OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal 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 am the training manager for a manufacturing company. The technicians that build our products
conduct dangerous statements of work that require certifications. Depending on the statement of
work, an employee may need a certificate as called for by the company to run the statement of
work. Furthermore, government and OSHA regulations require specific procedures to be
certified. Medical certifications are also needed for certain statements of work. My organization
is the manufacturing training organization and is responsible for training the manufacturing
technicians on all certifiable requirements. My organization is responsible for scheduling,
conducting, and marking completions for certification training. In this situation, I will be
assessing an employee on one of the programs we support who found a loophole in our learning
management system and marked over 500 certification completions fraudulently, putting the
entire company and individuals at huge safety and regulatory risk. 

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

Given that we are a contractor for the government, this situation has many political influences.
As this program is on contract from the government, ensuring that we handle this situation with
the most negligible political impact will be essential for maintaining a good relationship with our
customers. Viewing it from the political lens, you can start to see how this situation, if not
handled properly, could have devastating impacts on the programs and, therefore, the company's
reputation and future procurement of contracts. As this is both a compliance and ethical issue,
the organization must manage the effects politically to have minor damage to the reputation of
the program and company. Executives at all levels will need to be briefed and advised on how to
proceed and rectify the issue. The customer was alerted to the breach in data and forgery, so
they, in turn, will issue their investigation into the matter. It's crucial that the company is well

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aware of all the facts and has a corrective action plan that makes the customer feel the issue has
been handled. It's also crucial that their investigation lines up with the organization's own. 
Within the organization, political pressures also affect how it's managed.

This situation makes the program look very bad and puts management in the spotlight, with
investigators asking how and why this happened. Often people will keep working with expired
certifications because schedule tends to be the primary pressure on the factory floor. If you have
a management culture that is ok with people not completing their safety training or has
employees falsify these records to keep techs on the floor and with the product, you have a big
culture problem that could lead to death and safety risks. 

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

When it comes to this situation, it's essential to understand the political implications of how this
is handled. The entire organization will be looking to see how this issue is corrected. This is
when the organization will focus on making something appear smaller than it is to hide or cover
up such a big issue and red flag. Or it will use it will understand that politically they need to send
a message to the rest f the organization that they are dealing with this transparently, as the safety
of employees is the number one concern for the organization; how the situation was handled
ended up being a little bit of both. I would have used this situation politically to ensure that all
management and the entire organization's culture around process adherence is analyzed and
strengthened. Instead of minimizing the "bad press," I'd be more focused on ensuring we do
what's suitable and holding those that need to be held accountable to ensure the mistake isn't
repeated. 
 
Sometimes if we try to cover up a problem instead of sharing it, we prevent others from being
given a heads-up when it's in their best interest to be provided one ethically. This situation only
occurred on one of our programs, as the company has many programs on which this same issue
could be a risk. I would have ensured that all programs were aware of this lesson learned to
ensure it doesn't occur in their program. 

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

Learning about the political frame in this module, I've learned that this can be one of the most
complex and detrimental pressures applied to a situation. If a case involves politics that exist that
have nothing to do with the actual problem, involving them in problem-solving can mean that
there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and priorities need to be aligned with genuinely solving
the situation right. Since this issue is a safety and ethical one, I was alarmed at how many people
must weigh in regarding the right path forward. It was a black-and-white situation involving one
person doing fraudulent activity. However, due to the political nature of our work and the
internal political pressures, much time was wasted deciding who should be responsible and who
would be held accountable. 
What I would have done differently is only involve certain leadership levels after the
investigation. Making sure that you have all the data to back up situations like this before

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briefing leaders that might use these facts for other political motives is essential. If you involve
political pressure too early on, you muddy up precise data and end up with a more significant
problem than what you started with. 

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 Reference or References