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

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.

As discussed previously, the organizational situation I have chosen to analyze is one that

occurred when I was working with the educational division of the public health office at my

former university as a student volunteer. During a meeting, my response to a question about

ways to improve the program was interrupted and met with hostility from the student lead in

charge of the educational division, leading to the carrying out of a mediation session that

ultimately resulted in my decision to leave the organization.

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

One way in which the politics of the organization influenced the featured situation was

through creating an environment where concerns for status and social capital prevented

members from disagreeing with the group’s leader. In the organizational situation, the faculty

advisor who ran the facilitation session between myself and the group’s student lead seemed

very surprised by my interpretation of my experiences with the group, as this was the first

time she was hearing of anything like this from anyone in the group. I assume the faculty

advisor may have been similarly shocked when three other team members left within a month

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 of that session for similar underlying reasons. As it the case with many of the organizational

situations featured in this module’s readings, it is not that no one was aware of the troubling

dynamics occurring within the team, but rather that no one wanted to be the one to address

the elephant in the room or to bring matters to the attention of organizational higher-ups

(Bolman & Deal, 2017). In the case of my organizational situation, the political resource in

fear of being lost by disagreeing with the lead was social capital and perceived status within

the group.

Another way in which the politics influenced this organizational situation was through

differences in how the parties involved viewed power and politics themselves. Based on her

actions, the student lead of the group seemed to have a more structural view of power, seeing

power as being derived directly from a legitimate title, such as the one she possessed.

However, I was approaching the same situation with a more Human Resource based view of

power, seeing it as being derived from empowerment, such as the case with emergent leaders

within groups (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Because we were both coming into the interaction

with very different views of power, it is not at all surprising that we ended up clashing

politically.

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

If I were to use organizational politics to allow for an alternative course of to ensue in the context

of my organizational situation, I would attempt to create an atmosphere that placed less

importance on legitimacy and authority as the only source of power within the organization.

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While it can be important to have an established leader in some contexts, legitimate leaders tend

to be more effective when they still emphasize the importance of empowering their team

members instead of relying on official titles as their sole source of power. Therefore, the

organizational situation could have gone differently if the organizational culture promoted

healthy conflict and focused on empowerment to a greater degree than it focused on authority.

Although it is true that there is no one view of power or organizational politics that is inherently

the best, different approaches are better fit for given contexts. In this case, the context of my

organizational situation was one where adults with an interest in and passion for the work being

done were voluntarily participating in this organization. Based on the nature of this context, it

would be logical to approach politics and power in a way that focuses on empowerment and

encourages team members to take ownership over what they do and to contribute freely. I believe

that if the view of power within the organization was not as focused on legitimacy and authority,

the volunteers working there would have been less disgruntled with the group’s leadership

practices and dynamics, and those who left may not have done so.

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

Based on what I have learned about the political frame, I think I would have approached the

initial situation similarly but may have been more strategic in relation to my approach to the

mediation session that followed. Because the initial situation arose from a difference in opinion

on how the role of power within the group dynamic ought to be carried out, I theoretically could

have avoided the conflict by altering my views to fit more closely with those of the student lead.
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However, if I were given the opportunity to re-live this situation, I would not choose to take that

course of action, as I feel doing so would result in regret. While it is important to be flexible and

open to alternative perspectives, in some situations, such as the one featured, it can make more

sense to stand with your own views rather than to compromise them, especially given the

relatively low stakes of the events that occurred in the greater scheme of things.

On another note, given what I now know about the political frame, I would like to think that if I

were in the same situation now, I would have engaged in the mediation session with a bit more

tact and poise. If I am being honest with myself, my tone and general approach to the mediation

session was one of apathy and a bit of aggression, as I had reached a point of no longer caring

about my involvement in the organization. However, looking back, I would have liked to have

taken a more empathetic and constructive approach to the mediation session. Even though I

believe I likely still would have left either way, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to

give a more constructive overview of the underlying issues that led to the organizational

situation, allowing the organization the opportunity to grow and learn from the events that

unfolded.

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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.