OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal Frame Worksheet

My Nguyen

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the political frame
2. Apply the political frame 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.

I am a shift supervisor at Starbucks and my daily tasks revolve around guiding partners in
delivering the Starbucks experience while managing business operations. The
organization has gone through significant changes with the pandemic and leadership
development is shifting. In assessing the changes, I want to see whether the priorities of
the organization have changed and how leadership development has changed as a result.

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

From a politic perspective, I think of my manager as a politician because he negotiates

expectations with his bosses. Bolman and Deal have highlighted the fact that
organizational goals are usually set by owners or top managers (2017, p. 188). With the
executives of our company setting our goals, some goals are so general that they seem
unrealistic for many stores. Only store managers have the ability and resources necessary
to negotiate for their store. Therefore, the person with the most influence in my store is
my store manager.

By scheduling meetings with other store managers, he can gain more support for his
arguments and is in a better position to negotiate for our store. Alliances and networks
can become a source of power or influence (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p. 192). From this
perspective, I am the middleman between my manager and baristas. In gaining the
support of other shift supervisors, I can work with my manager on setting realistic
expectations for our store. The politics of the organization is closely examined by the
interactions between partners, managers, and executives. Due to a loss of revenue from
the pandemic, the organization’s goals does emphasize profit more than leadership
development right now.

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

My alternative course would involve building relationships with shift supervisors in other
stores. Stores within the same district have the ability to borrow shift supervisors from
each other and relationships are easy to build. However, it requires communication from
shift supervisors and managers to express the availability and from manager to manager
to express consent. In building relationships with as many partners as possible, I believe I
can gain some influence by obtaining and sharing knowledge to help guide the situation
toward a more realistic path.

In being a leader at my store, I can manage tasks and relationships for better productivity.
This approach looks at the usefulness of informal network where formal networks fail.
By attending to the human needs of the partners around me, I would be in a better
position to create a positive, productive working climate. In looking to other partners and
shift supervisors for help and building relationships with everyone, I believe that I am
building a network of valuable people who will be there when I need them and these are
the first actions to building coalitions (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p. 209). Although I do not
want to view my coworkers and fellow partners from this perspective, I believe it is
necessary in organizational politics for my company.

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

Given what I have learned, I would maintain my professional relationship with my store
manager and work harder at developing relationships with other partners. As my
leadership growth involves guiding baristas, I believe that I should work on building
more rapport. To some degree, I have relied more on reasoning for task completion than
relationships. So learning from this frame, I need to work on this area if I hope to be more
productive at work (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p. 209).

To influence the situation, I believe I need to highlight human needs during meetings
with my manager. This approach looks at ethicality and this understanding can help my
leadership development. If I am perceived as an ethical leader, I believe that I can help
guide conflict in the right direction. Although the company’s expectations can be a bit
unrealistic, if I can negotiate more reasonable goals with my manager. In customizing
goals, I can help other partners see a clear path toward goal achievement and help set
higher expectations for our store. The overall result would be a more cohesive, efficient
store performance. Playing politics, mainatain perception is key to getting things done. In
this case, it involves perception of partners, my store manager, and executives.

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 Reference

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

(6th  ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Perusall Version Only)