Personal Case Analysis: Symbolic Frame

Christapher Cutting

Arizona State University

Pro-Seminar I
 Our organization was in need of an information technology (IT) systems refresh, with ageing

equipment our mission was exceeding the existing network and technical capabilities. As a preferred

vendor with an existing relationship and facility access, I engaged with Dell EMC for their services.

However, due to poor documentation and personnel departures, I was gifted this project with very little

information on the previous acquisition and processes. The Dell EMC representative was eager to

capitalize on this situation, and sought to garner a lucrative and inflated government contract. My role

was to consolidate and define the organization’s requirements, acquire the best solution for both our

organization and the tax-payer, while doing so in a relatively short period of time.

This project ended up becoming a prolonged and drawn out process, although there were

clearly articulated requirements, competing agendas and ineffective organizational methods created

barriers at every step. For instance, even though we had a strategic plan in place that guided our

organization’s vision and operational intent, there was a clear lack of follow-through and

implementation of processes to arrive at the desired end-state. Plainly, we failed to take the steps

needed to achieve our goals as an organization. This directly impacted how effective I could be in

completing this project. As Bolman and Deal stated, “many executives recognize the shortcomings of

strategic planning yet continue to champion the process” (2017, pg. 288). Our plan lacked the teeth

needed, and the clear power distribution required to empower decision making at the appropriate level.

Frustrations mounted as the project suffered delays and the lack of interest by the Dell representatives

only increased the discouragement and bitterness in the team.

Through those frustrations, something magical was born. Pranks and levity began to take on a

life of their own in the office. At one point, after a brief absence from the office to pursue training in

another region, I was welcomed back to my desk by a wallpapering of Nicholas Cage images. Everything
from Nicholas Cage in cage, to his face superimposed on a koala. The pranks didn’t end there, everything

from ping-pong balls in an overhead cabinet to a police tape wrapped desk was in play. They went so far

as to implement the Golden Pop-Tart Award for Excellence, just a box of limited run gold foil wrapped

Pop-Tarts from the 2012 Olympic Games. The informal cultural players showed up and did not hold back

in their roles, they used methods outside the norm to address the human issues that were beginning to

take a toll on the office and help ease frustrations (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

Planning can have a powerful effect, it brings individuals or groups into a collective partnership

under a single vision, regardless of its ultimate functional utility. Strategic planning outlines goals that

may never come to fruition, but the process has a purpose, it’s “an essential ceremony that

organizations stage periodically to maintain legitimacy” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, pg. 289). As a course of

action, I would recommend the vested parties had sat down and established a strategic plan for this

project. Here the entire Dell consulting team would be present, not just the single representative who

merely served as a liaison or intermediary. With equal seating at the table to determine the desired end-

state of the project, this includes the leaders and power brokers within my organization at the same

table.

This course of action leverages the theater of organizations, a token expression of commitment

that brings disinterested parties into the fold and provides an avenue to establish relationships and

dependencies that otherwise go unfulfilled. Plans serve as symbols, they are opportunities to gather and

socialize creating avenues of collaboration and discourse, and they serve as an advertisement platform.

Dell had already established a in-road to our organization as a preferred vendor, but they lacked the

commitment to continue to develop the relationship further thus impeding their ability to secure future

contracts and opportunities to peddle their wares.

 Following this course of action is ultimately what I would like to have been able to do given the

chance to go back. The relationship never developed and while one side of the partnership was engaged

the other, Dell, was aloof and uncommitted. By leveraging the drama of the planning process, we could

have fostered a tighter relationship and sense of purpose across both organizations that could have

brought benefits to each. As the customer we would have gained improved capacity to exploit

technological gains and expedited our simulation and data analysis, as the vendor Dell would have

gained an in-road to more exquisite customers that we collaborated with who shared similar technology

requirements.

Although there is a limit to the amount of influence any organization can impart on another to

achieve their goals, the missed opportunity to collaborate negatively affected each to varying degrees.

What seemed to be the biggest hurdle to action from Dell was the apparent lack of legitimacy of our

organization. We were a tenant organization, displaced from our headquarters by more than two

thousand miles, and were overshadowed by larger governmental offices and agencies with vastly deeper

pockets. But this perception could have been changed had I used the planning process to create the

symbology needed to influence their commitment and felt need to collaborate with our organization.

Reference
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (6th

ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass