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. (Insert Restatement Here)

The situation I will be analyzing here is the strategic decision to change the name of the
company from Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. and rebrand the company with an
emphasis on the Metaverse. The company has presented this decision as more than just a
name change and re-branding exercise. It has been presented as a major strategic shift for
the company that includes a grand vision that will affect other parts of the technology
industry and society in general. But is this decision to change the company name just
about publicly acknowledging the future direction of the company?

The metaverse concept of a virtual world is not new. So why all the fanfare from Meta?
The company experienced a string of controversies over the years preceding the
announcement of this name change. The effect of these controversies was negative for the
company's users, advertisers, employees and potential regulators. Analyzing the decision
to re-brand Facebook as Meta by using the four frames, will provide different
perspectives on the problems faced by the company’s management and how this
rebranding could be crucial to improve how the company is perceived by these
constituencies.

My role is external to the company Meta. For this project my role will be an external
analyst who is evaluating the strategic decision to rename the company and focus on the
metaverse.

2) Describe how the structure of the organization influenced the situation. (Insert 2
Long Paragraph Description Here to Earn Excellent)

The structure of Facebook Inc./Meta Platforms, Inc. is a multidimensional matrix that

looks similar to the divisionalized form described in the book, “Reframing Organizations:
Artistry, Choice, Leadership” (Bolman & Deal, 2021). There are six executive leaders in

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 addition to CEO, Mark Zuckerberg (Executives, 2023). Below the executive team are
product groups, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, each led by a single
person. The remaining management structure includes additional leaders associated with
Human Resources, strategy, sales and marketing, product and technology, privacy. These
functional groups provide support across the product groups. An important feature of this
structure is the product group orientation. Each product group has its own brand identity,
3 of them separate from Facebook. In fact two of them were acquisitions, not developed
at Facebook. Despite the acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, the company has held
on to the unique identity of each application and did not rebrand the products as
Facebook. With this structure, each product group seems to be able to operate
independently of the other product groups, pursuing their own business strategies.
However, there is a synergy across product groups because they are all based on the same
business model of selling advertising on their platforms. Because they are all owned by
the same company, and have a similar business model they can benefit from shared
infrastructure, sales and marketing, basic technology and administrative functions.
Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are interconnected. A user can use the services and
functions of one platform and have the information shared over to another social media
platform.

The structure of multiple platforms that operate independently can make it difficult to
establish a united vision for developing the future Metaverse. A lack of coordination
across the product lines to address the various controversies facing the company makes it
more difficult to solve those problems. One of the issues that Meta faces is that there
needs to be a better way to address misinformation that is shared on the platforms. This
misinformation can be seen as a quality control problem. In the current structure there is
no one directly responsible for evaluating the quality of the content and developing
policy and process of ensuring a high quality of product. In this case, I am defining high
quality as finding a way to ensure harmful misinformation or other negative impacts of
the products are addressed.

3) Recommend how you would use structure for an alternative course of action
regarding your case. (Insert 2 Long Paragraph Recommendation Here to Earn
Excellent)

One of the ways I would use structure for an alternative course of action would be
creating a list of what is and is not working for Meta. Without more knowledge of Meta’s
organization, it is difficult for me to know everything that is working well for them, but I
am able to see externally what has not worked for them in the past as well as presently.
The policies from the company’s past regarding misinformation and algorithms that
resulted in exposure to harmful content are examples of things that are not working.

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 The next step would include redefining the organization's goals and strategies. This could
start with developing a definition of product quality that addresses misinformation and
potential harmful impacts of their algorithms. A structural change could be made by
creating a quality control function at the top of the organization with authority to
implement policy across all platforms and responsible for creating a method for
collecting user input to help define quality metrics for the user experience. Finally, these
changes should be implemented in a way that allows for some trial and error. So they can
figure out what works and what does not work before it gets implemented across all
platforms and users.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame. (Insert 2 Long Paragraph Reflection Here to Earn Excellent)

There are two features of the current situation to consider related to the decision to
change the company’s name. The first concern is a strategic decision to focus on the
Metaverse. The second concern relates to the various controversies that it has
experienced in the last few years. I do not think a change in structure is needed to focus
on the Metaverse. So I would keep the current structure the same, except I would add in
the Quality Control function to address the root cause behind the controversies. The
company has done something similar before to address privacy concerns coming from the
Cambridge Analytica incident. In that situation they established a committee at the board
of directors level and appointed an independent privacy assessor “whose job will be to
review the privacy program on an ongoing basis and report to the board when they see
opportunities for improvement” (Stretch, 2019). They also established a chief privacy
officer to lead their privacy program and work with the privacy committee (Rodriguez,
2019). These actions addressed the privacy problems at the root of the Cambridge
Analytica incident, but do not address concerns about harmful effects of the company’s
algorithms.

The solutions to the controversies may not be limited to just structural changes. I think it
is important to consider other Frames to get a better understanding of how and why the
company got into this situation. Some of the other Frames that can help further my
understanding of this situation include Human Resources, Ethical and even possibly
Political. These Frames might be more appropriate to understand the cultural and
leadership perspectives of the company that enabled these controversies in the first place.

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 References
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2021) Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership
(7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass

Executives. Meta. (2023). https://about.meta.com/media-gallery/executives/

Rodriguez, S. (2019, July 24). Facebook nominates chief privacy officer after $5 billion
settlement with FTC. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/24/facebook-nominates-
privacy-chief-after-5-billion-settlement-with-ftc.html

Stretch, C. (2019, July 24). FTC Agreement Brings Rigorous New Standards for Protecting Your
Privacy. Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/07/ftc-agreement/