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.

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 symbols of the organization influenced the situation.

As stated in the text, “An organizaiton’s culture is revealed and communicated through its
symbols” (Boleman, Deal p. 255). If this is the case than Wells Fargo’s symbol of a horse
drawn carriage can be very hard to read. In some cases, the symbol was portrayed as a
reference to how the organization was using customers to pull them forward instead of its
intended meaning of never putting business before clients. I believe with a symbol like this, it
can be hard to clearly articulate the intended meaning with context.

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 Unfortunately, the context shift for Wells Fargo and the symbol became something
synonymous with the scandal that was unfolding. Even with the refocusing of core values
and their mission, it is hard to recover the image of the organization serving customers when
so much of the scandal involved taking advantage of customers in order to gain profits.

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

My recommendation for Wells Fargo is to scrap their current symbol and go back to the
drawing board. I would say that they need to find solace in their heritage from long ago
and start to revitalize themselves with their rich history from before the scandal. Take
lessons from things done before and leverage the organization to co-create a new image.
When great scandals arise, great actions must be taken to help reframe the organization.

Reflecting on the text, I believe Wells Fargo would need to do some work around Scott’s
third view of institutional theory which describes the structure of organizations as
reflecting social myths or ideas of the organization as good currency or a relection of the
organization itself (Boleman, Deal p. 297). Simply put, the organization is a mirror of
how the public views them currently. Untrustworthy and lacking leaders of character,
Wells Fargo will continue to struggle unless they control the stories being told about
them. Leveraging their heritage and propelling their good deeds into the public eye can
reframe and improve their image.

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

Thinking of this frame, I would have recommended to Wells Fargo that they immediately
stop their actions and remove their executive staff in a dramatic way. I would have not
been hush hush about what was going on. Truth be told, everyone was going to find out
anyways. If they board of directors had decided to do a public clensing of the top execs,
they could have controlled the media attention and shared how appauled they were at the
actions of a few in power.

Instead, they drew out the inevitable and took too long to act or own up to what was
going on. By doing this, it almost portrayed the organization as not taking the matter
seriously enough. Albeit, my course of action would not be ideal, it would at least
provide a stage for the organization to control the narrative and what was going on and
help them to pain the picture of disappointment in their leadership team.

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 References

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

leadership (7th ed.). Jossey-Bass.