OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

1) Describe how the politics of the organization influenced the situation.

Politics play a part in any situation in an organization, the YMCA of Silicon Valley is no
different in this regard. The person that was the driving force behind this change was our
newly appointed Chief Operating Officer (Tim), who joined the organization as an
outsider, with no experience with the YMCA. Tim’s first main task to address was the
declining sales, as he had experience in similar positions at for-profit gyms that were
highly successful. The previous organizations he worked for had a structure that was
different than ours, so he thought that changing our structure to look more like other
organizations would be the best thing to do. He had to prove himself to our CEO and the
Board of Directors, so his own agenda and need to succeed is what drove this change to
fruition. He also had strong personal power and was able to convince the higher-ups that
this change would show quick results for our revenue, thus, the change was implemented
no more than three months after he started.

One of the reasons why this reorganization strategy was not very successful was because
Tim lacked a network within the YMCA that trusted his decision enough to act upon it.
Being so new and making such a drastic change that impacted so many employees was a
risky choice and it did not end up working out as well as planned. In addition to the lack
of trust, there was a defined lack of resources that were promised by the Executive
leadership that was not delivered. They viewed the restructure as the way that resources
(staffing and time) would be replenished when in reality, it created a divide between the
existing staff that made it more difficult to communicate and get work done. As
mentioned in the text, “the nimble manager walks a tightrope: developing a direction,
building a base of support, and cobbling together working relations with both allies and
opponents” (Bolman, 2017). This was the exact opposite of what Tim ended up
accomplishing, as he did not initially gain any support from the lower-level employees,
did not improve working relationships, and had very little direction to truly guide us.
This combination of actions did not help the revenue the company was gaining and
ultimately failed in its goal to improve overall profitability.

2) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

Given how new Tim was to the organization at the time, the best course of action for him
would have been to implement his strategy using someone else as the head of this
operation. By using someone that was well known and trusted by others within the

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 organization, he would have immediately set a more welcoming environment for the
change that was being made. He needed to understand that his own credibility was low
being so new to the organization (especially having no prior YMCA experience) and that
putting someone else in charge would have been a smart decision. I would have
recommended a senior leader who had been with the YMCA for at least five years that
knew a majority of the major players involved in membership and was known for being a
reliable leader. This would allow the senior leader to use their network for the greater
good, as their stance within the organization would be trusted and garner support.

In addition, this appointed leader would have been able to instill more of a clear vision
within the minds of the directors responsible for making up the decrease in revenue. The
lack of direction and resources given to the directors made it so that we did not readily
understand how we were going to manage to reach the outrageous goals being set for us.
In order to rectify this, having a leader layout a strategy with a clearly defined plan would
have helped paint a vibrant picture of how we were going to make it to our intended
results. Bolman says that “a vision without a strategy remains an illusion” (2017), and
that is exactly what happened. The lack of communicated vision and trust made it so that
we all felt as if we were not going to be able to meet such lofty expectations and our
suspicions were right. Having a respected leader that used their political status within the
organization for good would have completely changed how most of us approached what
was going on and would more than likely increased the likelihood of success.

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

Using what I know now, I would have used my position to gain my own support from my
colleagues to come up with a response to this change. It was clear to me that many of the
people directly impacted by the reorganization were not thrilled by the idea and felt as if
their input on the subject was not being heard. Having been with the organization for
over six years at the time, I knew all of my counterparts and a majority of the people I
worked with to a decent degree. I could have used my own personal power to help
connect our group and figure out how we all wanted to approach this situation. Many of
us were feeling stuck about how to reach a difficult goal, so using ourselves as resources
for one another would have helped expand our own knowledge and likelihood of
reaching our targets. Once we had come up with a plan, we would have then needed to
elect someone in our group to bring our concerns and potential solutions to senior
management. Again, this would have needed to be someone with a lot of connections
and respect within the organization, to give us the best chance of having our voices be
heard by the vice presidents.

Regardless of how that situation would have ended up, I would have benefited from
doing something similar with my own team. My front line staff would have been the best

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 people to look to for suggestions as to how to best identify potential issues and how to go
about resolving our issues with memberships being canceled. Sometimes the best answer
is right in front of you, and in this case, this was absolutely true. I need to use my
position and tenure to gain support from the staff that I worked alongside to figure out
how to make the best of a situation I was not going to be able to readily change. I’m sure
there may have ended up being some conflict between myself and the staff about what to
do but that would have been a healthy way of disagreeing on the best way to go about
solving our money problems. There may have been no right answer in this situation but
trying something would have at least resulted in something, as opposed to the inaction
many took as a result of the position they were put in.

Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass