OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

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 I chose to identify and examine throughout the course is a boat
rental company that I had previously worked for. This organization had several locations
in which they rented various types of boats to their customers ranging from manually
powered boats such as kayaks, to larger electric and gas powered boats. The role I had in
this organization was an internal one in which I was an employed by this company and
was acting as a standard employee working under a manager at one of the organizations
locations. I was responsible for the day-to-day tasks and activities that most other
standard level employees also had the responsibility of completing. I carried out most all
of the routine work from scheduling, preforming transactions, and checking customers in,
all the way to instructing customers on how to safely operate their rental and
cleaning/repairing the work area and rentals. The situation I chose to analyze involves a
conflict between employees when external factors had a major influence on the work
environment. This conflict came as a result of a disagreement between a standard
employee and a supervisor over worker safety and the responsibilities and obligations we
have to our job when a major storm hit the business location, and decisions had to be
made whether to sacrifice worker safety in order to preserve significant organizational
assets.

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

Upon reflecting and analyzing the situation I feel as though there are some human
resources gaps that could have contributed to the conflict arising. As previously
mentioned in the structural frame worksheet, some standard level employees would hold
some resentments towards the supervisors, this is a result of the employees feeling as
though the supervisors were not always carrying their own weight. This is precisely what

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 happened in the situation being analyzed, while these resentments were not the main
reason for the conflict taking place, they did however play a large role in contributing to
the initiation of an actual argument once a disagreement took place. These resentments I
feel add to the larger overarching issue and that is the regular employees were often left
feeling unmotivated, unsupported, and as though they had no control over their situation.
Using the resentments towards supervisors as an example, employees might take those
feelings and begin to hold them towards not just individuals but the organization as a
whole, as they feel that if the supervisors do not have to do any work, why should I?
Talking to my fellow employees it was clear that virtually the entire staff felt
unmotivated and would engage in corner cutting behavior as a result. A large part of this
lack of motivation can be attributed to the little support the employees felt they received
from the organization. The manager of the location did not do things to actively
contribute to these feelings that the employees held and was always friendly and
empathetic towards everyone who worked under them. The feeling employees had of a
lacking in their needs to be motivated and supported, rather comes from the system of
how the location/organization operated.

A large factor in the employees not feeling motivated was the nature of how the
job was organized. Essentially the entire staff would work roughly 4-6 days per week,
deepening on the individual, preforming the same mundane, repetitive, and labor-
intensive tasks day after day, often times outside in extremely hot weather. This
obviously takes its toll on employees over time, with employees often feeling burnt out
after only working at the location for several months, leading to a high amount of
turnover. This lack of motivation was also fueled by the employees, and even
supervisors, feeling unsupported/unappreciated by the organization. The best example of
this is my one coworker at the time had been working at the location for over a year,
which is a long time for this location as employees came and went very frequently.
Because of their experience at the location they were given greater responsibilities then
some of the employees and basically acted in the role of supervisor. However, this person
was not compensated financially in the same manner the official supervisors were, and
this person still had to preform the more intensive work the standard employees did that
the supervisors were able to get their way out of. This left this employee obviously
feeling very unsupported and unappreciated for all that they did for the organization
without being recognized or rewarded for it. This sentiment was felt not just by this
employee many others as well, some employees, including myself, were sometimes left
in charge of the location when no manager or supervisor was present and had to preform
duties that were typically the task of the supervisor. The regular employees did not expect
to all receive wage increases or anything unrealistic or unwarranted from the
organization, but rather, just to feel as though they matter to the organization and their
contributions are recognized and appreciated. This is the feeling the employee who got
into the conflict with the supervisor had when debating the significance of preserving the

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 organizations assets, as the employee felt that if they are not supported for the work that
they do, why should they care to risk their safety for the organizations gain.

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

Looking back at the situation through human resources frame, I feel as though there are
changes that the organization could make that might have prevented the conflict in the analyzed
situation, along with potential future conflicts being prevented and increases in employee morale
and productivity. Firstly, the organization would need to find a better means of motivating their
employees as this lack of motivation is partially what led to the disagreement between the
supervisor and employee. I think the issue of motivation could be solved in a number of different
ways depending on what direction the organization would want to move in. One approach would
be reorganizing the manner in which the standard employees had to work, what I mean by this is,
allow for employees conducting more labor-intensive work to switch out with those doing the
less intense computer work more frequently. Usually, this switch would happen once a shift and
I could notice a decrease in energy and motivation when employees had to switch from the easier
office work to working outside. I feel as though creating a system in which employees might
change positions several times during a shift would allow for employees to feel less burnt out
and as if they are working towards something as opposed to simply having to endure their work
for hours until their shift is over. This could help prevent the frequent, “burn out” that I
witnessed while working at this location as the largest and most common complaint I heard from
my fellow employees was that they were unmotivated in the work they were doing, which took a
tool on them mentally, causing them to leave not long after joining the organization. This is just
one potential solution the location/organization could implement to help fix this issue, as
mentioned, many different things could be tried but I feel as though this idea could give
employees more energy both physically and mentally and propel them through the shift.
However, the issue of motivation might never be totally solved if the largest contributing factor
to that motivation is not also addressed.

