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 situation that I will be referencing is employee layoffs and how this ultimately
impacted and altered the culture within Taco Cabana.

In 2020, the covid-19 pandemic was starting, and organizations were all struggling to
find how to function. Businesses were not earning money because of restrictions placed
by the government, employee staffing concerns, safety fears of working in proximity of
others, supply issues, communication breakdowns and more. This unfortunately made it
hard for businesses to survive or even thrive. Many businesses were lost, closed or sold
because profitability was just not there. This inevitably impacted jobs, culture and morale
in most or if not all industries and businesses. People were also having to take on more
responsibilities in their roles to compensate for the work that was not being performed by
a full team.

At height of the pandemic, Taco Cabana’s executive team met to discuss the state of
business. It was determined that hard decisions were going to have to be made for Taco
Cabana to survive and keeps its doors open. We were going to have to perform layoff’s
and close some stores. My involvement around these discussions were related to field
operational teams and not in the corporate office setting. With reducing the workforce
within the organization, employees and leaders were having to pick up the workload of
those that were laid off; with no added compensation or benefit. Lack of communication,
appreciation and stress from the pandemic aftermath, lead to a culture disruption within
the organization.

Taco Cabana was a prior employer of mine and my role was a Regional Human
Resources Manager. In my capacity, I lead a team of 4 Human Resources Business
Partners supporting field operations throughout the organization. We supported in the
people aspect with items such as minimizing risk, development, recruiting, performance,
compensation, consulting, regulatory/compliance, talent and more.

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

Taco Cabana was under immense pressure from the board to ensure profitability was top
of mind when the pandemic began. The pressures discussed from the political viewpoint,
forced the CEO to make a rushed and non-thought through plan around layoffs bolstering
his credibility (Bolman & Deal, 2021). Instead of making ethically sound decisions, the
layoffs occurred with non-consideration of how this could impact the structural and
symbolic frames of the organization. There was no strategy of how added roles and
responsibilities could impact employees and no discussion on how this move could
impact Taco Cabana’s mission and purpose. This added to the shift in culture from the
failed and rushed execution in the layoffs.

There was also the issue around decision making in the structural framework. The
organization was trying to make ethically sound decisions by considering a multitude of
performance/behavioral indicators to help identify which employees would be laid off.
Unfortunately, there was bias in the decisions and leadership shifted to just one
consideration for the layoff’s, which was tenure. “When problems are ill defined and
options murky, control is mostly an illusion and rationality an elusive dream” (Bolman &
Deal, 2021, p. 316). Instead of keeping our best employees through well thoughtful
planning, the organization thought this was the best approach and that we would move
forward as normal to achieve profitability, but this added to the situation of negative
culture down the road.

After the layoff’s occurred and well into the pandemic, there was the approach in upper
leadership failing to recognize the shift in culture from poor decision making. Failure to
communicate and not wanting to address front line employees, and hoping to achieve
profitability by overworking them versus addressing concerns brought up, added to the
situation. Employees were stressed and not knowing how to perform with the added work
and felt they were not being heard. There was a blame in employees not wanting to
perform, which was causing some of the loss in revenue instead of recognizing the root
cause of the issue. “Instead of recognizing the cultural dynamics, the failed manager
might blame the locals for having bad attitudes or a poor work ethic” (Bolman & Deal,
2021, p. 360). These concerns continued to influence the situation in altering the culture
in Taco Cabana.

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

I would have chosen two and not just one of the ethical communities. The primary would
be The Factory: Excellence and Authorship and the secondary would be The Family:
Caring and Love (Bolman & Deal, 2021).

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 With Taco Cabana employees having to take on added work from the layoff’s occurring,
ensuring that the employees would have added training and clear structure for the task
and roles they took on would be important. From the structure framework, having a focus
on the strategy of how to accomplish the work with defined roles and responsibilities to
ensure productivity would be at it’s prime. The Factory: Excellence and Authorship states
that, “The ethical imperative of the factory is excellence: ensuring that work is done as
effectively and efficiently as possible to produce high-quality yields” (Bolman & Deal,
2021, p. 415). So in order for the organization to produce high-quality yields, we would
have to ensure that the teams taking on this work would be knowledgeable in the work
they were performing by effectively providing them with the knowledge, tools and
resources to conduct their work efficiently.

Knowing that the business was in survival mode and the organization shifting to focusing
on bottom line profits versus investing in people, created internal conflict. Employees
often shared their stresses with little to no change, response or action from leadership to
help close the gap in concerns shared from employees. The Family: Caring and Love
states that, “A compassionate family or community requires servant-leaders concerned
with the needs and wishes of members and stakeholders. This creates a challenging
obligation for leaders to understand and to provide stewardship of the collective well-
being. The gift of the servant-leader is love” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 416). Applying
care and love for an alternative course of action would have allowed leaders and the
organization to respond and act for the best interest of its employees. Standing up to do
what was ethically right to better support the needs of the people within the organization
by being the steward of collective well-being.

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

I would have navigated the conversation around criteria for layoff’s differently and not
allowing bias to impact our decisions. Having more information to make better sound and
ethical decisions is important to the success of an organization. The change from
considering multiple indicators for the layoffs to just one indicator, tenure, did not allow
us to make a well-informed decision to support the organization long term. This I feel
impacted the organization of losing good talent and holding on to talent that may not
have been the best to help lead through adversity with the pandemic. “When a good
decision needs to be technically sound, the structural frame’s emphasis on data and logic
is essential” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 319).

I would have also focused some of my attention on igniting caring and love within the
organization. I tried to show up with care and compassion, but igniting that same flame in
some of my peers or within employees did not always come through. I would have

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 worked to shift the mindset of employees leading the same, so that we stayed grounded in
our identity, while leading through the pandemic. Staying true to who we were and what
we believed would have given continued purpose for the mission we were going after.
Focusing on our people and not shifting to just a focus on bottom-line profits. “Ethics
ultimately must be rooted in soul: an organization’s commitment to deeply rooted
identity, beliefs, and values” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 421).

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 Reference or References

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

(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Jennings, L. (2021, July 26). Anil Yadav’s “entrepreneur Mindset” drew him to acquire Taco

Cabana. Nation’s Restaurant News. https://www.nrn.com/fast-casual/anil-yadav-s-

entrepreneur-mindset-drew-him-acquire-taco-cabana