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 situation from Module 1 involves my current position as a Buffalo Wild Wings Shift
Manager, and the transition between General Managers. I feel that the transition could’ve
been handled better, and it ultimately resulted in a decrease of efficiency and work
productivity, as well as set back the store immensely.

0Describe how the politics of the organization influenced the situation.

I genuinely think that the politics of Buffalo Wild Wings as an organization had a drastic
effect on the situation. Obviously, Buffalo Wild Wings is an extremely corporate
business, and they operate through strict guidelines placed upon them by the parent
company Inspire Brands. Although vastly different in terms of consequences, I think that
it can be related a lot to the initial anecdote from chapter nine, which involves a story of
how political in-fighting and things of the like led to the deaths of over 250 individuals
(Bolman & Deal, 2021). At Buffalo Wild Wings, we had several longstanding employees
depart from the company following our new appointment of management, simply
because they felt there could be someone who is a better fit for the position. Not only
that, but several of the other managers felt that they could’ve filled the position better,
which led to lasting resentment.

Not only that, but I feel that because of this, people were attacking the individuals
involved in the transition, instead of the root problems. This is one of the key aspects of
bargaining discussed in chapter ten, which involves the idea that the issues should be
addressed, not those committing mistakes (Bolman & Deal, 2021). If people were to say,
investigate why exactly they felt this new manager was a bad fit for the position, there
may be other solutions as opposed to simply blaming them.

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

I think that a valid alternative course of action in this situation would be to have someone
from upper management explain to our location that the number of individuals in the
workforce who could fill the position is extremely scarce, and that in appointing this
individual, who they will willingly train as much as possible to be effective at the
position, they are giving us an opportunity to become a successful. The idea of scarcity is
mentioned frequently in the textbook, and it is an essential key to gaining and
maintaining power (Bolman & Deal, 2021). This scarcity may have made more of us on
board with the new general manager.

A different idea that I propose for an alternative course of action which also involves
some form of communication from upper management, of which we received none,
would be for either our district or regional manager to have explained that, in their
experience, this individual was best suited for the position. Information and expertise,
referenced in the textbook as a ‘source of power’ are extremely useful tools for
influencing individuals withing an organization (Bolman & Deal, 2021). I think a lot of
employees would’ve been in agreement with the decision if it had some support and
explanation from managers who have had experience in the general manager position and
knew what they were doing.

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

I definitely would have been more inclined to inquire about how exactly the decision
came about with upper management, and how they felt they were going to help the
situation. I think there was a lot of confusion and not a lot of reassurance on our end as
normal hourly employees, and it made a lot of individuals lose confidence, which has
ultimately led to the resentment and lack of efficiency for the store as a whole. Although
I have never done so before, it would be fairly easy for me to reach out to either the
district or regional manager, and gain some insight into the process and decision.

The problem then however would be convincing my fellow employees of what I had
learned. This is why in my alternative course of action section I mentioned these
managers speaking to the entire store as a whole to kind of sum up what exactly was
going on and instill some faith into the employees. However, this was never done and I
think if I was in the AGM or even GM position I would have handled it vastly differently.

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 Reference
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand.