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 have an internal role in this situation.

The situation that I chose is one that had continually frustrated me and other workers.
When I started with BBVA I was part-time and eventually went to full time in a new branch.
At the time we had a full staff, and everyone got along great. One of the workers decided to
leave and pursue his interest in becoming a PO and left the bank. At the time, the banks had
what they called “floating tellers” who didn’t have a home branch, but instead floated to
different branches when they were short staffed in order to give them coverage. While we
were trying to fill this new position, this floating teller came to help us, let’s call her Sue.
Now Sue seemed great, she was experienced and had been with the bank a few years at this
time. She seemed to fit in great with the team and when the district manager asked her if she
wanted to stay on full time, she agreed. This is where the trouble started.

For the three years I was at that branch, Sue would continuously call out of work. This
was not just a random day here and there but every week. As soon as she got the position
permanently, that next week she called out for three days. Eventually management got
involved and Sue provided a FMLA note for job protection. Once she had this, she was
allowed to use all her sick and vacation days and after that, if she called out, she would not
get paid but still have job protection. The issue the branch had with that is that she would be
out every week, sometimes it would be two days and most often she would be out the whole
week. This went on until I couldn’t take it anymore and left the branch. It was frustrating
because we were continually short staffed. She would always be gone during the busiest
times in the month and always on Mondays and Fridays. It started to feel that it was being
planned more than she was actually sick. I have since left the branch but have heard this is
still going on and management is looking for any way to let her go. I understand that she has
a medical note, but I think this is where we should have hired maybe a part-time person for
extra coverage or allow her to work part-time instead and hire a full-time staff member. It
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 was constantly frustrating have lines to the door because we only had one teller. There were
times I got no lunch, or times I would have lines of people waiting and I would have to make
them wait just so I could go to the bathroom as I got no breaks. It became a terrible work
environment, and I was so happy when I transferred.

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

The politics influenced the situation in that the organization in my case study is
based on title and hierarchy. Each boss has a boss and that goes all the way to the CEO.
At the banking center there was multiple managers such as teller manager, bank manager,
investment manager, etc. But there was always a branch manager. Each branch manager
then had a district manager who would be in charge of multiple cities or states, and all the
branches within this area. The district manager then had a regional manager who was in
charge of a bigger area, the district managers in that area and all the branches. The
regional manage then report to multiple vice-presidents and then eventually to the CEO.

In this case I am not sure if the situation was even made clear to the regional
manager. I know the district manager knew because she often came to visit our branch
and knew of the situation. I had heard that my branch manager and her did not really get
along and so because of this, the district manager didn’t fully do what she could have
done to “punish” my branch manager. To me, this was an inappropriate use of power.
The district manager should have set her personal feelings aside and been more helpful to
the branch, and instead she decided to focus on letting us figure it out. In this case we can
see the main area where power was exercised. There was an unspoken dislike, and this
caused the district manager to be the winner and our branch the loser. When she would
come to the branch it was always a big deal to put on a big show for her and wow her.

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

I think more could have been to get around the district manager, but this is where
you could open a complex issue. Technically the district manager is who the branch
manager should talk to and negotiate with. But like in these instances where the district
manager is not going to do anything then I think the manager should have reached out to
the regional manager. I was never in a position to email or talk to the regional manager, I
was just a teller. If I had been in a management position at the time, I would have talked
to my district manager, with someone else present such an HR. If that conversation led
nowhere then I think my next step would have been to talk to another district manager or
schedule a meeting with the regional manager.

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 This is a great alternative but then it also opens up the complex that now you just
went over your boss’s head and what future repercussions that could bring. I think in this
case you could have your future district manager try to give “pay back” for going over
her head, but I also think this where it actually pays off more to have the hierarchy.
Instead of thinking there was no one else to talk to, or no one else to help, there could be.
I think bringing in the regional manager and lawyers and HR personal would have give
the regional, district, and branch manager the tools and resources it needed to deal with
this situation accordingly.

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

What I have learned from this frame is to pick my battles. In big corporations and
organizations such as a big bank, there is always going to be politics. There is always
going to be those who are more favored by the bosses, and those who are not. There will
always a bigger and bigger boss and sometimes its about who you know. This is where
the centralization of power is important. This brings to light that not every manager is
going to help you and sometimes you need to help yourself or find other alternatives and
solutions.

This also brings to light how politics can be on a smaller scale. For example, with
the put downs and innuendos. There were multiple times the district manager but other
employees and managers down, and this plays into the politics that you need to get on her
good side or else. I feel like looking into this frame, there are a lot of things that need
fixing within PNC. To my knowledge the district manager and regional manager are still
the same, and yet many, me included, have left due to the work conditions. I also think
this frame brings to mind that you can try everything and still get nowhere. I’m not sure if
I could have done anything differently as I do not know what the steps the manager took.
But I think I would have used the higher ups more, even if that meant stepping on my
boss’s shoes. I had to think of all my branch employees and how this situation was
affecting them too.

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 Reference or References