OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal 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.

Two years ago, I was assigned to oversee the construction and commissioning of a large-
scale reverse osmosis system for land reclamation after mining. Errors were found in the
engineer's drawings, so I collaborated to correct them, and commenced construction. Despite
an initial delay due to the wrong materials being ordered, the team began building what they
could while waiting. When the materials arrived, we efficiently assembled the system,
completing the project a week ahead of schedule. Effective time management and proactive
collaboration were key to the success in meeting the project's goals.

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

Politics in the situation did not come in to play very much. There was the attempt to
sweet talk the supplier in order to get the materials we needed faster, which did not work. I
think the politics in this situation was more of a find a way around the roadblocks type of
mentality. Like politics everywhere this is someone or something in your way of progress no
matter what side you are on. So it is important to find ways to get the job done without
crossing the wrong people.

Another thought was making my constituents happy and doing what they hired me to do.
In this case the constituents would be the stakeholders. I had a duty to them to complete the
project on time as well as produce quality results. So time management and proactive
collaboration was necessary in order to produce the promised results.

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

An alternative ourse of action using politics that could have produced results in this
situation would have been “strong arming” the supplier. I think that if upper management had
been brought in to push the supplier to produce our materials faster then maybe the results
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 would have been different and we could have received materials sooner than we did.
However, there is a risk in doing this. The supplier could threaten to not produce our
materials and just refunded us instead, which could have pushed the materials back much
further.

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

In this situation with conern to politics, I would not have done anything differently. The
supplier took some responsibility for the needed material not being on-site when needed,
although our purchaser was mostly to blame. Letting the supplier know the mistakes made
and explaining the time constraint for receiving the correct materials allowed the relationship
between the supplier and our organization to remaing strong.

Politics is sometimes just about building a good relationship so that future needs can be
met. The way a situation is approached can make all the difference. If we had try to strong
arm them then we could have ruined a good working relationship. Handling it the way we did
allowed for a continuous and positive work relationship.

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 Reference or References