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.

My role within the company is a shift supervisor of six years, and a barista overall

for 8 years. I work for Starbucks, a coffee company based in Seattle.

My situation is one that happened in 2022, when the former CEO, Howard Shultz,

had to come out of retirement to help pull the company out from potential financial

disaster. Many stores began unionizing, which in return required a complete overhaul of

the visionary statements in the company. (Schultz, 2022) This situation affected me

directly due to the extreme changes in policies and rituals that take place within the

organization.

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

With Howard coming back into the CEO role, it was up to upper management and

him to find ways on how to bring the company back to its’ former glory. However, they

also sought out information from baristas themselves, that worked at store level. I believe

the standard structure of workers and management created a divide between the partners,

causing store to unionize.

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

I believe using structure is really important when it comes to sitations directly

relating to the companys bulk working employees. If the employees don’t feel supported

and seen, the quality of work will become compromised.

While I believe the general structure idea for Starbucks is good, I think there are

too many management levels to go through. Upper management has a disconnect as to

what it’s really like on store level. And even at store level, they are afraid to report how

things really are do to fear of repercussions. Therefore, I would change the structure to

feature less management levels, so that there are less channels to report through. This

would allow the upper management to see more things in real time.

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

This specific frame is a perfect example of how a great tool can cause issues if it’s not used

properly. The most important part is to make sure everyone’s voices are heard from within the

company. Once you hear one channel go silent, you immediately investigate to make sure you

aren’t missing something if you’re upper management.

This frame can allow a more organized work flow, or it can cause confusion and chaos. It all

depends on how well the different levels of the frame can communicate, and how often they do.

The more communication, the better odds of this frame being useful.

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 References

About us: Starbucks Coffee Company. About Us: Starbucks Coffee Company. (n.d.).

https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/

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

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

Schultz, H. (2022, July 11). A message from Howard Schultz: The next chapter of ... - starbucks

stories. Starbucks Stories and News. https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2022/a-message-

from-howard-schultz-the-next-chapter-of-starbucks-reinvention/