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.

Sweetgreen is a healthy fast-casual restaurant, born out of Washington D.C. in August of 2007.
They are known for their salads/warm grain bowls, homemade salad dressings, frescas,
promoting creativity and locally sourced food. According to their website, their mission is to
build “healthier communities, by connecting people with real food.” I started in Sweetgreen as a
Store Lead, also known as an Assistant Manager in November 2016 in New York City. In the
Spring of 2018, I was tasked with helping to open a brand-new store location in the Upper West
Side neighborhood of New York City. While the construction portion of this store opening is not
going to be referenced, I can instead offer my point of view of my experience training
employees, operational planning, building culture, and meeting stakeholder expectations.

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

I believe the politics of the organization was straighten out during this store opening, because
everyone was on the same page when it came to doing whatever is necessary to help the store
grand opening be a success including fulfilling the duties of their specific roles. “Viewed from
the political frame, politics is the realistic process of making decisions and allocating resources
in a context of scarcity and divergent interests” (Bolman & Deal, 2021). The various coalitions
involved in the opening from bottom-to-top were the new trainees, the store opening trainers,
department leads, myself as the assistant manager, the store manager Simon, and Sweetgreen
executives. This structure allowed us to funnel important goals and information from the top-
down.

Since I was in charge of planning the store’s workflow, leads knew to consult with myself or
Simon when making decisions to the workflow or the store’s organization. Simon was in charge
of assigning positions and doing the scheduling, so everyone knew to consult with Simon in
regard to those inquiries. Also, every morning we had something which is called a “Sweettalk”
and it’s really just a morning huddle to align ourselves with the goals of the day and agenda. I

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truly believe that this helped us stay on track throughout the project timeline of two weeks.
Honestly, we didn’t really have many issues as everyone was committed to their tasks and
fulfilling their roles successfully for launch.

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

The politics in this scenario were effective in dividing the responsibilities of the various
coalitions and aligning them in ordinance with the project mission. We’d also take part in
supporting each other’s coalitions and seeking to provide assistance that would benefit each
coalitions’ interest. Understanding the politics is important because it can guide your decision-
making process as you understand whose authority is necessary to take considerate action and
consultation. For example, at Sweetgreen we have two prep teams, hot prep that takes care of all
the hot foods, and cooking of proteins and vegetables and we have cold prep that takes care of
prepping the produce for service.

It was my job to ensure that cold prep and hot prep stations were organized adequately by
consulting with both department leads. Both teams had their own prep space but shared the same
fridge. Collaborating with both department leads we had to come to a resolution about how we
would store items in the fridge while complying with Department of Health standards. I was able
to listen to both parties solutions and provide additional input that resulted in a collaborative
solution to managing and storing both departments food in our store. Fortunately, I would not
want to change anything we did for an alternative course of action because everything we did
was purposeful, and our solution was effective over the long term.

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

As previously stated, I would not do anything differently in relation to addressing the situation
through the political frame, as the launch was successful with approval from the top executives
to our customers. The staff was warm and friendly, and extremely helpful with our guest in
helping them navigate the new location and menu options. Our leads were positioned to lead our
front-of-house and back-of-house teams so that they felt confident in their roles. At Sweetgreen
one of the values was creating win-win-win situations. This meant that in situations of conflict or
dilemmas we would try to compromise so that the customer, team members and organization
would stand to benefit. It is values like this that helped develop a culture that is united in service
of separate interest but aligned goals.

I learned that politics is not always messy although people may have different interests and
represent different groups there are areas where people’s interests and goals can align together.
As stated by Bolman and Deal, “There is no guarantee that those who gain power will use it
wisely or justly. But power and politics are not inevitably demeaning or destructive” (Bolman &
Deal, 2021). When politics are transparent, and not self-defeating, progress can be made. In

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Sweetgreen everyone’s role had a purpose and part in creating connections with our guest and
bringing farm to table ingredients to the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City.

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