OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political 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.

My role in the company was as a customer support representative in a company that

specializes in hosted telephony solutions. Or in other words, this company hosted servers
that had virtual phone numbers that customers could pay for, and these servers allowed
companies to present like they had paid money to have equipment installed with tools
like voicemail or dial by name menu options This company was a small company
consisting of no more than six people at any given time. I would later find out that was
intentional to avoid following Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
guidelines. The situation was one of animosity, hostility, rumors, and a transference of
aggression. After another employee was asked to leave the company on unclear terms, I
opted to be a witness for her in her unemployment hearings to confirm the environment
and behavior that was happening within the organization. This led the owner of the
company to retaliate against me and one of the other employees to spread false statements
about myself and the terminated employee. To make matters worse, the owner of the
company would storm into my office daily to yell at me. Not only were these situations
happening but I was also six months into a high-risk pregnancy. The breaking point was
when he told me that I was not permitted to go to the doctor for my scheduled prenatal
checkup.

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

There are a few political aspects that could have factored into a situation including
pressure, fear, questionable motives, and a culture of concealment. Fear is a double-edged
sword paired with pressure. There was an aspect of the unknown with my pending
delivery and what would happen while I was out and if maternity leave would even be
approved by the owner. There was a patriarchal approach to organizational leadership
where the owner was essentially not just the boss but the father of the team and what he

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 said was rule. There was no room for compromise or even forward thinking. If it wasn’t
the owner’s idea, it wasn’t important enough to be heard, let alone implemented.

There was also a culture of concealment. Things were happening that weren’t being
communicated to the rest of the team. Then there were things that were happening that
we were being told to overlook or ignore. Customers were routinely overcharged for
services, and we were told to find a way around it when a customer would call in since
there would be no refunds issued. Even though this shady behavior was happening within
our organization, our customers were partaking in shady behaviors on their end as well.
Specific customers who were themselves affiliated with a singular organization would
routinely call into us to ask how to set up their hosted telephony system to make it seem
like they were in the office even if they were in fact playing golf. When an organization
focuses on “individual selfishness and questionable motives,” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p.
190) it seems reasonable that their clients would have the same inclinations.

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

“[P]olitics is the realistic process of making decisions and allocating resources in a

context of scarcity and divergent interests. This view puts politics at the heart of decision
making,” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 185). There’s something to be said about the politics
frame that it works best when intertwined with the Human Resources frame. Politics is a
means of influencing others to do what you want. If I oversaw this organization during
this situation, I would have made a point to sit down with the pregnant employee to
determine what her plan was after the baby was born and let her know what my
expectations were in hopes that we could meet in the middle. I would have been more
transparent with the general operations and organizational goals. I would have made a
point to lead from a place of respect, not fear. By working with the employees and
ensuring that everyone is on the same page and is aware of what the company goals and
the individual expectations are.

If I were in my position again, I would attempt to communicate my expectations clearly

and without getting defensive or emotional. I would have made a point to clearly ask
what the maternity leave benefits would look like. Since the company was so small, job
security and maternity leave, especially any pay to go with it was not guaranteed. It’s
much harder to approach the politics frame from the partisan role in this situation but not
impossible. I should have made more of a point to communicate my expectations and
listen to the owners’ expectations to come up with a middle ground.

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

Looking back, there are a lot of things I could have and should have done differently. But
the most important thing would have been to address the conflict rather than get sucked
into it. Between age, experience, and this course there are a wide variety of things that
could have been managed differently. I would have looked to create a network of support
rather than isolating myself in the problem.

Above all, I would have used the “conflicts to encourage new ideas and approaches to
problems [in hopes of] stimulating innovation,’ (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 204). Instead,
the conflict was “poorly managed…lead[ing] to infighting and destructive power
struggles,” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 205). My power struggle was to have a say in my
health and that of my unborn child whereas the owners was one based in control. Politics
will never go away but it’s up to everyone, authorities, and partisans alike to work
together to ensure needs are being met.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadeship
(7th Edition ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.