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.

Starbucks has gone through a major culture change that is effecting the moral of the
organization. Starbucks has to figure out how to move forward as an organization with
the currrent culture and also change the culture. My role within the organization is a shift
manager leading baristas in day to day activities.

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

Politics have played a major role in what has happened in Starbucks. They decided to
sacrifice their values in order to gain prominence on the market. They did this through
implementing a stock buyback program. This allowed the market price to grow higher
than they actually were. This was a move that only benifited the highest up in the
organization.

There was also another area that politics played a big part in. This was a the partner
development track. Starbucks had a way of promoting people that was not fair at all. It
was based on a very biased system of popularity and visibility. This was something they
had to change in order to become more transparent in their hiring process.

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

I think that the buyback program was a bad move for Starbucks. They went against their
values in order to produce better numbers on paper and benefit the ones highest up. I
believe that they should get rid of the program. I think it would be the best move for the
sake of all people.

1
 I also think that they need to create a program that allows for transparancy within the
hiring process so it does not become a popularity contest. This could work against the
negitive politics that get played within the organization.

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

I think that Starbucks has done a great job with changing the culture of the hiring process.
They have done this by creating a new hiring transparancy program. They also dropped
the buyback program in order to align with their values as a company. I think that the
thing I would change about the approach Starbucks took would be to implement a
program to unsure all finachal decisions are made with all people in mind. This would
help prevent something like what happened with the buyback program from happening
again.

I have learned a lot through the political frame. I belive that I have learned that you can
use politics for good. We can shape them but putting systems in place to make sure they
do not get out of hand. Before learning about this frame, I had very negitive views of
politics. I now understand that we can get great things done through them.

2
 Citation

Sorkin, A. R., & Hirsch, L. (2022, April 4). Starbucks's new C.E.O. scraps stock buybacks to
'invest more profit into our people.'. The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2022,
from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/business/starbucks-buybacks-schultz.html