Gabriel Stewart

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

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.

The situation I have presented is a work problem. Within my organization there are sub
teams, which I am apart of a team of 5. Our team was formed in August 2022 with the
purpose or working solely on one consistent set. This set wasn’t too diffiuclt however, it
is a lot of work and repeition, meaning we each need to be consistnatly doing things
correctly. One of my team members randomly quit without telling many people, which
has moved out team from 5 to 4. This forced us to take swift action when picking up her
work as well as needing to find her replacement. This has led to a lot of uncessary stress
and are currently vendoring out to new people every week in order to find a permamnant
replacement.

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

The structure of this organization did not help the situation at all. The overall structure
makes the average worker feel less important. Given the sheer size of the company, it is
hard to feel important if you are not at the top or given a salary contract. For this specific
project, none of the 5 team members are on salary, including me. This doesn’t necessarily
make me feel replaceable however, it does set a certain idea that if needed we can be
replaced by other vendors in no time. This can be shown by how quickly our other team

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 member got replaced, she quit one week and we had a new member the next. Given this
scenario, it does not help with how blunt our boss is. Our boss will tell it how it is, if he
feels something looks bad or is done wrong, he will express it.
Given this information, It does make sense why she felt she was being treated poorly. To
be blunt she was not our best employee, there were times when she would mess up
consistently and show no haste to fix the problem. This led to my boss constantly nagging
her as well as trying to find ways to help her improve. However, this did not sit well with
her. The structure of the environment is not a place for people who cannot handle the
heat, just like the saying, if you can’t handle the heat then get out of the kitchen. Since
the structure is much more strict and performance-based, it can be understood why she
left.

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

In order to make sure everyone feels safer, I would assign someone from HR to handle a
few subgroups. Each HR member will be tasked with ensuring that the employees they
look over are being both treated fairly and feel comfortable where they work. Currently, I
don't even know how to approach HR with a problem, there is no concrete way of doing
so. I think there needs to be a process where getting help at work can become
significantly more accessible. I also think it is important for our boss to state their ground
rules and how they work, but also needs to understand that some people just can’t be
bossed in that way.
It is necessary that the boss can understand how his actions may affect others. Something
that can help with this is group meetings where for about 15 minutes every other week we
can meet and have a group discussion on how we feel work is going. This will give
employees ample time to express their concerns as well as how they feel our boss can
become better at leading as well as being more aware of certain situations. I am sure he
was aware of the situation I am discussing but I also feel that he wasn’t aware of how
severe the situation was. The group discussions allow for someone to voice their concern
which can lead to a more intimate, one on one discussion.

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

As an employee and a member of the team, something I should have done is be more
aware. It is not just our boss's fault for being too harsh on her, it lands on every member
of the team. It is our responsibility to be aware of what is going on in our own work
environment as well as to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy to work there.
The fact that I was left in the dark about this situation makes me feel that there was much
more I could have done. It is necessary for me to be aware of situations that may be
affecting my team members as well as be able to understand how to help. Although I may
have not been able to change much, by simply being an ear to her, I feel I could have
made some sort of difference.
It is easy to say I would like to have been more vocal and aware of the situation but the
reality of it was I wasn’t. It is hard to be aware of everything going on within a
workspace especially when some people may not be sharing everything. I think
something I will strive for overall is to be someone people feel comfortable approaching
with a work-related issue. I want the people on my team to feel comfortable with me to
discuss an issue they are experiencing and I hope I will be able to help. Overall, I want to
build an environment that invites people to share and be vocal about how they feel at
work.

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 Reference or References
(Choose appropriate Title if Applicable and Delete the Rest)