OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:
PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet
Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and 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) Describe your organization.
My organization of choice for this assignment is an old company I worked for almost 10
years at called R&N Supply. They are a one-stop shop for contractors and homeowners to
get all their plumbing, heating, and HVAC needs. Throughout the years, I’ve always
described this company as a small, but large organization. Small in the sense that it is not
a nationally scaled company, rather it caters to the local area of New York where I lived
at the time. This organization had seven (7) store locations, three (3) of which had the
Bath Classic Showroom. This is where a customer could come in, see different products
on display, and sit with a sales specialist to help them design their new bathroom or
kitchen.
2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).
My role within the organization changed a few times. When I first started, I was a
warehouse worker, followed by a counter salesman, and eventually earned the role of
Branch Manager at one of the seven locations. My role as a Branch Manager dealt with
handling the day-to-day responsibilities from helping customers at the counter or via the
telephone, handling warranty issues, organizing the warehouse, training, handling any
unhappy customers, etc. Being a Branch Manager is where I have the most experience in
a variety of situations like the one you will read below.
3) Describe the situation. (see the Canvas instructions for details, especially about how
your situation will be analyzed from five different perspectives over the next five
modules)
As a Branch Manager, one may deal with multiple employees and an excess number of
customers throughout the day. All these customers have different personalities that
sometimes can be hard to handle when you see them every day, sometimes multiple times
1
a day. The situation that occurred deals with a daily customer and an employee of mine
who could be hard-headed at times. A side note that will be important in this situation is
this employee, Tim, is also a good friend of mine outside of work. Tim sometimes tends
to give attitude to customers, that he felt were “annoying,” as he would say. This specific
time Tim took a phone call from one of his least favorite customers, Pat. Tim spoke to
this customer in a manner that regardless of how you feel about a customer, should never
be spoken to like that. Unfortunately for me as the Branch Manager, I had to deal with
the repercussions that followed the phone call Tim had.
To put it into perspective, my office sits about 15 feet from the counter where Tim had
the phone conversation, so I could hear the tone he was speaking in. Before I could even
get up from my seat, Tim’s conversation ended, and my phone rang. Lo and behold it was
Pat, who was not happy from the second I answered. Pat expressed in his tone and words
how angry he was with the interaction he had just had with Tim. As the Branch Manager,
I had to reassure the customer he was not wrong in his feelings and that I apologize on
behalf of Tim and R&N Supply. It took a good 15-minute talk to calm Pat down and
reassure him something like this would never happen again. After the conclusion of my
conversation with Pat, my next step was to talk with Tim about his actions. Keep in mind
like I said earlier, Tim isn’t just an employee of mine. He is someone that I’ve known
since middle school and have been friends with for many years. This was the first time I
was presented with disciplining an employee, who was also a friend. I needed Tim to
understand the situation he just put myself and this company in with his actions. Tim’s
response was of course something I had already anticipated in he did not truly care
because of how much hatred he has towards Pat. I learned in that moment, I couldn’t
necessarily talk to Tim as boss Corey, but as friend Corey. This allowed me to talk to him
on a personal level and let him know that he is putting me in a tough situation because, at
work, work comes first, and I am going to side with the customer in this situation. After
he had some time to cool off, I was able to get through to Tim and he left my office
knowing what kind of mistake he made.
