OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

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

The situation that I have proposed was and issue with a current employee at my place of
employment of Linton Dentistry. This practive has been in business for 38 years. This
employee has worked for the company for 25 years and as had hard time with
compliance, change, teamwork and doesn’t have realistic goals for the office as a whole.
I am the office manager and have been there for 5 years and have worked in the dental
field for 13 years, this is my first manager position. I have a hard time managing this
employee to lack of compliance and constant push back.

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

The symbols of the organization have influenced the situation with this employee because
for 90% of the this employee employment, the symbols have been that what the boss
says goes and that the rest of the staff just needs to fall in line. This employee has also
been one that was seen as “better” than the rest, so there was no consequences for this
employee saying unprofessional things to other employees and also no consequences for
the employee being disrespectful. The culture of the office was so that this employee
should not be upsetted by others because she “knows everything” and all the other
employees don’t know what they are talking about because they have not worked at the
office long enough to understand and live the culture/brand. The envoriment was almost
like the Mean Girls movie.

The organization lacked a sense of humor and humility. The structure was so ridged and
square. People didn’t laugh, people didn’t have fun. People were there to work and take
employement serious. People were there to almost be workers bees who didn’t question
or challenge the decisions of the higher ups.

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

I mentioned in the above paragragh a lot of past tense things. I say this because when I
came on board with this company, I had the opportunity to have no previous knowledhe
of this employee or the work place. So I have been able to make changes to the culture
and symbols that were in place when I started working for this company. I still embrace
the since of hardwork and structure but I believe that having fun while you are doing it is
really important. I have embraced more team building get togethers to promote
relatiomships and mutual respect. This employee has a hard time with this sometimes,

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 because she feels that she gets left out of things. This is not the case, she is invited but
chooses not to join because it’s not a fancy enough place to eat or because she feels that
she was told at the last minute.

I have also used the symbols in place to promote a better sense of team work. We all
work together to get to the end goal and one person hasn’t soley contributed to all of the
work. I ensure that everyone on the team understands, specifically this employee, their
importance and that we are all working very hard, one not working harder than the rest.

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

I have made a lot of changes with this company since starting and allof the changes have
really helped the company explode with success and employee retention. This employee
that is having a hard time, seemingly does back off most of the time and does try to make
changes to her approach when she wants to express things. We still have room for
improvement with her but overall the employees are happy. Happier than they have ever
been.