OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I: PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:
PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

The situation I am going to be reviewing and discussing is from the time when I
was transitioning from a barista to a shift supervisor. It wasn’t a very easy transition
seeing the fact that I had only been with the company for one year and I was moving to a
new store with people I barely knew. It was tough coming into a new store because not
only was I trying to learn a new job with new responsibilities, but the team I was working
with wasn’t adjusting well to my new role in their store. A lot of them didn’t like the fact
that I was brought in to help ensure that structure and policies were being followed. I had
come from a store that ran well structured shifts and that was exactly what my new store
manager was looking for. However, this helped me to learn how to handle situations that
were unavoidable and how to gain the respect and trust of my coworkers. Once I began to
get adjusted to my new store and position I was able to help my team learn how to
complete daily required tasks without all the added stress they felt before. The role that I
had during this situation was a shift supervisor, well newly shift supervisor that is. With
this new role I was responsible for deploying employees to their positions, assigning
tasks, and ensuring that things are running smoothly.
The politics of the organization influenced the situation by using the power that
the company held in order to achieve getting the results that need to be done. In our text it
mentions that the political frame doesn’t blame politics but instead proposes that
interdependence, divergent interests, scarcity, and power relations spawn political activity
(Bolman & Deal). It is important to accept the fact that organizational politics will never
go away, so it is best to understand its influence in organizations and learn how to use it
in a positive manner. One way to ensure that you are abiding by organizational politics is
to understand Matthews explanation of hardball. Hardball is the discipline of gaining and
holding power, useful to any profession, and practices most openly and unashamedly in
the world of public affairs (Bolman & Deal). This really stood out to me because it goes
to show that this is something that simply cannot be avoided and instead we need to learn
how to face politics head on instead of shying away from it.
In my role as a shift supervisor I am held to a higher standard than other

employees due to the fact that I have more responsibilities than they do. In this role I am
responsible for a wide range of activities that are needed to be completed in order to
influence the tactics to improve both personal and organizational interest. It is effective in
both personal and organizational interest because not only am I responsible for making
decisions for my team and ensuring that they are doing what needs to be done, but I am
also working on developing my own personal growth with organizational politics as well.
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When it comes to organizational politics their objective is to sell ideas and even influence
others to achieve objectives. In my role I had a lot of pressure placed on me to help put
back structure into the store and to get my team to a mutual understanding of what needs
to be achieved. This ranged anywhere from enforcing company policies, hitting drive thru
times, and raising our customer connection scores. While many people look to politics as
being a negative influence it can be beneficial to settling difficult situations within the
workplace if used correctly.
An alternative course of action regarding my case and how I would use

organizational politics is to help my employees feel at ease while at work. I feel that in
my job things can become very hectic and stressful from time to time which can really
affect employees and customers. I think a positive way for me to use organizational
politics to better help my team is to do things such as stepping in when needed, keeping
close tabs on what is going on, and being a good role model. There are often times when I
need to step off the floor to complete a task and I will always tell my employees if they
need me to not hesitate to ask. However, they never do and sometimes I come back to
find them in distress. I have begun to help kick this in the butt by randomly popping out
and checking on them while working on my own task to make sure that my team is ok
and staying on track. I feel that by reassuring my team that I am always there if they need
that it helps bring positivity into the store.
It is proven that poorly managed conflict can lead to infighting and destructive
power struggles where well-handled conflict can stimulate creativity and innovation that
makes an organization a livelier, more adaptive, and more effective place (Bolman &
Deal). I find this to be extremely true. While I do still have room for development this is
something that is experienced first-hand within my store. I am the stores main opener and
then there is one other employee who opens the store on my days off each week. Her and
I have completely different leadership mentalities where I lead by doing and she leads by
trying to enforce her team to do as she says. This has led to create a serious divide within
the store because things run much more smoothly on my shifts where things are very
hostile on hers. One of my own personal goals is to help my employees to be able to take
my leadership qualities and apply them to her shift.
After learning about this frame, I feel that it can be used in a positive manner if it
is used correctly. However, the majority of the time it isn’t looked at as being a positive
influence, but instead that it negatively affects the company. I think it is in the best
interest of my team and myself to abide by the rules and policies that are set by the
company but to also not be afraid to tweak them when it is necessary. I feel that
sometimes there are policies and expectations that are put into place that simply do not fit
every situation one may encounter. I feel that there should always be room for things to
be expanded on and adjusted to fit company needs. By this I mean that if in the moment
something doesn’t seem to be working that it can easily be adjusted to fit customer needs
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and ensure that they are receiving the best service that is possible. I find that it is
important to be able to recognize when something is incorrect and fix it in the moment
instead of trying to teach someone why something was wrong after the situation has
already passed.
When it comes to the political frame within my own organization I do feel that
there would be things that I would do differently. For instance, I feel the company has set
some extremely high expectations without realizing all the factors that go into achieving
it. For instance, take our customer connection scores. They are generated by sending out
random emails to cardholders. These emails consist of a series of questions where
customers score their experience within the store. However, in order to receive a perfect
score that reflects our store customers have to answer with a perfect score for each
question otherwise it is not considered a good experience for them. I think this needs to
be adjusted because not all the questions are related to each other and they should be
placed within their own categories. In addition to this there are many factors that need to
be taken into consideration as to why a customer scored the store the way they did. Was
the store understaffing that day? Are there any seasoned partners working or is it all new
employees? In my role I feel that this is where I can step in to help my employees. I can
ensure that my employees are following standards and having conversations with
customers to make connections and give them a reason to come back. I think that we
should be putting a stronger focus on our connections with our customers and drink
standards to ensure customers are getting the best service they can. By doing this many
other factors will begin to fall into place because they reflect off of each other. If you are
exceeding in one category chances are it is going to boost the others as well.
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Reference
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass

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OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

In my role as a shift supervisor I am held to a higher standard than other

An alternative course of action regarding my case and how I would use

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