What I felt contributed most to the general feeling employees had of feeling unmotivated
was the lack of support from the organization. The organization needed to adopt a more human
approach to understand how the systems and processes they had in place could be impacting
their employees. I do not think any of this was done out of maliciousness by the organization, but
rather, an ignorance to how those working at the organization truly felt. As mentioned in the
answer to the previous question, I had one coworker I had worked with who had been at the
location for an extended period of time as compared to the other employees working at the
location. This person had responsibilities that were typically given to the role of supervisor,
however, this person was not paid what the supervisors were and had to still preform more
intensive duties that the supervisors did not. This left that employee feeling very unsupported by
the organization and not fulfilled by the work that they were doing. This employee never
received recognition for what they did for the organization, neither publicly nor privately. This

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lack of support I feel is the driving issue for why employees felt unmotivated and disengaged
from their work, which led to frustrations amongst employees, as demonstrated in the case being
analyzed. Employees felt as though they were unrewarded for going the extra mile and
dedicating themselves to being effective workers. When looking at the case being analyzed this
is exactly what we see, an employee being asked to go the extra mile and place themselves into a
situation which might cause them harm, and that employee being resistant to that idea as they did
not feel the organization would do the same for them. Luckily for this organization I think there
are fairly straightforward answers as to how to address this problem that is affecting the
organizations ability to operate at the level at which they would like. I believe that simply
recognizing the hard work that the employees of the location do and thanking them for it and
letting them understand that they are appreciated would go a long way. This could be done in so
many different, yet simple, ways that would not drastically effect the way in which the
organization operates, but yet provide great benefit to it. Some changes I might make to better
the human resources of the organization and the relationship between its itself and its employees
would be showing both public and private support for employees who demonstrate dedicated
work. Just showing acknowledgement and appreciation to the individual privately and to the staff
during things such as staff meetings, could go a long way for employees feeling valued. Along
with this, other minor things could be done to show appreciation, for example, every so often a
food item could be brought in for employees to have or a gift card with just a small amount of
credit on it could be given to an employee who really went above and beyond for a given period
of time. Simple things such as this I felt would have changed the dynamics of the location and
the mindsets/attitudes of the employees, which could have potentially helped in the situation
analyzed as the employee who got into the conflict with the supervisor might have been either
more willing to help or find another solution if their feelings toward the organization had been
different.

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

After reflecting on the situation, it is hard to say I would do anything differently in the
case being analyzed from the human resource frame. I say this as in order to have produced
meaningful change in the situation I am examining, the changes would have to be initiated by the
organization, not myself. When the conflict between the employee and supervisor occurred there
was underlying feelings of resentment, frustration, and unappreciation that the employee had
towards the organization that helped to fuel the conflict. I am not sure if at the time there is
anything I could have personally done from the human resources perspective that would have
helped to deescalate the situation or prevent it from occurring. I feel this way as I was on the
same level as the other standard employee and was not considered as someone who was in
charge of others or a major leader within the organization. With this being the case, I could not
reverse the feelings the employee who entered the conflict held towards the organization/location
as those feelings were directed towards the organization, not myself. With my rank within the

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organization also being the same as the employee, I was not in a position of power where I could
attempt to change the feelings that the employee held towards the organization. The only way I
feel I could have made a difference as an individual in this situation from the human resources
frame is to have done something before the event occurred.

Since I was not a representation of the organization to my fellow employees, nor did I
hold any power within the organization, I myself could not alter the feelings others and the
employee who entered the conflict had towards the organization. Because of this, the best course
of action to potentially prevent the conflict from occurring I feel would be to notify management
of how the employees felt. This is the only way I feel I could have made a positive impact on the
situation from the perspective of the human resources frame as it would have allowed for those
who do hold the power to make changes that could help prevent conflicts such as the one being
analyzed from occurring. Without the organization being aware of the feelings of their
employees there would not be any changes made as the assumption would be that everything is
going well since no one has mentioned how they truly feel. If either myself or a group of
employees explained to management some of the frustrations we were experiencing, potential
changes could have been made to the organizations processes that could have relieved some of
the negative sentiments held by the employees.

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 Reference or References