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.

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 politics of the organization influenced the situation.

The politics of the organization flows heavily through out it. Because of this, Starbucks

has been on a rollercoaster of a life. At first, Starbucks was a small coffee shop that promised

treating every customer like a friend of family. It achieved it’s goal, slowly but surely over

time. However, as the company became massive, it became more apparent that there was a

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 disconnect between higher leadership and the field workers. The baristas and shift

supervisors were feeling under appreciated and wanted a change.

At first, Shultz tried to deny there was anything going wrong within the company. He

began to separate the company and the customers. Letting the world know that there was trouble

brewing was the most terrifying thing to Shultz. Starbucks had to remain a perfect image.

Because of this, many began to speculate what he was hiding. Of course, nothing could be

proved, it was all hear say. Several stores were able to unionized and break free of corporate

whole a little bit.

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

Obviously, after this instance, it would be important to person the fourth

dicisplined bargain is to make sure everything is as far as possible. Due to the sensitivity

of the situation, the moment for change needs to be embraced. If the CEOs say “you can’t

do it; There were be a lot of mediation, but I’m not sure my grandma would even fight

with you.

When there are decisions made specifically, both sides can be finally vibile to the

others. While someone might discover that something is more fair to themselves, it could

put a strain on the company. For example, if higher up managers want us to make a lot of

whipped creams, some might do it without thinking. But some might think about how this

could be a waste of product if we won’t use that many. This is where the fair bargaining

comes into play. Therefore, fair bargaining could help significantly if it meant allowed

the baristas to make a living wage.

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

I believe inventing options for mutual gains is something that I would not do differently. I

believing combining the people into one team that is working together to make lattes and talk to

our customers, would allow them to see how important it is to have a common goal. Therefore,

the gossiping stops or at least slows down.

The things I would do the most different is focusing on interested and not positions. Like

I mentioned before. Shultz is a huge name in the Starbucks world. It’s intiminating to speak

with even store manager levels, but it gets so much worst as the CEO.

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 Reference or 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/