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 described in module 1 had to do with a new hardware product that I was
inheriting from a peer on my team who was working on a contract. The new product
itself was replacing a 30yr+ piece of technology with something significantly different
and more modern (androidOS + touch screen computer). As soon as I started my
immersion into the product and project, I quickly found out there were lots of questions
around roles and responsibilities and there was no clear “owner” that would be the
decision maker. As a result, issues plagued the project through its entirety (which
included a six week break to re-group).
2) Describe how the politics of the organization influenced the situation.
The politics of my organization are a huge contributing factor and influencer of my
situation. The first factor, being what I would assume is your more traditional “politics”
driven scenario. As I mentioned in my recap of the situation, there were lots of questions
around roles and responsibilities. This even applied to the leadership team that were
identified as our steering committee (steerco), directors representing each of the teams
that were involved in the project. While we met with our steerco once a quarter and on an
as needed basis, there was not a clear decision maker amongst them. Even though that the
was the case when meeting with the steerco group, one of the directors took the
opportunity to push their team’s priorities and agenda on the project in different venues.
The director used their position as a means to make they, their team, and their interests
were represented and giving the appearance that they were never a blocker, but did not
have the interests of the broader project team and project in mind.
The second factor, which I feel goes hand in hand with utilizing ones position is also
using ones relationships. My organization has a significant amount of tenure, I would say
on average, it is 10+yrs of tenure among partners (employees), with many starting out in
our retail locations and making their way into non-retail roles. As a result, there are many
people throughout the organization (myself included) who have worked with so many
people who are still around and are now in other departments throughout the organization
and leverage those relationships as appropriate. In my situation, the director I had

1
 mentioned above had elevated others involved with the project to higher roles (one such
person was a manager). There would often be times where I felt like the working team
would gain alignment on how we wanted to prioritize work, we would communicate it
out to the broader team so that the team was informed and would start work. Shortly after
starting work, members that either reported to the director mentioned above would
suggest another way to address work or would plainly say that the previously mentioned
leader wanted to go a different route. In my opinion, having this type of influence is
similar to what was mentioned in our reading about Ross Johnson and how he was able to
ingratiate himself with board members in order to further his career with companies as
they were buying out his company (Bolman & Deal, 2021).
3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.
Knowing what I know now from the reading, I would have taken more of an opportunity
to create cohesion amongst the working team. Our reading mentions organizations are
coaltions composed of individuals and group with enduring differences who live in a
world of scarce resources (Bolman & Deal, 2021). By bringing the group together and
identifying common interests and goals, that could have prevented some of the issues that
we experience during the project related to who was making decisions and whether or not
they should be making decisions. Even though we each individually have differences, we
also have similarities that could be found. I also feel, if I had continued to stay true to my
values which align with the values of the organization, that could have made a difference
in the way the team worked together and we could have found common ground quicker.
I also believe had I set goals and worked with our project manager and the project team
to create a bit more structure, others would have found value in those exercises. Bringing
people into the fold and making sure they feel like they are being heard and contributing
to the ways of working is a way to build trust amongst the team. Doing so would create a
sliver of power and the potential to influence behavior (Bolman & Deal, 2021). By
having the power to influence behavior, that would allow for tasks to get completed in a
manner that works for the team, that may not have been possible previously.
4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.
Looking back, I went into the situation thinking I could leverage my existing
relationships and that is the only thing that I planned for. My thought process was that if I
could leverage my relationships and try to address what I learned from my immersions,
that would be enough. While I was able to leverage relationships with those who I had
the strongest relationships with, I was not able to leverage relationships with those I had
not known long enough to develop a solid relationship with. What I should have done
after setting up immersion was start to “map through the political terrain”. As our reading
states, it is foolhardy to plunge into a mindfield without knowing where the explosives
are buried (Bolman & Deal, 2021). That is exactly what I did, I jumped right in thinking
I could fix things. I should have taken the time to propertly identify who were the
influencers and dedicate time to figuring how we could work best together and what our
common interests were.

2
 Additionally, after spending time mapping out the terrain and identifying who was who in
the zoo, I should have networked better amongst the team and the leaders of the project.
In our reading, one such route I could have taken would be Kotter’s four basic steps for
excersising political influence; identify relevant relationships, assess who might resist,
why, and how strongly, develop links with potential opponents, and carefully select and
implement more subtle or forceful method (have a plan B) (Bolman & Deal, 2021). I
should have had a plan on how I wanted to ingratiate myself into the project in an effort
to provide value, to help make an impact, and deliver a product successfully and on time.
I do not know for sure if me having a plan would have a significant impact to the project
and would have avoided the pause in the project we experienced. I could have left the
project feeling like I did everything in my power to help steer the team and the project
down a less rocky path though.

3
 Reference

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (7th ed.). San Franciso, CA: Jossey-Bass.