OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Politcal Frame Worksheet

Noelle Marietta

OGL 481

Professor Willmott

Arizona State University

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 helped plan my friend’s wedding, a small, simple, inexpensive, event. I’m going to
zone in on one specific situation, which is the reception or lack thereof. The bride and
groom wanted not necessarily a reception, but rather cake and drinks after the wedding
and then take off for their honeymoon. They only had three days as the bride was in the
military and had to go to training for a week after that three-day stretch. The groom’s
mother was adamant that they must have a meal after the wedding, this brought up the
issue of extra cost, and lost time for the bride and groom. The groom’s mother wanted to
hire a caterer and split the costs with the bride’s parents. This was causing stress as the
mother of the bride struggled with the idea of this added cost, the bride and groom
frustrated by the mother of the groom and my frustration as I was being vented to from
many angles. The mother of the bride is very non-confrontational and didn’t know how to
just say no. In the end, finger food prepared by the bride’s aunt was the compromise, and
I avoided throwing down with the mother of the groom. The biggest issue in all of this
was the mother of the groom’s inability to understand and respect the couple’s wishes.

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

Bargaining and negotiation was what I identified this situation under. The mother of the
groom had interests in the wedding as it was her son’s weddig while the mother of the
bride had interests in the weddding as it was her daughter’s wedding as well. The bride

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 and groom were/are planning on having a “reception” a year later, but as we found out,
the mother of the groom was afraid that that would not happen, so she pushed for the
hiring of the caterer. It was less about having catered food and more about having that
time after the wedding. While for the mother of the bride, the cost of the caterer was an
issue. I will admit that in this situation the solution was going back to doing exactly what
the bride and groom wanted which was just having cake and refreshments after the
wedding. It turns out I was taking a “claiming value” approach. We saw a solution come
to the surface when the aunt proposed making finger food for after the wedding, this
satisfied the mother of the groom’s interests while satisfying the mother of the bride’s
interests as well. As for the bride and groom they conceded as they would need to eat
before hitting the road as well.

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

Networking and building coalitions would have likely been a better approach for this
situation as I could have identified relevant relationships, (the mother of the groom) and
integrated her in the process from the start so she did not feel left out or like she had no
influence. The mother of the bride and aunt of the bride were two relationships I was in
good communication with. Again assessing who might resist, why, and how strongly
would have been something useful for me to be practicing in this situation. While I don’t
want to think of the mother of the groom as the enemy, it would have been good strategy
for me to have been closer with her and in good communication with her throughout the
planning process. It’s very likely that if she had felt more included in the process she
would have been less likely to push her way in.

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

While I don’t think the bargaining and negotiation was a bad fit for this situation I would
have preferred that the bargaining and negotiation had started with the bride and groom.
They should have been the first to hear of the proposition instead of it starting with the
mothers. The mother of the groom was taking a very much so “claiming value” approach,
and by approaching the mother of the bride first (who is very conflict averse) made it a
rocky start. The mother of the bride felt as though she was being pushed around which
led to my then taking a “claiming value” approach in return. I would change my approach
and separate the people from the problem, as that have likely helped us reach a suitable
solution more quickly.

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Reference or References

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