Erik Rubbelke

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal 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.

In 2015 I was part of the Marine Security Guard detachment charged with providing
security for the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. Marine Security Guard
detachments around the world are held responsible for protecting our nation’s
information and diplomatic personnel stationed abroad.

As one might imagine, military servicemembers to not always fit in so well with career
diplomats, as they tend to be blunt, to the point, and often vulgar in language. This
creates an interesting dynamic when paired alongside the educated, crafty, and well-
spoken diplomats that represented our beloved country. As a leader of this military team,
I was responsible for serving directly under a federal Special Agent and the Ambassador,
and my work required direct coordination with many agencies and entities within the
embassy that I would normally not have any relation with. For this reason, I quickly
found that diplomacy, effective communication, and learning the politics within the
organization were paramount to my success in effectively leading my team.

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

Interestingly, the team of servicemembers established to protect the embassy all came
from different backgrounds, carrying along with them different values and goals, though
they did share organizational values which ultimately steered us in the right direction as a
team. However, the state department and embassy personnel we served alongside also
came from various backgrounds and upbringings, carrying with them varying personal
goals and values with a set of common organizational goals and morals as well.

Every day served as a reminder to me that we all came from various backgrounds, and
even our organizational morals and goals were different.

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For this reason, it was more important than ever to learn to communicate effectively and
manage not only the expectations of superiors but also the personalities of those in
various positions throughout the embassy community. With scarce resources and serving
as a team in an embassy like a fish out of water, the success of our team was largely
placed on managing the politics it faced within the day to day operations of the embassy
life.

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

Knowing what I know now, ¾ of a class and many years later, I would have used politics
to my advantage. Organizational politics were essential and while it is clear now, at the
time I had no idea how much I needed to learn about managing office politics. Learning
how others operate within their workspace, how you can benefit them, how they can
benefit you. These ideas would have greatly increased my ability to ensure smooth
operations while assigned as the Assistant Detachment Commander.
 
Specifically speaking, I would make a more deliberate effort to socialize with those
outside of our detachment to foster more effective, useful, and beneficial relationships
between our detachment and the other entities of the embassy. I would also place more
emphasis on the politics within the detachment itself. By holding deliberate
conversations about the politics taking place between ourselves, I believe I could have
addressed more issues and built a more cohesive unit better equipped to act together in a
time of crisis. While we were very effective, there is always room for improvement.

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

Given what I have learned about this political frame, I would look to make things
administratively within the embassy flow more smoothly for my team and I by being
more political myself. By operating daily with an understanding of how critical it can be
to network and be of service for others with the assumption that one day they will be able
to assist you as well, I could have made life a significantly simpler for my team and I.
Additionally, I would keep more of an open mind and attempt to convince my team
members to do the same. As servicemembers, I think that we adapt easily to any
situation, and truly don’t care where our team members come from because at the end of
the day despite our differences, we all share organizational values that guide us to
success. However, when you start interacting with and relying upon another organization
with not only personal differences but organizational differences as well, things can
become complicated. By having a common understanding and expectation that we are all
present to achieve different things that ultimately lead to the success of all, I think we
could have made our own lives a whole lot easier.

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Erik Rubbelke

Additionally, I would have tried to embrace my position and the opportunity at hand a
little sooner. It took some time for me to grow into my new role. Knowing what I know
now, I would attempt to set an agenda (Bolman & Deal, 2017) and get my teammates on
board with it. This agenda would largely include everything I have mentioned up to this
point in this paper. By being more social and forming more resourceful relationships
myself I would have been able to gain political capital with the community. However, if
each of my teammates was making the same effort based on my agenda, the networking
would have improved exponentially and perhaps benefited our team in ways we did not
even imagine possible.

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Erik Rubbelke

Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership

(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass