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 is that last year, two employees were transferred to our store (without our
say in the matter) in the hopes that we would be able to change them into model
employees. With no efforts being made by either employee to improve their attitude &
performance, they were only being a detriment to the shop. Unfortunately, due to
circumstances outside of our control, we had to tread carefully so as not to cause even
more significant issues for the company at large.

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

The structure for both Firestone and Bridgestone is most related to the Divisionalized
Form, but for different reasons (Bolman & Deal, 2021). While Bridgestone is just as
much of a Tire & Automotive organization as Firestone, their division comes in that they
have multiple subsidiaries that are able to generate revenue for the ‘mother company’. So
while everything like HR, Legal, and other similar departments are all under
Bridgestone’s span of control, other departments like Logistics, IT/Communications, and
direct management are all run by the subsidiaries.

Firestone on the other hand is also very divisionalized. Just this year it was decided that a
company out in Bali would be responsible for making sure that our phones work. A short
side story, less than a month after this happened, our phones were getting a “test call” that
is supposed to make sure everything works. The problem was that it happened every 5
minutes on the dot for about three days, and occupied all 5 of our phone lines when this
would occur. However, the most prominent way that Firestone is a divisionalized
organization is through the shops themselves, especially our shop. While there are
certainly managers that are higher up in the chain of command, they probably visit our
shop twice a year. The reason being that we are very good at running the shop and
maintaining customer satisfaction IF we are left to our own devices.

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 It is when we must have store meetings, go through an excess of computer-based training,
and/or entertain important guests visiting our shop that we slowly lose our ability to
maintain the status quo. When management doesn’t bother us and lets us make our own
decisions, we consistently generate more revenue. So when we had a comfortable number
of employees for our workflow and mid-level management decided to transfer not one
but two troublemakers to our shop, it disrupted our flow both literally and figuratively.

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

What I think would be beneficial for a divisionalized organization would be to take some
measures for the district and regional managers to have their finger on the pulse of their
stores. One such measure could be having each store manager send a short (30-second)
voice recording of how the day went, and if there is anything that they should be aware
of. This would take a very short amount of time to complete; and would help
management see more than simple numbers on a screen/paper.
The next potential measure that I would propose would be adapting the roles and
structure of our shop. Right now we have a Simple Hierarchy with essentially three
managers and four mechanics (Bolman & Deal, 2021). I do not believe that the structure
itself needs to be changed, nor the people that occupy each respective position. However,
I do believe that it would be beneficial to change the roles and responsibilities of the three
managers. Either the second-in-command should pick up responsibility for running the
shop, leaving Cody free to communicate more with his managers, or one of the two
assistant managers should be given the additional duty of communicating regularly
(possibly once a week) with the district manager so that they can have a more in-depth
understanding of how our shop is doing.
I believe that these measures would help prevent a similar reoccurrence because the
regional and district managers at Firestone are very disconnected from their stores, and
quite literally make decisions based solely on numbers, not stories (from employees and
customers alike). Regardless of the specific measures taken, better communication could
have prevented them from sending two employees—who had both already committed
fireable offenses—to a store that had essentially nothing but Caucasian employees. I
completely understand and support the want for more diversity, but sending these two
troublemakers to our store on a military base in the hopes that we can fix them rather
than fire them was a complete and inexcusable lack of awareness on the part of our
regional and district managers.

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

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Given the situation and my role in the organization, there was very little that I could have
done to change the outcome of this situation. Even Cody, our store manager, had no
control over whether or not these two young men were transferred to our shop. With that
said, knowing what I know now, I would have tried to convince Cody that greater levels
of communication with his boss would have given way to a greater understanding of the
situation at our shop both before and during the time that these two employees were at
our shop.
As far as my interactions with both of the employees in question, I wouldn’t have
changed anything. I did my part in making sure that no arguments or discussions ever got
blown out of proportion. I even gave one of the employees a ride home from work every
day (with no compensation) for months. Also when one of them had performed incorrect
maintenance on multiple vehicles, I volunteered to be the person that would look over his
work and sign my name to it as well. It should be stated at this point that these weren’t
inherently bad people; they simply could not or would not change their attitude and their
performance. So no matter how much we tried, they would only cease being a problem
for us by their exiting the company.

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 Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership. John Wiley & Sons.