Chelsea Velasquez

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

In 2020 the non-profit children’s museum I was employed with furloughed myself and
the rest of the staff due to lack of funds available to pay us. I was in an internal
administration position as an Outreach and Programs Specialist. The situation in question
leaves room for speculation of the what if outcomes that could have ensued had some
minor adjustments been made with the funds allocated to the museum.

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

The board of directors lacks diversity, as did the reamainder of the administration staff,
which doesn’t seem like it would affect the outcome of this situation, but it definitely
influenced decisions leading up to it. In the text Bolman and Deal mention that diversity
is a competitive advantage which helped the group of engineers in the example,
“harnessing the resulting energy galvanized the parts into a working team” (Bolman &
Deal, 2017 p. 270). The context of my own situation this was not the end result, leading
to the team being furloughed.

Along with diversity, the organization lacked soul overall. Even though the museum was
based around the idea of bringing together the youth of the community to offer an
educational, inspiring experience the leadership was perpetually focused on opertational
needs and funds. While this is important, the employees deserved a work culture that
envoked inspiration and not just a job. The board and director were faced with a tough
choice, and I don’t take that lightly.

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

The museum was essentially a play and the employees were the cast, as our expectations
were to present a smile and knowledge about the exhibits for the guests. Bolman and
Deal presented the idea that organizations can be viewed as theater. “In theater, what
appears is draped in perception” (Bolman & Deal, 2017 p. 280). The perception of the
museum was that it was the most enjoyable organization to work for, and yes it was fun
majority of the time, the lack of culture was apparent and negatively affected some of the
employees.

The symbolic change I would recommend would be implementing a full evaluation of the
board and their influence on the organization as well as the influence from the
stakeholders. Just as in theater you evaluate the performance of each cast member after

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 the show and give critical notes of their performance. In this context of the situation, an
evaluation could have saved at least several of the staffs jobs in effort to avoid them
being fully unemployed. Lastly, some talk of the idea that is collective bargaining would
have been useful in this situation. Such as an agreement between some of the floor staff
and director about a resigning of contracts when the museum were to open again perhaps.

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

Lucky for me to be simultanelously taking another OGL course currently where the focus
is ‘reinventing organizations’ as the topic. With that brings an alternative resource from a
piece of literature by the author Frederic Laloux, he explains that organizations that are
successful internally and externally offer purpose to the employee (Laloux, 2014).
Purpose is something that we seek as humans through the various stages of our lives,
when our place of work aligns with that perspective it elevates us.

So, with that thought I wish I could have fulfilled my duties better and advocated for
more of a culture at our organization. Then maybe the value of the employees would have
mattered more to the director and the board. Even under the uncertain circumstances of
the pandemic. Defining the purpose of the museum would have also aided a better
outcome of the situation.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and

Leadership (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Laloux, Frederic. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the

Next Stage of Human Consciousness. Nelson Parker: Belgium, 2014.