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OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource 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.

I have worked at Starbucks for 3 years. I started as a barista and am now a
Shift Supervisor. I was moving to a neighboring store over a year ago. There
are many events that happened over the next year, but I was working for a
manager that was not a good leader. He often cussed out his employees and
customers. He complained about others and then made us seem like we were
the problem. I was not happy to work there and talked to my husband about
quitting often.
The final thing that pushed me over the edge was there was another
employee that was touching me inappropriately. I talked to my store manager
and he informed me that he would talk to this person. A few weeks later I
approached him again about another instance and was informed that he would
be talked to. Then that employee approached me about what was going on and
why I was acting strange around them. I then proceeded to have a very
uncomfortable conversation with them about keeping hands to themselves.
This pushed me to call my district manager. We had several very long
and extremely stressful phone conversation. This resulted in a investigation and
within a few weeks both the employee and the store manager were gone.
This was an extremely hard time for me, but I learned so much. I learned
that if you want to have your voice be heard… you must speak up. I learned that
I am stronger that I realized. I have learned to care for myself, how to keep my
mouth shut when needed and how to speak up when needed, and how to help
other employees in similar situations. I would never wish something like this on
anyone but I can say that I came through it stronger.

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

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I feel like the politics that were influencing this situation would be the
power that the store manager had. He used his authority to make decisions that
were not right. He used his coercive power to constrain, interfere and punish
those who he worked under him. He had the position power with the legal
authority to demand his employees do what he wanted them to do. (Lee G
Bolman, 2017)

“Workers who move up the ladder sometimes struggle with elusive

adjustments required by their new role.” (Lee G Bolman, 2017) I had several
conversations about this manager him being moved into his role because he had
someone who liked him. This man gave my manger a chance to be something
better. I am all for this happening. I believe in it. I feel like I want to be a part of
this more. But in this instance, it did not go well for the man that was moving into
the authority position.

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

I believe a great way to help this not happen again would be to have more
vetting before people are placed into a manager role. There should be more
background checks, conversations with other employees and interviews. I realize
when someone is hired it is often times a gamble on how they will turn out. They
will only put their best foot forward for the interviews and their points of contact.
But if someone is promoting within the business, I feel like there should be more
conversations.

Another thing would be to make our values clear and hold our employees
accountable. There are clear values but holding the managers accountable is not
always something that happens. They seem to hold all the authority with their
store. This is something I might would change. If there was more of
accountability for the store managers, then situations like this would not happen
so often.

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

I believe something I might would do differently would be to network

myself more. I believe I could have made a bigger difference if I had known and
talked to other store managers earlier. I am more of a intervert so networking
has never been a easy thing for me but if I had another person to talk to I would
have probably stepped up sooner.
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I might would also have it a rule that when store managers are on vacation
(or once a year)then a manager from another store would come in and take care
of the store for the week or two. During this time, I would have the fill in manager
have a survey filled out by all the employees. Just asking basic questions. I
would also have them work a few shifts at the other store to maybe get a pulse
on what is going on. I would also never have a store manager at the same store
for more than a few years. If they are moving, then the new managers can find
out a lot about what has been going on in the store. Also, the change would be
good for everyone involved.
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References
Starbucks. (22, January 14). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Perusall Version Only)