OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

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

As an employee in the organization, I have witnessed hours given to the

employees have been cut significiantly. Labor hours are given to stores who perform
highly. Starbucks is currently facing staffing shortages causing their performance to
decrease, meaning hours are being cut for employees (Schulz, 2022). Due to the staffing
shortages, we are forced to have modified hours for our store, opening our store later and
closing our store earlier. Hours being cut also means pay is being cut. This causes
frustration among both customers and employees.

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

I think that the whole situation that happened with Starbucks has been drug out
and did not need to be taken so far. Regarding the structural frame of the organization,
the higher level positions of Starbucks tried to treat the organization as if it were a
theater. By this I mean that they tried distracting employees from seeing what was really
going on, and I think that they tried to discretely cut hours and hope that no one noticed
so that no one would make a big deal of the situation. They also put up a front to the
public to try and keep the pulic calm about the whole situation, especially about the store
opening later and closing earlier. Too much lights and camera to distract the people, but
not enough action being taken to help us out.

I also think that power was being used ambigiously. Like I mentioned previously,
I think this situation was taken too far and did not need to go down this way. I think that
this is a situation that honestly probably could have been dealt with by us, the employees.
However, power was taken too far and the person who was wielding this power has
decided to take it upon themselves to come up with a solution without any of our help
from the store level. It is this type of power that drove more employees away leaving us
with less employees and performing poorly.

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

I would use planning as a an alternative course of action regarding this sitatuation.

It is always important to come up with a plan for any sitatuion to provide structure and
guidance for your team. A team trusts a leader who is always well prepared and able to
come up with plans. Planning can give my team a heads up of where we are at and what
still need improving. Also, it can be used as an evaluation of the organization’s
performance (Bolman, 2021, p. 302). I would create and implement a plan that would
provide clarity to my empoyees as well as evaluate our performance to tell us how we can
be improving along the way.
I would also conduct meetings every so often. Team building is important to the
success and individuals of this organization. Whether we are having a meeting to figure
out a plan of action or having a meeting just to spend time with each other, I would
conduct more meetings (Bolman, 2021, p. 304). Having a storong team and time to bond
with each other might makes others feel more welcome to the team and wanting to
actually stick around to see what the job is really about instead of feeling left out and
quitting after a month. This can also add some to the organization.

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

The number one thing that I would do differently is that I would be transparent
with my team from the start. Being transparent instills trust and positivity within your
team. Trying to be discrete and put on a show to distract your team from the truth will
lead to a very broken, destroyed team. This is part of what caused so many people to
leave Starbucks. They felt that they were not being looked out for as employees and felt
that they could not trust management and that is when more and more people began to
leave. I would have told my team about the problem that we were facing and tried
involving them in the situation to see if they had any ideas on how to fix things.
I would also encourage humor and play a little more. There is a lot of tension in
the workplace because of the situation. Of course we should take it seriously, especially
because if we don’t bump up our performance we fall behind and get labor hours taken
away from us. Encouragin humor an play releases the tension and loosens everyone up
more which can cause their performance to improve. As long as the team can find a
helathy balance of both seriousness and joking/playing around, our team will strengthen
and also promote creativity (Bolman, 20221, p. 286).

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 References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Schulz, Bailey. (2022). You may wait longer for your lattee: Some Starbucks stores cute hours
with staff shortages. Retrieved from
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2022/01/15/starbucks-covid-staff-
shortage/6540528001/