Mitchel Carroll

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 work for a company I am calling AeroFlight for the purpose of anonymity for this class.
We work closely with the United States military to provide technical support for the
repair and overhaul of aircraft and their components.

My role is that of a technical representative. I provide ground level technical assistance to

the military members who perform the repairs. My situation is that I was a part of a team
whose goal was to implement 3D printing technology at our maintenance facility. It was
a project that none of us had any experience with. Our job doesn’t involve many new
projects. The project lasted close to a year and was overall successful with some major
and minor complications along the way.

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

The ethical frame of my organization is structural in nature. We not only strive for
excellence but consider anything less than perfect a failure. Bolman and Terrence (2014)
write about excellence and authorship through the lens of “The Factory”. “The ethical
imperative of the factory is excellence: ensuing that work is done as effectively and
efficiently as possible to produce high-quality yields” (Boman et al., 2014)

Our organization is very cut and dry when it comes to ethics. Our practices are in line
with technical specifications, and we produce only quality products. In my field, quality
and ethics go hand in hand. We know that the parts we fix are installed on aircraft flown
by Navy pilots. Any quality control issue could result in the loss of a $20 million aircraft
and at worse the death of a military pilot and crew. This means that any malicious
deviation is extremely unethical. Taking shortcuts and performing maintenance without

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the use of technical manuals can result in immediate termination regardless of the final
product quality.

Due to these rules and their strict adherence, the situation I was in was heavy with
regulations and bureaucracy. We cannot do anything without first having a plan written
by the U.S. Navy regarding all specifications for the work to be performed. For this
project we were creating a new system that would manufacture parts for MH-60R
helicopters. Due to the level of risk associated with flying an aircraft with poor quality
parts, every step we took was done under the highest scrutiny.

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

As previously stated, all work done by my company is steeped in ethics. All our work has
the potential to risk the life of Navy pilots and aircrewmen. Unfortunately for us, the
project was greenlit without regulations and standards for the product we were tasked
with creating. This led to long periods of downtime and ultimately the project went on far
past the projected end date.

If we ever receive notice that we will be completing a similar project, I will highly advise
the planning team not to start production until all details are agreed upon. My team and I
wasted valuable time waiting for top level military officials and contractors to finalize the
details on our project. For example, two months into the project, there was still no official
answer on what type of materials we would be using in the 3D printer.

This level of ambiguity for the final deliverable turned a lot of people away from the
project. We couldn’t move without direct word from the project sponsor, but were also
held accountable for the projects progress.

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

Having strong structural ethics makes it close to impossible to move forward without
knowing precisely what is expected of the team. As an organization we already have the
concept of authorship instilled in us. We are highly motivated and dedicated to providing
a quality product. The issue is that in this situation, we were unable to create a quality
product due to the amount of red tape in front of us.

Because of the obstacles we faced, our motivation diminished. Our culture is steeped in
autonomy and pride in our work. We are happiest when we have the power to excel at our
jobs. Knowing what I know now about how ethics shapes an organization, I would have
suggested moving the team to a different project until the upper echelon had a plan in
place for us. We could have been productive on other areas of the organization. This

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would increase our sense of self-worth. Once the 3D printing project was ready for us, we
would have been motivated and eager to complete our tasks.

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Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (4th
ed.). Jossey-Bass.