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

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.

At Professional Tax & Accounting, I held an internal role as an Operations

Manager. Within my position, I performed payroll, accounts payable/receivable, billing,

and human resources for the company. I also acted as the client liason where I handled

client concerns and questions. I managed inventory and cleaning, while also managing

the workflow for the entire staff. I worked directly under Denny, the top manager, who

was at best, self-assured, passionate, and believed his innovative ideas were superior to

more traditional methods. At worst, Denny was manipulative, verbally abusive, and at

times, threatening. When Denny was in the office, the air grew stale and the floor

suddenly became thin ice. Because of Denny’s bad leadership, the entire office felt

stressed and failed to perform well at their jobs.

There was a specific point in time when Denny wanted to reorganize the

organization. He wanted to demote our General Manager to a bookkeeper and tax

preparer. He wanted to assume the role of General Manager so that he could manage the

struggling accounting firm more closely. In the midst of this transition, I was asked to

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 create a business proposal. In my proposal, I met each concern he presented with a

thoughtful, creative solution. In my suggested proposal, I had him out of the picture.

When I sent Denny my proposal, I asked him to postpone our all-staff meeting

where he was planning on announcing these organizational changes. I thought that these

big decisions needed more time to be thought through fully. He agreed, but only

postponed the meeting by one hour so that we could meet first. In our meeting, he

disregarded most of my suggestions, while increasing my workload.

After the meeting, I tried to go back to work, but was overwhelmed by how much

I needed to do and had a meltdown. Quickly, my colleagues off-loaded my work to help,

but it didn’t help. The temporary help was not a permanent fix.

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

Politics have influenced Professional Tax & Accounting in subtle ways. The most

frequent way that it seemed to surface was through coalitions. “A coalition forms because

its members need each other, even though their interests may only partly overlap”

(Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 193). Working in the small firm, coalitions formed easily

because of the lack of diversity. Values, beliefs, and cultural ways were similarily held.

Personally, I tried to distance myself from certain coalitions at Professional Tax &

Accounting. Coalitions at this organization involved gossip and manipulation. Denny was

charismatic and was a visionary leader. He would share his vision, which always resulted

in happiness, balance, and wealth. Of course, everyone was on board for that kind of

future, so coalitions would form. However, he never clearly communicated the working

requirements to support that vision. While the vision was appealing, I always asked about

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 the work requirements, which were never readily known. I was encouraged to trust him. I

often felt alone because I chose to distance myself, but that meant that positive change

didn’t occur.

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

Organizational politics are not always negative. They can be very powerful in

making positive change. “Agreement and harmony are easier to achieve when everyone

shares similar values, beliefs, and cultural ways” (SOURCE p. 194). When I saw that my

colleagues and I received the assignment to create a business plan, I chose to stand alone.

I stood alone because I didn’t want others to take credit for my ideas. I also feared that

my ideas would be dismissed. Additionally, we did not have a lot of time to submit the

business proposal, so it didn’t work out to brainstorm together.

After learning about the positive benefits of organizational politics, I would have

used the political skills in my approach. “The manager as politician exercises four key

skills: (1) agenda-setting (2) mapping the political terrain (3) networking and building

coalitions; and (4) bargaining and negotiating” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 214). If I had

this knowledge at that time, I would have been able to leverage my resources more

wisely. This would have impacted my decision to work alone, who I would have

networked and built coalitions with, as well as being able to bargain and negotiate more

effectively because of the diversity within the coalition.

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

My biggest takeaway is that politics can be leveraged for good. Knowing this, I

would have responded differently by asking for a few more days. In reflection, I can only

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 speculate that the short deadline was a manipulation tactic. If the extra time was not

granted, I would have reason and opportunity and ask pointed questions to get to the heart

of the motivation. If the extra time was granted, I would have felt better about the

situation as well as have more conversations with my colleagues around the topic.

The agenda was already set, meaning, I knew exactly what the assignment was,

but it would have been helpful to map the political terrain, network and build coalitions.

“Managers often fail to get things done because they rely too much on reason and too

little on relationships” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 218). There was a colleague, Kris, that

worked on the investment side with Denny. He has worked with him for about twenty

years or so. Looking back, it would have been beneficial to talk with him about this

whole situation. I think that Kris would have had some wisdom to impart as well as a

thought on what should be done. Also because he has worked with Denny for so long, he

may have been able to suggest a different approach for me to take. For instance, instead

of emailing the proposal, perhaps I could have printed it and gave it to him in person.

I am grateful to have learned this perspective about politics in organizations. I am

looking forward to leveraging politics for the good in my future experiences.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., and Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass