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.

The situation that happened within my organization Starbucks was that our store manager
was giving a lot of favoritism. She was going to a lot of the baristas and allowing them to talk
poorly about the store's shift supervisors. She let certain people get away with things she
would write up the others for. She would gossip about partners about other partners. During
this time some of the team had written down these instances and reported her to our ethics
and compliance team at Starbucks which launched an investigation at our store. I was part
of the team who helped write the report and take notes on what was going on within our
store.

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

The politics of an organization is truly a dynamic of power and authority. In this situation, you
could look at this as “the Managers often fail(ing) to get things done because they rely too much
on reason and too little on relationships (Bolman, Deal).” It is important for a manager to have a
healthy balance of both. In my situation, the manager was more worried about her relationship
with some people and relying on reason too much for others. There were rules that some people
had to follow, like showing up on time, and there were some people who were really close to her
that did not have to follow that rule.

As we read, “Agendas never come neatly packaged. The bigger the job, the harder it is to wade
through the clutter and find order amid chaos (Bolman, Deal),” As a manager, you need to know
your people, where you are going, and how. This is really hard to do when you do not treat your
team with the same respect and standards as everyone. Since the manager had favoritism she lost
a lot of respect from people which made the situation worse. The less she liked you the less she
tolerated things like being 5 minutes late or calling in. But the more she liked you the more you
got away with things. It truly was all about politics.

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

When it comes to every organization there will always be politics at play. Since there are people
with more power than others within an organization, store, or team. It is important, to know that
“Interdependence means that people cannot ignore one another; they need each other's
assistance, support, and resources (Bolman, Deal).” You can use your power and authority for
good things to happen within your organization. A good leader will help their team grow
together, network, learn new skills, and support their goals and aspirations.

“Mutuality. Are all parties to a relationship operating under the same understanding of the rules
of the game (Bolman, Deal).” In this situation, if the manager had just treated everyone fairly,
and kept the same rules for everyone there would have been no issues. I would have
recommended that the manager kept the same rules for the people that she personally liked and
didn’t, and also kept the people she liked and did not like to herself. In a professional place, you
do not have to tell everyone your personal feelings about them.

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

One of the questions I read was, “Are you comfortable discussing and defending your choices
(Boleman, Deal)?” I think this is important because I never asked or questioned my manager's
choices. I should have asked her why she did what she did and seen how she defended these
actions. If she was able to give a good explanation then it might have been a better outcome. I
would for sure still report her now after learning about this frame since I think that with this
frame, keeping people to the same standard is really important.

I think that she really showed me the difference between a manager and a leader is being able to
have a good mix of relationship building as well as being a manager. When you are a leader you
do not pick favorites and you help your team become the best that they can be. You make sure
everyone is doing their work but also encourage their growth and expand their skills.

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 References

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

Wiley.