OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural 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.

Over the years there has been many designers come and go, and other have been
promoted or given different opportunities in the organization. Others have been
promoted in the design department by title and given added responsibilities, but have not
been given much opportunity to learn other aspects of the business. I had brought up
my desire to move to the project management department and was told that as soon as
there was an opening and the timing was right with my design projects that I was going
to get the opportunity. Time went by and the opportunity did not come, and I decided to
go back to school and get a degree in project management. I did in with the intent of
finding an opportunity with a different organization once I got my degree. I few months
back I was approached by a different organization that found out I was interested in
project management and was about to finish my degree. They made me a compelling
offer to take a job with them as a project manager in training. I had decided to take the
offer and went to break the news to my current boss, soon after the executives of the
organization wanted to have conversations with me and wanted to know why I wanted to
leave and if they could do anything to stop me from leaving. I brought up the fact that I
have been feeling stuck in my position as designer and have not been given the
opportunities I desired. They informed me that they had already had a plan to transition
me to the project management department by the end of the year. To which I replied, “I
would have been a good idea to inform me of those plans”. After a two more days of
conversations and negotiations, they provided me with a plan that provides me with the
opportunities I had been asking for in the organization, plus a couple other concessions
to my benefits. Now I am working on transitioning my projects to other designers and
will soon be managing projects instead of designing them. I am happy with the efforts
the organizations made to keep me happy and have me stay with them, but I still believe
that management has a big communication short fall. This is something that I have
brought up with management and I was asked to be part of a task force set out to help
with employee retention and organizational communication.

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

The structure of my organization is Divizionalized, meaning the different departments

or divisions that have a semi-autonomous setting. The different departments of sales,
estimating, design, project management, and construction have free rein to do their
portion of the work and accomplish their responsibilities without the direct input of the
others. Design is in charge of taking a contract from the sales team and making sure that
they produce a design that meets all the requirements of the contract and the authority
having jurisdiction over the construction project. The other departments take care of their
parts as well, but can request input from design as needed.

When I wanted to make a change in my career, I had to convince my department head

and the head of the department I wanted to move to. When the request was brought up it
was never a good time for the design department manager to let me move, and always
requested a few more months to put all the pieces in place to make the transition easier
for both departments. When the time was right for the design department, it was always a
bad time for the project management department to take a new manager, either had no
need for one or could not spare time to train a new one. This kept me in design for way
too long and got me to the point of looking for the opportunity with a different
organization.

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

Because my organization is divisionalized it would take the input from upper

management to push or force changes of personal between departments. There would
need to be a step or provision put in place within the structure to facilitate these types of
changes. By adding a department that could help with the inter-department
communication and setting up a transfer plan for employees like me that have other goals
with our careers. This would eliminate the dependency of a manager from your
department from holding on to a member of their team because they do not want to lose
their production. Like in my situation where I felt that I was being held back because of
my needs of my current department.
I came to the point that I was ready to quit and move to a new organization. When
my current organization was faced with either loosing me for good or making the
change, I have been working for happen, their choice was to make the change within
their organization. This was something that did not need to happen, they were able to
convince me to stay and provide the opportunities I wanted, but there was a point in time
that I had decided to leave because of the fact that I had tried and push for what I
wanted for way too long.

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

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 What I learn from this situation is that if my voice is not being heard by the
management members that are directly over me, it is always a good idea to seek to
communicate to higher management members and voice my frustrations. I say this
because upper management got involved in the situation once I decided to leave the
organization. Not only that but they were surprised that I wanted to leave and also the
reason behind it, since my direct mangers had not brought up the situation up to them.
The problem with divisionalized organizations is that they also limit the opportunities to
withing their division/departments. If someone is needed, they will typically not help
with the process of them moving to other departments and risk being shorthanded with
their work. But all this can be planned and minimize the negative effect of the change
and improve the team and keep the employees happy at the same time.

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 References

Aero Automatic Sprinkler Company. Aero Sprinkler. (n.d.). Retrieved August 26, 2022, from
https://aerofire.com/

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass