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.

As I mentioned in previous analysis of my past organization, there were very few mission
and values to pull from. The company was a small start up, and as such there was a lot of
confusion amongst staff about the culture of the business. We had no HR department to
help guide leadership in decision making. As such I will use an example from another
company I worked in to display a situation were mission and values specifically to do
with symbols can be both helpful and hurtful.

I worked for a major clothing retailer in as Specialty Coffee Manager. While we were
separated from the main store, we still operated as a part of the clothing retailer. Their
mission and values are people orientated and conflict deeply with how I perceive the
clothing and modeling industry at large. Inclusion and diversity are very important to the
core values of the company, however there were situation where employees felt
inadaquete due to the “tribal” knowledge and culture of the company.

I had an employee come to me to let me know that they felt another manager made them
feel ugly and fat from an off handed remark about our uniforms. They had said that the
coffee shop employees looked sloppy. This is obviously not acceptable, but we also had
high standard dress codes while simultaneously an environment where horly workers
were wearing $1,000 dollar suits. As my employees were forced to wear tshirts and jeans
as their uniform, it was difficult to feel that you had an elevated appearance in
comparison.

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

Fashion week and other events prominently demonstrated what the ideal person should
look like. Marketing imagery showed models, and celebrities wearing the latest trends
and looking every bit the photo shopped ideal symbol of American beauty.
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 Additionally, we had all company meetings that were started with games where
indiviudals were called on to guess “who wore it better.” They projected images of two
celebrities that the average person could not realistically aspire to emulate, and we were
told to say who was attractive and who wasn’t. These symbolic activities were in direct
conflict with our mission and values of being leaders in diversity and inclusiveness.

Further more during several all hand meetings with the CEO, employees asked why there
were not more size options. The CEO said that there was not a demand for those sizes.
The employee returned that online sales demonstrated that there was a demand. I could
only take from this that the retailer wanted to project an image of beauty on the brick and
mortar shops from the employees to the customers.

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

It is one thing to develop strong mission and values for culture, but symbols and internal
“tribal” knowledge are developed over decades. This was especially the case for this
retailer that had been open for more than fifty years. America has spent billions of dollars
advertising and marketing what the ideal man and woman looks like in America. Until
only recently this did not include much diversity, and even today rarely includes plus
sized models. It will take a cultural shift from more than just one retailer to change thse
sumbols of beauty, but this retailer has more than enough resources to help continue the
conversation.

In order to begin the structural change of the projection of beauty, I would suggest a
campaign that starts with a prominent text stating, “This photo was not digitally altered.”
The verbiage could be changes to be more impactful. Something like, Natural, beautiful,
unaltered. There would absolutely be push back as many of the models are still naturally
beautiful and the campaign could be seen as superficial, but it would start the dialogue on
what we value in America and how we can start to be more accepting and realistic. The
largest symbol that is difficult to overcome is that of immortality. We often see
celebreties as something larger than life and closer to immortality. We are shaken when
our celebrities die, because secretly we hold on to myths that they would live forever
which made us feel like maybe we could too. The psychological implications behind the
industry are deeply routed, and many consumers do not want to change, but for the sake
of my employees mental health, these are my recommendations.

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

When considering that the myths and legends of my industry is rooted in the existential
fear of growing old and dying, it is difficult to imagine a cohesive story telling that could

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 allow for inclusive models and maintain the lie that beauty can be maintained. Perhaps
the comfort of make up, or new shoes is enough for some people to feel better about
themselves, and maybe that is important enough to maintain these myths. That being said,
including others in the story telling can and should be done.

If I could go back in time and do things differently, I would fight for my team to have
autonomy over their dress code. If other departments are allowed to have dress codes that
allow make up, dresses, and expensive ties, our department should be included in these
practices as well. There are requirements for food service workers, but none of the
requests my employees wanted would be in violation of these codes.

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