OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural frame to your personal case situation

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role. 

During my time at Table 22 (a fine dining restaurant), a staffing/management issue arose where
many people quit or were fired in a short period of time. The restaurant was understaffed and the
employees were overworked, with many people working weeks at a time without a day off. The
staff felt very tired, unappreciated and taken advantage of. Management was not honoring
people’s requested time off and scheduled hours of training on top of our already scheduled
hours, and generally did not respect their employees. During this time, the owners/ management
also fired two senior staff members and a service manager because they had refused to come in
on their scheduled day off, leaving us even more understaffed than before. Despite the manager's
efforts to hire more staff, more people quit, some people quit within their first week of being
hired. Overall, the morale of the team was very low and Table 22 was left with a small,
inexperienced staff during their busiest time of year.

2)   Describe how the structure of the organization influenced the situation.
The structure of Table 22 had an impact on the staffing issue because it seemed as though two
structures were operating at once and were at odds with each other. One of the typical team
configurations mentioned by Bolman and Deal is the “Simple Hierarchy” configuration/
structure, which is how I would describe the kind of structure Table 22 was supposed to have.
The owner/operators, Darren and Jill, were the boss. They then had several middle managers
such as the bar manager and the service manager reporting to them. The middle managers were
responsible for managing and communicating with the servers and other service staff. In this
structure, responsibilities are a bit more spread out and typically several people were involved in
decision-making. For example, hiring would be done by the service management team, who
would then get approval from Darren and Jill. I believe that this kind of structure is ideal for
most restaurants.

The structural issue that influenced the staffing problem was that Simple Hierarchy was not the
only structure at play, but instead, the “One Boss” model was often being used as well. Bolman
and Deal (2021) describe the One Boss configuration as one person having authority over others
and mention that this configuration can lead to the boss making bad decisions. Darren (one of the

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owners) had his hands in everything and often took on responsibilities that belonged to the
service managers, such as making the server’s schedules. He made many decisions without
consulting others who were more familiar with various situations and he often undermined the
decisions of the service managers. Because of his use of the One Boss structure, he essentially
went unchecked and often made quick decisions to fire people for really no reason at all, leaving
the restaurant even more understaffed. He also hired many people whom the service members
advised against because they were not qualified or a good fit for the job. Additionally, when he
took over the task of creating the server’s schedule he often did not honor server’s requested or
regular days off and he frequently scheduled people to have no days off at all. Overall, his
actions and treatment of the staff caused morale to drop significantly. 

3) Recommend how you would use structure for an alternative course of action
regarding your case.
As mentioned above, I believe that a good structure for restaurants is a simple hierarchy
configuration. For this situation, I believe that many of the problems would not have taken place
if this structure was followed more. The service managers were the leaders that servers knew and
interacted with the most. Servers had trust in the service managers and felt respected and heard
by them. When service managers were able to advocate for servers to the boss, the restaurant ran
smoother and servers were happier. When Darren operated with the one-boss model and
undermined the service managers, the servers suffered and that is when issues arose. The simple
hierarchy structure would have allowed for a more informed decision-making process.
Additionally, a hierarchy structure would let the boss focus on the business more, rather than
micro-managing the staff. 

I would also suggest that there be some kind of structure put in place for the hiring/ firing
process. One person being responsible for staffing is a lot of work – creating a structure for the
process would make the decision pass through multiple people so that there are multiple voices
heard and considered. 

4)   Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned about
this frame.
Given what I have learned about this frame, I would have ensured that the structure desired was
the one that was actually being used. I would try to ensure that each position had clear roles and
responsibilities and that each position in the structure was respected. Overall, when looking at
this situation through the frame of structure, I believe that structural issues did influence the
circumstances. However, I believe other things were at play, so changing the structure would not
have solved all of the problems. 

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass