OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:

1. Describe the political frame

2. Apply the political frame to your personal case situation

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

CONFIDENTIAL: In my department, all of our activities were data-driven. We

were collecting scientific clinical research data, to prove that our investigational new
drugs (IND) were therapeutically significant, efficacious, and safe, so that the FDA would
approve our INDs. My supervisor, Carl, had worked in Clinical Research for over 10
years, previously he worked in Data Management and had a very strong understanding of
the industry standards and regulations. Carl knew every role in our department, inside
and out because he worked his way from junior level associate up to Senior Manager
over the 10 years he worked in our department. When he was promoted, he immediately
went to work standardizing our processes and updating our outdated SOPs, and creating
a new quality control (QC) tool to help our processes align with the industry standards.
Nine of the eleven PMs in my department felt that he had no right to change things and
expect them to do their job differently, so they continued to refuse to change the way they
were doing some of their processes or to use the new QC tool.

My role in BioPharm was to support the Program Managers (PMs), I was the
newest addition to the team. Carl had trained me when I started and he was one of the
best trainer and manager I have ever had the privilege of working under. I defended him
several times in meetings because the changes he was implementing were long overdue
and desperately needed, but I and had no power, authority, or influence within the team.

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

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 In Chapter 11, of the book Reframing Organizations, we read about how

organizations are both arenas for political contests and active political players in the
Pharmaceutical industry; this could not be more true (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The
Pharma/Biotech industry is impacted by politics and impacts a lot of American politics
because the industry and its lobbyists fund a large amount of the political arena. But for
my case study which involves a few people in a small department within the arm of
Research & Development, the politics that are involved are more of the office politics
that are common in almost every type of organization regardless of the industry.

In this situation described above, Carl was attempting to use his earned positional
power to implement change and set agendas, but he did not realize that those under him
were not acknowledging or validating this power, he had no authority or influence. Carl
did not map out the political terrain or try networking or building coalitions and buy-in or
negotiating. He was trying to strong-arm his way, which is the opposite of being
politically savvy (Bolman & Deal, 2017). If Carl would have taken the time to survey the
political climate of his department, he would have seen that it was divided into two
separate base camps, the BioPharm employees and the contracted employees. Then
within those groups, there were sub-groups, the “good ol’ boys” culture was made up of
the PMs, made up of both BioPharm and contracted employees, who had been in the
department for years.

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

It did not help Carl that his boss had her favorites among his subordinates to
whom she granted direct access to her. This is usually unheard of in the industry, since
there is a chain of command. The product managers (PMs) who were a part of her inner
circle viewed Carl as a peer who had no authority or power to yield over them. They had
the ear of his boss and felt they could wield this cronyism in their favor. In this situation,
the scarce resource was power itself. “Scarce resources and enduring differences make
conflict central and power the most important asset” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p. 188). The
contracted employees, who felt that they were better suited for the promotion, used their
relational proximal power to compensate for their lack of positional power, since they
were not actual BioPharm employees and did not qualify for the promotion. By refusing
to honor Carl’s positional power, they essentially stripped him of all his power, since he
was not very relationally close with his boss. He was promoted on merit, not cronyism.

The new hires, and PMs who did respect Carl’s positional power and who did not
have any access to his boss, had no problems with the changes that Carl was attempting
to implement because we knew the changes were needed to get us aligned with the

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 current industry standards. It is common sense and true that goals cannot be declared like
an edict and implemented by force from the top down without having a fight or power
struggle (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Carl should have begun the change process through an
ongoing process of negotiations and bargaining, having one-on-one and small group calls
with all the members of his team. He would have been better able to avoid the disgruntled
members of the crony club from revolting. He would have been able to at least try to get
their buy-in, and/or negotiate with them before attempting to implement such a big
change.

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

I would have gone about this situation completely different. I would have first
gotten buy-in from Carl’s boss. I would have had her be the one who informed the team
that Carl would be making these changes. “When a partisan trust authority, and see it as
legitimate, they will accept and support it” (Bolman & Deal, 2017, p.199). If the PMs
knew that the leadership of the department trusted Carl and had her full support, they
would have given him both positional and relational proximity power and authority that
he was due.

I also think Carl could have also made the delivery of the message a bit more
palatable, like reporters do with headlines. The headline shapes the frame in which
someone reads and processes the information presented in the article. In the same way, if
Carl would have made the changes seem like a tool, gift, or help for the PMs, then they
would have been better receptive to the changes. Instead of feeling that Carl was trying to
control them, they may have understood that he was trying to help make their jobs easier
and lighten their workload.

References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Perusall version)

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