OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource 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 that arose was between my boss/owner of the medical practice and myself, the
medical receptionist. During the morning meeting on Halloween day, he let us know that we
could text our families and let them know that we would be out two hours earlier than our
scheduled time. When that time came around, with the last patient not showing up, I enforced
his own policy on patient lateness in regard to canceling and rescheduling their appointments.
When I did this, he responded that we needed the patients due to poor retention statistics for
the clinic, and that since I did not have children of my own to celebrate Halloween with, it
wasn't important for me to get out at the time he had promised. After being left to close on
my own while the provider still got out on time, I brought up the issue the next day with him
directly and stated how I felt singled out even though I told him I had plans with my child
family members to take them trick or treating, in which he still responded that since I didn't
have children of my own, I wouldn't understand.

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

Given our organization is a medical office, the architecture symbolizes the very sterile, clean,
and professional atmosphere. With us being a smaller office, we don't have the area for break
room and often have to congregate by my front desk during lunch hours. We all drive
average cars, nothing flashy and all middle of the road brands. Overall, our team is very
friendly with one another and strikes up conversation often outside of the realm of the
professional issues at hand. Given this, I believe that this created an outside of professional
relationship between team members and said boss. When I chose to divulge that I did not
have children, I believe he took that information and overstepped the boundary by giving that
as reasoning as to why he acted the way he did.

As an outwardly Christian company, the organization's core values follow the same general
structure. With this being said however, I do believe that this specific bosses’ personal ideas
 and beliefs melded with his professional actions causing him to make a decision that wasn't
fair. With this symbol of religion weighing heavily on many of the core values, I do believe
that the overarching importance of the ‘traditional’ family was used to inaccurately punish
me in this situation.

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

While we are a Christian company, a few of us are very clear that we do not follow that
ideology. This is never caused issues previous, but I do believe that it has caused defeatism
and inclination to those that do in the past. These subcultures within our small team often
constitute a bit of gossip when discussing the actions of one another period while we all do
get along very well and have great times outside of the office, the differences in core values
is apparent when stepping back to observe. Given the importance of religion as an
organizational symbol, I believe I could possibly use these themes that are present for respect
and family to my advantage to argue that my time is just as important as others.

Granted, our office oftentimes has the work hard, play hard ideology. We are a very high-
volume office and our bonus accordingly. During great months, we have large scale and
lavish company outings. I do believe that this also attributed to how my situation played out
because it could simply be concluded to the “work hard” aspect of this metaphor. Another
literary symbol that is frequently encountered in everyday conversation is “don't let the
inmates run the prison”. This seems extremely odd due to our organization type, but is more
so connected to the idea that we are the ones who choose the patients care plan and therefore
if they commit to it, they should be pushed to stick with it. Our office runs a very stringent 6
month treatment program based off of people's given issues. My boss continues to stress that
if we let people just cancel and do whatever frequency they want, they are fundamentally
choosing and picking out what aspects of care they wish. By symbolizing our patients as
prisoners, I believe it sets up the idea that we are a very stringent office which also relays
into our work.

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

Given what I have learned about this frame, I believe that I should have used more of the social
aspects of organizational symbols to my advantage. Given that our team is relatively in
agreeance that we all feel we have no power in making decisions or responding, our power lies
within the numbers against our boss. As reviewed within the history of the Catholic Church,
when faced with pushback because they had gone against their symbolic values, the church was
pressured to reverse its position and gave its associates permission to revert back to it's history
(Bolman & Deal, 2021). With this being said, given that our organization pushes these symbols
and attributes so heavily within its training and day-to-day operations, it isn't against the grain to
remind my boss of these values and how he is not following them in this situation. Using this
somewhat form of social unrest, I believe I could have skewed this situation more so in my
favor. Now knowing about coalitions, I think our power lies within numbers, when other issues
that are similar arise that are pinpointed against one member, we feel more comfortable going
against said boss when we all are in agreement during our meetings. Using this unification, we
are able to address issues as a more collective whole, rather than it being one against the boss. In
addition, I believe that I could easily turn the a religious aspects of the organization in my favor.
If it applies to my other coworkers, why does it not apply to me as someone who doesn't
traditionally follow this?
 References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.).
Jossey-Bass.