OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the political frame
2. Apply the political frame to your personal case situation
Joe Bednarski

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.

The company I am presenting is Lawson products. Lawson is a distributor in the

maintenance, repair, and operations industry (MRO). Distributing hardware, chemicals,
safety supplies and small parts to the maintenance professionals in various industries. I
am a territory sales representative for them covering multiple counties. Recently they
acquired a competitor and brought in additional sales reps from that company, which has
brought a lot of tension in the sales force. The lines and boundaries are blurred when it
comes to retaining customers, leads and territory.

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

As with any company merger, there are bound to be hiccups, headaches and regrets. This
is especially true when the two companies that are coming together were formally
competitors. Some of the politics involved include the products lines from both
companies are competing tobe the ones the company hold onto. For instance, we both
have drill bits that are fantastic but only one line can remain in inventory. Also, in the
situation with the sales roles, the politics of upper management is stuck trying to make
both parties happy.

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

With the situation regarding the territory and customer dispute between sales
representatives, the political frame would say that upper leadership has the responsibility
to address the issue. According to Bolman, “the political frame view organizations as
roiling arenas, hosting ongoing contests arising from individual and group interests…
Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining and negotiation among competing

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 stakeholders.” (Bolman, 2017, pg 184). The issue arises from limited resources and
shareholders from both companies competing for stake of the company.

Lawson is a very politically driven company. It seems that it is prominately driven by

shareholders and puts profits for them before the employees. But recent events with a
tightening market, supply constraints means the focus needs to shift to the workers who
drive sales and that mean more profit for the company.

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

If I had the choice I would reduce the number of sales force when the times were tough.
The supply chain bottlenecks and rising goods costs means there isn’t a need for large
amounts of sales representative. There just isn’t enough products to sell(in stock) and
many customers are watching spending. It seems to me the company would save money
reducing the number of representatives because of payroll and health insurance costs.

Another key point of the political frame is the formation between alliances within the
organization. It focuses on power and the conflict due the scarcity of resources.
Different departments within the organization are competing for power. The existing
lawson management is used to doing things their way and the new partsmaster
management is used to doing things their way. This tension makes it difficult for
solutions to get decided.

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 Reference or References