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
Greg Strapach 2/5/2023

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 will be looking into the situations from the last two decades that include illegal activities
from Wells Fargo employees. Some of these activities include, opening new accounts for
customers without their consent, opening new credit cards, and carry into illegal foreclosures
and repossession of property. These activities spand a large amount of time so I will be
focusing in on two larger stories. 2016 news story of the fradulant accounts as wells as the
recent news of the illegal activities that caused the bank more than 3 billion in fines. I am
especially curious to understand why these behavior persist even after being caught and
fined.

My role will be one of an external party looking inward. I would like to dive deep and
examine some of the practices that lead to the fradulant behavior as well as understand why it
persists. My interest lies in understanding the corporate culture that has lead to such
behaviors and the leadership behaviors that have failed this organization. I am not affiliated
with Wells Fargo in any way and have not ties to this particular bank. My curiosity stems
from the repeated behaviors that seem to continue to occur and the loyalty of the customers
and workers that they employ.

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

The politics of the organization influenced the situation in a very negative way. Given that
those towards the tops were focused more on driving key sales and iniatives, there became an
unhealthy environment of sales at any cost at the lower levels. It is my opinion that this type
of environment bread various types of coalitions to help further individual gains. It would
prove to be beneficial for someone to align themselves in favor with their managers in order
to keep eyes off their immoral actions. In addition, leaders could have taken advantage of

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 their ability to control the flow of information to keep followers unaware of how serious their
actions were.

As this particular scandal unfolded, you saw employees at all levels placing blame on others
for their actions. Seemingly, no one wanted to take ownership of their own actions and
played the blame game. Bank tellers mentioned multiple times, they did what they did
because of the immense pressure. Bank managers complained about the targets and demands
from senior leaders to hit goals and tried to spin the narrative in their favor. At the end of the
day though, accountability has to stick with all involved regardless of how they viewed their
individual roles.

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

I would recommend using organizational politics to help change the culture of the
organization. First, you need to find someone from outside Wells Fargo to come in and
garner support from others. The purpose of having someone externally would be to keep
distance form recent scandals, the necessity of them forming relationships internally is to
build much needed support. I would then encourage the PR department to run a series of
campaigns on how the organization is rebuilding and invite consumers along on the journey
by keeping everyone informed. Controlling the positive narrative or rebuilding can prove
very beneficial.

In addition to the above, I would encourage conenctions outside the organization within the
banking ecosystem. Gaining support from another trusted organization in the same sector
will help with the image of the organization. Consider the possibility of collaborating with
another institution to help repair the tarnisher reputation.

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

What I would do differently is try to stop the illegal activity immediately. If I were the CEO
of Wells Fargo and I knew what was going on, I would direct all employees to stop the
behavior and end the incentive program until further notice. Knowing there was a PR
nightmare looming, I would try to get out ahead of it by releasing statements and data. I
would continue to use my relationship with the board of directors to help navigate any
turbulent waters anc strengthen my ties with the other execs.

I would then host a serious of meetings to connect with the various branches and let them ask
me any questions they may have. I would own the responsibility for the behavior but also
hold people accountable at all levels. There wouldn’t be much else I could do differently
given the type of situation the organization is in so I would brace for the fall out. Salavaging

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 a name and reputation would be the only other thing of concern. What’s done is done and all
you can do is try to mitigate the fallout.

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 Reference or References
(Choose appropriate Title if Applicable and Delete the Rest)