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.

This has been a situation that has culminated and augmented into the situation
that it is over the past 5 years. After being led by what was closely described as a fascist
regime, the Court Technology Services Department hired a new Chief Information
Officer. She almost instantly transformed the entire energy, morale, and vibe of the
department. Immediately she was faced with the pandemic, which led to the immediate
need for our five-year plan to go virtual in all courtrooms, to a 25-day plan. At this time,
we had one female Deputy Chief who was slowly spiraling with emotional issues. After
this project to be a virtual court went live and was successful (in the time frame given by
the Presiding Judge) the Deputy Chief championed this entire situation and once again
slammed the morale of the team, by taking 100% of the credit. She was quickly phased
out and fired for spiraling and stealing her team's credit.
The New CIO promoted two senior employees to DCIO over the course of the
next year (2021). One Senior Developer for Applications and Development, and one
Senior System Administrator over Infrastructure and Operations. After a wonderful and
leveling two years, we had a work-study done to figure out how we needed to support
the department in a new capacity that was sustainable. Our CIO rejected about 30% of
the positions that were being prescribed, including two more DCIOs, because she
needed more workers, not more bosses. Out of nowhere and for no reason we can all
point out, that the CIO everyone had come to love was fired. (This is now three leaders
in four years) Once again sending our entire department into a panic.

As soon as the CIO was fired, the press to hire the two new DCIOs became a mad
dash. The only candidates were terrible, and it quickly became apparent that there were
other forces at play in the hiring of these new two DCIOs. The highest Court
Administrator hired the two new DCIOs along with a panel of judges and other court
workers and essentially went against the wishes of the two Senior DCIOs. Now we have

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 a new Deputy Chief for Strategic Planning and IT Governance, and we have a Deputy
Chief for Service Management. Both are not fitting in and have caused a lot of turmoil. I
was tasked with getting them all to “get along,” and to foster a family-like and
welcoming dynamic. If I can make them all get along, I can be looking at a sizeable
promotion to Chief of Staff or Operations Manager. But as of last Monday, our Senior
DCIO over Infrastructure was fired. And now, the new DCIO over Strategy is taking over
for the Infrastructure and Operations department and the entire CTS department is in
chaos. Most employees operate out of fear and cynical one-liners, at this point. This is
their 4th C-Level Executive in 5 years to be walked out for no reason the team can
understand or is made aware of. I also feel like I am in limbo and was set up to fail.

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

If a manager as a politician expresses skills like agenda composition, mapping the

political terrain, building coalitions, and negotiating, then the senior staff has been doing
this in a finessing and collaborative way, whereas the new deputies are doing this in a
political and “attacking/blaming” style (Bolman, Deal, 2021.). We are the Judicial Branch
of Maricopa County, but within our department since having our new CIO politics were
something of the past, and people were happy about it. People liked the freedom of
autonomy and feeling like they had access to not only their immediate boss but also
their most senior boss.

Because the new CIO had an open-door policy and she was in the office (even
during the pandemic) sometimes 4 days a week or more, she met and spoke with
everyone from the cleaning lady to the admins in the jury printing room. She would let
anyone come and express concerns and ideas, and she would give them credit for it. The
way things are handled now, the senior chief executive is our acting CIO, who is the
Senior Court administrator and he has no time for anyone but the senior executives. He
is a level-headed and well-formulated man, but he cannot go knee-deep on anything
and he stays at the approval level and the “need-to-know basis,” which is causing a lot
of fear and uncertainty from the lower level management, because the people at the
helm are not coming across as authentic, competent, or sensible (Bolman, Deal, 2021.)
so people on the floor no longer can form coalitions with their boss without fearing they
will be fired, or they are “on the wrong team”

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

Our diversity of thinking and sample size has dwindled into a fairly white and
male dynamic. To use the political frame within the organization, I could start asking

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 about affirmative action plans to maintain the diverse culture we need and strive to
maintain but is currently being overlooked. I know anyone currently making waves is
being put on “administrative leave” which is their way of managing the impression that
they are slowly losing control of the situation (Bolman, Deal, 2021.).
Knowing what I know now, I would never have taken on this endeavor, I would
have backfilled the assistant position and kept my head down, absorbing training and
doing what I needed to do to get my work done but stayed off the radar. I am the
number one face all four DCIOs think of what they need help and I did that to myself. I
thought I was a bit more safe than I am and had I not agreed to make transitions smooth
(as I have before) I was not aware o the paramount task I was agreeing to, or maybe it
had not occurred to me until this week and this unit.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned about
this frame.
This is a department of literal and figurative geniuses and they are all aware of the
situation, even if the most “senior executive levels,” are trying to control the
information. I feel like as a woman, I was set up to fail and they never wanted to give me
the Chief of Staff position. Our government has always been male-centric, and it feigns
the attempt of maintaining a diverse organization but it doesn’t always pan out that way
in all departments. Women have never been the favorite on the ballot and even in 2024
every last man has all their rights but we still struggle with rights over our reproductive
situations. That’s the politics and ideology of the government I am employed by.
Women are the lesser citizens and no matter what I do I don’t think I alone am going to
change that.
Since the entire team is playing politics I think that’s what I must do also. We have lousy
pay but are offered exhaustive opportunities to advance educationally. I am going to
continue to play the game, let them train me, and give me the experience I can carry
towards a COS position in a non-profit or a different place where they value women
more. I truly know now I can’t make these people get along if they have ulterior motives
and directions I am not aware of and the Senior staff isn’t privy to, this is an unfairly
stacked deck, I refer to the “The Real Political Map: Battleground with Strong Players on
Both Sides” (Bolman, Deal, 2021. Exhibit 10.2) This diagram is closely representative of
“who’s in the game” and “how much clout that player has” but we would need to flip
the chart to the Top Management being opposed to change. Our organization wants the
“what’s not broken doesn’t need fixing” approach to stick and they are instilling
draconian and old school policies against and to a team that is a highly new age and new
edge techies. I don’t know how this will play out now that we have studied this frame it
feels like there's a lot I was missing before now, and my blinders are off.

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