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.

The situation I was involved in took place while I worked for Quiktrip, a gas
station/convenience store that is based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Because of advancements
and progress made with electric vehicles, newer generations want to be less reliant on oil,
so a decision was made to focus on food to stay competitive if demand for gas becomes
less and less. The move into the food industry required remodeling all existing stores to
include a full-service kitchen/barista. My position was a store manager, but I was used as
a team leader for special projects assigned by our corporate office. On this project, I
supervised a team of 6-10 employees, depending on the phase of the project, as well as
the outside contractors who worked along with us.

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

Quiktrip ran on a top-down political structure, with the authorities influencing,

motivating, and mobilizing the subordinates. The board member's concern was to stay
profitable in a market where the future of gasoline was uncertain. To find other avenues
to profit, a different revenue model needed to be implemented. The program was met
with pushback and unhappiness from the operations level. The company is employee-
owned, so the lower-level employees felt they did not sign up to invest hundreds of
millions of dollars into the food industry when that money could go back into employees'
retirement plans.

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

I believe implementing some change management practices would have eased the
changes and helped the lower-level employees understand why this change was

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 necessary. Corporate-level employees and store management understood the importance
of staying profitable in the case that gasoline is replaced, but passing that message down
to part-timers could have been more tactful.

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

Looking back, I believe this process would have been more receptive if it had been done
at a slower pace. Stores had their kitchen installed and they were pretty much told to train
themselves in the kitchen procedures and machinery, which meant the offering wasn’t
consistent from store to store. Managers were now responsible for teaching their staff
something they were trying to learn themselves.

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 Reference or References
(Choose appropriate Title if Applicable and Delete the Rest)