Maddie Orgen

Organizational Leadership, Arizona State University

OGL 481: Pro Seminar I

Dr. Kenneth Willmott

Januray 21st, 2024

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.

The situation I am going to be analyzing was an incident that happened during my

tenure as the Vice President of Philanthropy for my Sorority. I lead a small team of
people thatr were aiding me in planning events and working on small event tasks that I
did not have time to complete. During our meetings I was assured that all the tasks for a
specific event were being completed and that the team was fully on track, just to find out
that I was being lied too and that the work was not being done and the event was
critically behind.

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

As we have learned in this week’s reading and materials, structure has the power
to influence an organization in large ways. Structure of an organization can and will
define the culture of the leaders and followers alike affecting performance, task
allocation, communication style, and more. The organization that I was a part of was ran
by volunteer executive board positions all of which were students, as well of having
advisors as volunteering to help guide us as we explored our leadership positions. At the
top of command was our chapter advisor, and then the president who managed the rest of
the board, each executive board member also had a team of assistants and a committee to

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 manage on top of their projects. The term was only 1 year for these positions making it an
entirely new board every year, creating a high turnover rate for every position. The year I
was a part of the board, not only were we dealing with a new board, but we were also
navigating a new advisor which meant our communication styles, involvement
expectations, and overall experience changed because of our new advisors’ priorities.
Unfortunately, the structural changes within the organization were not at the benefit of
those operating within the system.

Not once, when the new advisor came in, was there a sense that we were all on
the same page and the expectation to be held to a higher standard of work was not there.
All the board members were highly siloed within their positions and there was little to no
effort to understand the organization’s structural environment to look for ways of making
it better. In the Organizational setting, motivation and excitement starts at the top, and I
felt that those at the top didn’t take the time to set the expectations to ensure the group
was coordinated and shared a shared vision for where the group was and where it was set
out to go. In respect to my team not getting the work done regardless of our meetings,
lead me to believe that the direct structure I was empowering was not what my team
needed. Though, I the roles of my team were defined through their position description, I
realized that not many of them had experience in planning events. I was too hands-off
when my team needed someone that was going to tell them exactly what to do and how it
should be done, like some of the videos we reflected on this week.

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

I touch on it above but there are many things I would do differently in this situation
now that I have the wisdom and experience to navigate it. Unfortunately, there was not
much I could do about the organization, but I would control what I could, which was my
direct report team and committee. Firstly, I would use a more defined authoritative
structure to define my needs of the team in the beginning, regarding a 1:1 meeting and
communication expectations. This would have set the tone and given a standardized
method of leadership in the beginning, after our meetings I would have learned the types
of structure that work for my team to tackle complex projects. After being able to reflect
and understand my team members, I would start working to devise a structure that
complimented my strengths as a leader but also aligned with the needs of the team.

Given my situation when I was leading this team, I know now that I would have
needed to have kept up that cleaner cut, direct, or top-down structure of authority.
Though I can easily adapt to this, I am a leader that likes there to be more collaboration
and trust within the team. After speaking with the individuals, they all have claimed to
want more structure and rigid deadlines in the planning stages of the event. I would

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 recommend that to keep them on pace, they did a linear chain of command where they
need to “report” to their superior and inhabit limited shared authority.

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

After learning about structure this week within the organizational setting, I would
have done a lot different in this situation from the beginning. Though, in the beginning of my
term I sat down individually with everyone on my team, I would have asked extremely
different questions that I simply didn’t have the experience to ask back then. These would
include questions of what leadership style they operate the best in and understand their skill
levels before I planned out how I wanted to lead the team. I now understand that different
teams need differing methods of leadership because no two teams are alike, and it is naïve to
lead one team exact same way that you would lead another.

Building off this would be critically looking at the organization as a whole and
understanding its flaws and trying to minimize the effect they would have on my team
directly. I touch on this in my other PCA but motivation to do the actual work was a big issue
in this organization. There were many reasons for this but the implications of this were
detrimental to the entire team. After this situation, I did a good job of making sure my team
at least was highly coordinated with our long-term goals regarding communication and task
completion. I also learned how to properly motivate my team through encouragement,
meetings, and showing that I cared about accommodating how they wanted to lead and work.
This all comes with time and was outlined in the reading, but at the time I did not have the
wisdom to lead in this manner from the beginning.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2021) Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.).

Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass