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.

I work for a small family owned owned business. Our business likes to work with non profit

organizations. The Salvation Army is an organization that we like to work with in particular.

While working in a family owned business there is a lack of defined roles, responsibilities and

leadership.

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

As mentioned this business has a lack of defined roles. Without a distribution of work and

responsibilities, it makes it difficult to focus on goal setting and store growth. With family comes

it’s own set of complications. It can be hard to not only take on a leadership role with family but

also maintaining professionalism.

Five propositions are noted in chapter 9 of the reading assignment. These propositions

note differences in beliefs and values, coalitions of different interest groups, and different

perseptions of reality, making differences put conflict at the center of dynamics (Bolman). We

can view these propositions affect on the store’s family dynamic. With a family you have a sense

of shared values, however there are still going to be differences in perspective and ideas. It can

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feel difficult to come forward to share ideas at the expense of affecting the family negatively. In

particular having a lack of authority means there is no one specific to go to to share ideas and/or

concerns. As an example, deciding to go to my mother to express an idea over my father then

makes him feel hurt or less important. When we don’t have these defined roles it affects this

store dynamic in several ways. More feelings are involved causing emotions getting in the way

of productivity and store growth.

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

Setting agendas, mapping, networking, negotiating are constructive aspects of politics

that can be helpful in the work space. (Bolman) Properly integrating these aspects of the

political frame can help to form new ways to help the business grow and focus on goals that

are important to the business. For instance, donating and working with The Slavation Army

is a big priority for the store. What can cause a distrubtion of this project of sorts is not

having a distribution of work. By being able to set agendas, in a productive way, goals can be

made clear and the work that needs to be done to complete them.

Networking also plays a role already in this business. However, selecting one person or a

couple to be in charge of networking specifically could help to make bigger strides with

networking. The idea of adding in some new members to the store that are not within the

family is a way to get new perspectives and skill sets involved. This way tasks can be

distributed better. Having outside members of the family helps break up the family dynamic

to lead to a more professional work environment as well. Overall, this can help allow for

more effective work to be done, a safer space for ideas to be shared, and for the store goals to

be more focused on.

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

Now I see how the political frame can have a more positive agenda then the original view I had

of politics. I see how politics can help with the distribution of power and responsibility. It can

help to set goals and work on prioritizing certain tasks. What I would do differently is educate

myself on the applyinh politics in a business environment. With that taking into account the

family dynamic that is already there. Seeing how politics can still be involved without having

negative connotations.

Bringing forward new ideas to begin with could have helped to open the floor up for

growth. By being able to be educated on the aspect of the political frame it can be better applied

in the work environment. With a family dynamic you not only have family values involved but

also certain expectations from being born into that family. With a more structured work

environment it can help encourage more of a conversation and a productive space to share ideas.

With this thinking it can be easier to focus on goals, set store expectations, and have a new more

positive structure that has a balance between family and politics.

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 Reference

Perusall. (n.d.). App.perusall.com. Retrieved March 23, 2024, from

https://app.perusall.com/courses/pmg-421-project-risk-management