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.

In 2020, I was working for the Target Corporation as a General Merchandise

Executive Team Lead. I oversaw about eighty team members and five team leads who

ran about half of the salesfloor including Grocery, Household Essentials, and Home. In

2020, we experienced a worldwide pandemic with the spread of Covid-19 that

completely changed the way businesses are run, including Target.

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

Target has prided themselves on their outstanding guest service and efficient

shopping experience they provide every guest. “Helping all families find the joy in

everyday life” has been the organization’s mission statement, but this became very

challenging with the spread of Covid-19. Shelves of daily essentials became bare, and

panic spread across the nation. Social distancing forced Target to take a step back from

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 their core values of great shopping and community engagement. The organization made

the quick decision of rolling out new training like “G.U.E.S.T.”, Greet, Understand,

Engage, Solve, and Thank, which taught team members to read body language to

understand how a guest wants to be serviced. With CDC guidelines changing so often

and the lack of understanding about the virus, protocols were also changing daily in the

stores. Unfortunately, the guidelines were only set directly to the Store Directors. They

were then expected to filter the information down to the leaders that reported to them,

who were intended to do the same, and so on. With the amount of team members in the

stores and a constant flow of those on leave, the information was not also relayed at the

speed it needed to.

Covid-19 also caused a significant increase in the contactless shopping industry

which Target had only recently launched a few years prior. Options like in-store pickup

and drive-up offered guests a way to get their essentials with speed and ease.

Unfortunately, stores were not prepared for this work center to have such a large

expansion, so there was not strong leadership in place, nor the staffing to accommodate

the need. Teams were left scrambling to fulfill orders on impossible deadlines. Target

eventually acknowledge this problem and created a new Team Leader role in stores with

a high enough volume that solely owned this process. Unfortunately, these leaders were

not given any training because the role did not previously exist. This left stores with new

in role leaders, in a work center that guests relied on the most, with little understanding of

how to make smart business decisions.

3) Recommend how you would use structure for an alternative course of action

regarding your case.

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 Strong communication is detrimental in times of uncertainty. Target is one of the

largest retailers in the nation and one of only a few that stayed open during the pandemic.

To remain open, stores had to follow strict guidelines to ensure everyone remained safe.

These guidelines should be communicated and interpreted to where all team members

had a clear understanding of the expectations. Leaders would be given tools and materials

to have tough conversations around sensitive topics with team members. I would also

arrange daily team huddles to communicate important company chanages. The reading

states, “In fast paced, turbulent environments, more spontaneous and informal contacts

and exchanges are vital to take up slack and help glue things together” (Bolman &

Deal,2017, p. 59). Everyone works different hours and does not also have the opportunity

to have off stage conversations with the SD. A huddle woud bring every leader together

and ensure we all received the same communication so action could be taken

immediately. It would have also given us an opportunity to slow down a spend time

together as a leadership team, even if it was just for a couple minutes.

The company did a great job of quickly making the decision to up the store’s

leader counts with the addition of a Fulfillment Team Leader to run the online shopping

experience for the guests. This process could have been improved by also creating a

business partner for the process at the district or group level. This would have been a

great resource for these new in role leaders to receive guidance and communication about

inventory levels and high demand items. This is the only work center in the company that

does not have a direct business partner for the stores. Based on sales and the constant

year-over-year comps, the work center has a strong need for this role.

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

about this frame.

After learning about the importance of structure and the impact it has on an organization,

I would have better communicated the goals with my team. I would have explained why

we were making so many changes and the impact their work had on the total store’s

success. Many team members were forced to leave their work center’s behind to support

others because that was where the guest’s focus was. I failed my team on explaining why

their work center came second to another. I now understand why this was frustrating to

them because it was a lack of understanding. At the leader level, it is easy to see the big

picture because I have to think at the higher level of what is best for the store. For a team

member, they do not have this same view and are used to only doing what is best for their

direct work center.

Another change I would have made was how I communicated company changes

with my team. We often felt overwhelmed by the amount of workload we had and the

chaos of the guest traffic. This meant I did not always feel like we had he time to clearly

communicate all company updates. I often reported the changes in large huddles with my

team before the store opened and then we carried on with our day. Later I would find

team members not following the new procedures and had to correct the behavior again.

Reflecting now, I should have had these conversations more often one-on-one because

they were sensitive topics for some people. I also failed at tailoring my communication to

my team and instead read almost the exact same communication sent to me from

corporate leaders. Not all team members could understand this verbiage because it was a

lot of business and corporate type language that they are not used to. I should have

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 slowed down and not let the situation steer me away from my own values and beliefs as a

leader. My team would have had a much better morale and understanding of the business.

Reference

Target’s mission & vision statement analysis: What are target’s targets? (2021, May 20).

Visionary

BusinessPerson. https://visionarybusinessperson.com/target-mission-statement/