bolman and Deal) for an alternative course of action regarding your
case.

Since the situation seems to be my direct manager ER, favoring the Ohio team
over the Arizona team I think a good alternative course of action would be excellence and
authorship firstly. I don’t think there is anything wrong with delegating responsibility and
projects as a leader. However, because half our team is in one state and the other half in
another state in order for it to be done fairly the responsibility should have been evenly
dispersed to everyone. Right now it feels like myself and the Arizona member have no
power or voice. Bolman and Deal says, “Authorship transcends the traditional adversarial
relationship in which superiors try to increase control while subordinates resist them at
every turn.” (Boleman & Deal. 2021)
Although we are all equals looking at our actual role and authority, but because 3
of their 4 members have additional responsibilities it feels like all the power is with them.
We no longer feel equals to them but feel like we are subordinates of theirs and they
change daily responsibilities, and schedule as they deem best. If ER had chosen two
people in Arizona and two people in Ohio to delegate responsibilities to, I feel like we all
would feel like we have a voice and some power. We would feel collectively like one
team, with the same goals, and would all work towards them together. Instead, it has
created a huge division of us versus them, instead of a feeling of collectivity.

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

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 Ethically I would want to be more caring of the situation that was arising and of
building relationships with the people in Ohio. Truthfully the CMSS role was a
temporary position for me. My manager that hired me KB, and the CMSO managers were
all aware that my goal by the end of the year was to be a CMSO, and they have all been
working with me to achieve this goal. Because of this I was very self-preservation, I
would do the bare minimum interacting with ER, or the Ohio team because I knew I
would be leaving them soon regardless. I would work on building relationships with ER
and the Ohio team as soon as I got hired.

I feel like if I had built these relationships, the whole situation could have been
avoided completely. ER and the Ohio team would have felt more connected to the
Arizona team and perhaps ER would have delegated some of the responsibilities to me or
other Arizona members. If the responsibilities were evenly dispersed everyone would feel
like they have a voice in the situation versus just one side having all the power. If the
situation wasn’t avoidable and I had built a relationship with ER, I feel like I could at
least bring these matters up without feeling like I am causing conflict. I brought them up
once in the beginning but felt like I was being a “tattletale” and felt like my concerns
were being dismissed. Caring and love are very important in the grand scheme of the
organization, but I dismissed it on the smaller scale with the mentality that I was leaving,
and it was not going to have an effect on me personally which was not fair to my team.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
Jossey-Bass.