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.

I work for the United States Air Force and am stationed in a specialized construction unit
(known as a squadron) in Germany. I personally work as a project manager and lead electrician
in an 18 person section that mainly focuses on construction projects. The scenario this case study
centers on is figuring out how our squadron fits into the bigger mission of our Wing (a higher tier
in the military structure). The Wing is designed for combat and combat support, which a
contruction-based unit does not easily fit the mold of. The Wing commander has personally told
our squadron commander that he doesn’t know how to use us and our capabilities within his
mission. So how does our squadon navigate this scenario? Do we stay under the Wing or realign
to a different place where we may fit in better?

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

This situation can be easily viewed through a political lense. One of Bolman and Deal’s
(2021) political assumptions is that “scarce resources and enduring differences put conflict at the
center of day-to-day dynamics and make power the most important asset” (p. 192). This impasse
of non-matching mission set between the squadron and Wing has been going on for over a
decade. Further, the squadron must compete against all other units under the Wing for resources
and money every single year. This runs into another political assumption: “most important
decisions involve allocating scarce resources” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 192). From the
perspective of the Wing, why should they allot any more resources than absolutely necessary to a
squadron that they get little tangible benefit from?

The concept of power can also be applied to this scenario. There are two general assumptions
that one can make about nearly any military commander: they do not want to get on their boss’
bad side, and they do not want to give away any of their capabilities. Both of those have negative
implications to the power the commander holds. The former undermines the subordinate
commander’s reputation, and the latter decreases the superior commander’s positional power

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(Bolman & Deal, 2021). Therefore, we have a situation where the squadron commander does not
want to fall out of favor by announcing the intent to leave, and the Wing commander does not
want to lose our squadron from under his command, regardless of the organizational mismatch.

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

One thing that might have been helpful is solving this problem is setting a clear agenda.
Were I the Wing commander, I would have followed up the comment about being unsure how to
utilize the unit with an intent of how I would like to see the issue improved upon. “A vision
without a strategy remains an illusion” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 215). While we at the squadron
search for a strategy to move forward, we remain unsure of what the vision is and are thus unsure
of what direction to go in.

A trap that I would like to avoid in this case is utilizing problemistic search: going with the
first acceptable solution found (Bolman & Deal, 2021). A scenario of this magnitude should not
be quickly decided. Since the situation is not immediately detrimental to either party, time is
affordable and should be utilized to the fullest extent to reach the best possible solution. As
Bolman and Deal (2021) state, agendas are never neatly packaged and become harder to contend
with the larger they are. I would not want to jump on the first solution found only to encounter
the same problems almost immediately.

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

I view the Wing commander’s comment about not knowing how to use the unit as less of a
statement and more of a challenge. It could be argued that it was a use of coercive power to spur
the squadron commander into action. I like that it was directly addressed like this rather then
letting the problem fester, leaving both parties unhappy. Another good thing that came of this is
that it let the squadron commander utilize his own professional network to solicit advice.

However, one thing that I would change would be to have the Wing commander futher
elaborate on his intent. Bolman and Deal (2021) list framing as one of the sources of power. By
not framing his statement of using the squadron correctly, it left room for the squadron
commander to misinterpret the intent. The overall situation is very malleable and could go
multiple different directions. The Wing commander may have unintentionally set the squadron
on a course that could potentially become unrecoverable.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.