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 situations that I have chosen to analyze stem from COVID-19. The first situation looks
at how my organization was not prepared for the economic down-turn and the impact that
COVID-19 has had on my industry. Because of the economic shut-down, people were not
driving to and from work, people were not traveling, and planes were grounded, so that impacted
the oil and gas industry tremendously. Secondly, because of the pandemic, we have been forced
to change our work style. We no longer have morning production meetings, we are no longer
allowed to have face to face contact with other individuals, and lastly when we are not working
on a well we have to work from our vehicle.

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

Because my organization is influenced a lot by policy changes and government

regulations, I believe that the structure of my organization is vertical. The vertical structure is
heavily influenced on authority, rules and policies, and planning and control systems
(Bolman & Deal, 2017). Though our organization is heavily influenced by government and
state regulations, I feel that during the COVID-19 our leaders of our organization should
have gone to bat for us and the organization. I feel that our leaders should have pushed to
pass a bill similar to the airlines. Unfortunately, because we are a top down hierarchy and the
bottom people are first to go, the executives did not feel that it was imperative to do so. Also,
I feel that the executives at the top of our organization could have better planned for an
economic down-turn because if it weren’t the pandemic it was going to be something else. I
feel that our organization should have put a limit on how many office people to hire, instead
of calling out contractors to do basic labor, the operators should have been doing the labor.

According to Bolman & Deal (2017), organization has taken the action approach to
planning during COVID-19, meaning the employees within our organization are told
specifically how to do things. The one negative to this, is that doing what we have been told

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 to do has caused problems with our production. Because a lot of the regulations hinder how
we are allowed to go about working and increasing our daily production, a lot of the guys at
the organization are currently not motivated to do the work.

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

Structure is something that is important within any organization and it is imperative to an

organization’s success. As for my organization, I believe I would utilize lateral coordination.
Lateral coordination is less formal than vertical structures, but they utilize meetings, tasks forces,
coordinating roles, matrix structures, and networks (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Though this
structure could not necessarily change the impact regulations have made on the industry, I
believe it would boost the morale of the organization.

I would use lateral coordination to continue to host meetings via ZOOM with the employees
on all levels of the organization. I say this because I am a firm believer in transparent
communication, and I believe that meetings can be about more than just production. These
meetings would revolve around what financial hardships the economic down-turn has caused the
organization. I would then, open the floor up for knowledge sharing and brain-storming ideas
that would help save the organization money. On top of that, I would assign a taskforce to take a
look at where we can cut costs without having to cut any operators or field employees. These
taskforces would look at each department of the organization and make a final recommendation.
Coordinating roles within the organization would be utilized, so executives my organization
could coordinate with other executives of various organization, so together they can approach
legislatures to negotiate an economic relief bill for California’s oil and gas industry. I would get
together with health officials, supervisors, superintendents, and executives so we can put
together a matrix system that would limit the amount of confusion of new COVID-19 prevention
regulations. Lastly, I would create a network of different executives from different oil and gas
organizations to see what is working for their organization and what is not. Also, having a
network of executives from various oil and gas organizations can help push policies and
regulations one way or another.

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

This question may be a litter repetitive to question number three, but given what I have
learned about the structural frame, I would utilize latitude coordination to help get the
organization through the economic down-turn COVID-19 caused and to help solve any
confusion to the new COVID-19 prevention regulations. I like what latitude offers an
organization, though it may be costlier, the benefits I believe outweigh the cons. Lateral

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organizations foster collaboration and work well in an environment that cannot always be
controlled (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

I would utilize the lateral frame to instill our employees trust back into our organization. I
feel that the executives at the top of our hierarchical structure have done a poor job at looking
out for the guys who are responsible for making the organization millions of dollars a day. If the
organization cannot instill confidence and trust into us, what does that say about the
organization?

Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass