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.

As an inbound call customer service representative for Sprint, I was often the first contact with

customers. I was limited in what I was able to do for the customers. Only supervisors were

allowed to submit returns. The situation was that my supervisor would not allow my customer to

return an unopened phone as a one-time courtesy to a long-time customer. My direct supervisor

would not return the unopened phone because the customer did not request to speak with them. I

was only allowed to transfer calls to a supervisor when a customer asked for them or became too

angry, usually including cursing and yelling. The phone was a Christmas gift for the customer's

daughter, who had died during the holiday season. If the customer had asked to speak to the
supervisor and requested a return or became irate when I informed them of the policy, my

supervisor would have submitted the return and canceled the additional line.

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

The politics of the organization influenced the situation drastically. Instead of resolving conflict,

the organization relied on a quasiresolution of conflict. (Bolman, p.190) Decisions based on this

concept led to a breakdown in customer loyalty and no real customer solutions. The customers

who could get to a supervisor were the ones who made enough noise. In this policy and the

squeaky wheel got the grease and therefore had had the power in these situations. It was a

learned behavior, and we would often see a correlation of a customer who called in often

requesting a supervisor receiving perks from this pattern on their account history.

This policy ultimately cost the company more money. It retained demanding customers and

drove those who just wanted a service away. Suppose the organization honestly responded to the

needs of all their customers instead of only the ones who complained in a way that aligned with

their policy. In that case, they could have ultimately increased profit by retaining customers who

felt heard and understood.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of

action regarding your case.

If the politics were customer-focused, they would have allowed autonomy to customer service

representatives to make decisions based on a customer's need. In turn, a supervisor would have to
have equal autonomy to make decisions that could create long-time customer loyalty. In this

case, the customer had already remained loyal to Sprint. Therefore, they deserved the

opportunity to receive a solution that would maintain their loyalty. Suppose Sprint was more like

an organization like Uber, which recognized their most important allies were their customers. In

that case, they could leverage customer experiences to build a powerful coalition that helps it win

more battles than it loses and keep growing (Griswold, 2015).

When Sprint partnered with the call center GC Services and trusted this company to provide

customer service to their customers as an inbound call center, they should have also trusted that

the leaders would make decisions in the company's best interest. As a GC Service representative,

I would convince Sprint stakeholders to trust the management and see it as legitimate to accept

and support the decisions made. (Bolman, p.192) I would provide past successful contracts that

have been successful in the management skills provided by GC Services. Getting permission

from Sprint allows managers to make a call that doesn't directly align with their policy if it is in

the company's best interest.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned

about this frame.

I would give the company I hired the opportunity to represent the company in ways proven to

work. I would provide our policy but allow for a certain autonomy to do what they feel is best in

the given situation. I would highlight these exceptions as available as long as they could provide

me with a reasonable explanation of why they made their choices. I would also emphasize those
policies that would need to be discussed with a direct Sprint representative for review and make

it a procedure for handling these situations.

As we learned in Chapter 10, "people rarely give their best efforts and fullest cooperation simply

because they have been ordered to do so. " (Bolman, p.210) It is, for this reason, I believe that

my supervisor was not giving the full potential of their capabilities as a leader. They were under

strict rules and policies with no ability to produce authentic results for the loyal customers of

Sprint. As a leader, I hope to trust those I have hired to provide the services I hired them to

provide proficiently and effectively.

Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Griswold, A. 2015. “Uber Won New York.” Slate, November 18.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/11/uber_won_new_york_city_it_

only_took_five_years.html.