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.

The situation that I will be referencing is employee layoffs and how this ultimately
impacted and altered the culture within Taco Cabana.

In 2020, the covid-19 pandemic was starting, and organizations were all struggling to
find how to function. Businesses were not earning money because of restrictions placed
by the government, employee staffing concerns, safety fears of working in proximity of
others, supply issues, communication breakdowns and more. This unfortunately made it
hard for businesses to survive or even thrive. Many businesses were lost, closed or sold
because profitability was just not there. This inevitably impacted jobs, culture and morale
in most or if not all industries and businesses. People were also having to take on more
responsibilities in their roles to compensate for the work that was not being performed by
a full team.

At height of the pandemic, Taco Cabana’s executive team met to discuss the state of
business. It was determined that hard decisions were going to have to be made for Taco
Cabana to survive and keeps its doors open. We were going to have to perform layoff’s
and close some stores. My involvement around these discussions were related to field
operational teams and not in the corporate office setting. With reducing the workforce
within the organization, employees and leaders were having to pick up the workload of
those that were laid off; with no added compensation or benefit. Lack of communication,
appreciation and stress from the pandemic aftermath, lead to a culture disruption within
the organization.

Taco Cabana was a prior employer of mine and my role was a Regional Human
Resources Manager. In my capacity, I lead a team of 4 Human Resources Business
Partners supporting field operations throughout the organization. We supported in the

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 people aspect with items such as minimizing risk, development, recruiting, performance,
compensation, consulting, regulatory/compliance, talent and more.

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

Being that the company was not achieving its financial goals due to disruptions and
impacts from Covid-19, company leaders had to consider how to please shareholders on
staying afloat. The board of directors were wanting maximum profitability quickly with
the uncertainty of how Covid-19 would continue to impact the performance of Taco
Cabana. They demanded the CEO make cuts to ensure sustainability of the company and
utilized their power and influence to advise on layoffs. Our CEO ultimately was the
decision maker and wanted to ensure that we took a strategic approach for the layoff’s,
but because of the pressures and influence from being publicly traded, we had to make
quick and swift decisions in the moment. The political power of the board and control
functions they had, put power and conflict at the center of decision making (Bolman &
Deal, 2021). With the CEO under pressure, senior leadership had to make rushed and ill-
advised decisions without considering long term impacts on culture, training, talent,
finances, etc.

The political frame continued to be present with the internal aspects of the organization
even after the layoff’s occurred. Employees were coming together to discuss their
discontent with how they felt they were being treated. They felt leaders were not engaged
and not inspiring them through this quandary of a time. There was a toxic and negative
work environment as more and more employees vocalized their frustrations in the
workplace, with leaders unable to mobilize them in a different viewpoint. Front line
employees became less productive and unsatisfied causing production and profitability to
slow. Employees were often feeling that the company shifted away from the morals and
values of putting people first, creating a culture conflict in the organization (Bolman &
Deal, 2021).

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

As the CEO, I would have put more emphasis on strategy and tactics than on resolution
of conflict with the board of directors (Bolman & Deal, 2021). Pressure will always be
present and not everyone will be happy with a decision. Putting strategy and tactics first
would have allowed for a better transition with layoffs and plan for our teams that were
going to pick up additional workloads. It would have also allowed to ensure we could
focus on leadership and how our leaders could ensure our teams were inspired to continue
living our mission. It would have allowed for leaders to better collaborate on mobilization
of teams and ensuring that there was not a gap in leadership presence.

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 For leaders, I would have ensured that they had the skills, training and resources needed
to help build trust with their teams. Ensuring they knew how to lead through this stressful
time of change from both the internal and external factors happening. “If leaders are to be
effective in helping to mobilize and elevate their constituencies, leaders must be whole
persons, persons with full functioning capacities for thinking and feeling” (Bolman &
Deal, 2021, p. 223). Our leaders would need to ensure that they could inspire our teams,
so that culture would not take an impact and productivity could continue to enhance.

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

Personally, I would have ensured that we separated people from the problem (Bolman &
Deal, 2021). The teams at Taco Cabana, often felt that leadership was lacking, and they
were feeling undervalued. Their leaders and I would coach on how we could change in
store behaviors to better a situation and reporting to upper leadership their concerns. I
would have focused more on the root cause of issues like lack of training and supportive
factors. Bringing to light the root cause issues that could have helped deescalate the
conflict going on by providing the tools and resources necessary to perform, build trust,
and together move forward.

I would have also ensured that as a field leader, I took an active stance in building a
coalition of field leaders negotiating our needs to support our teams with executive
leadership. Being able to provide relevant data that showcase what we wanted to
accomplish for our teams out in the field and sharing how this could generate value for
the company. I would have planned a strategy that could ensure our teams felt heard and
seen and that we moved toward a vision that would provide benefits for both the
company and employees.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership

(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Jennings, L. (2021, July 26). Anil Yadav’s “entrepreneur Mindset” drew him to acquire Taco

Cabana. Nation’s Restaurant News. https://www.nrn.com/fast-casual/anil-yadav-s-

entrepreneur-mindset-drew-him-acquire-taco-cabana