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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.

I am a General Merchandise Executive Team Leader for a very well-known

retailer called Target. In my role I am responsible for about half of the salesfloor and the

store’s operational performance. When Covid-19 spread across the world, it completely

changed the way we ran our stores. Contactless shopping broke records and team’s

compacities were stretched to the limit. Target’s CEO and corporate decision makers

were forced to act fast and do what they believed was right for the organization.

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

When the pandemic of Covid-19 started, panic spread, and Target’s response was

to be a reliable retail for their guests. The organization was dedicated to driving results

and in turn saw record breaking sales comps. Unfortunately, these comps were not easy

to attain by lower-level employees of the company. With all the change happening so

quickly, communication was ever changing and so were daily processes. This change was

forced to be implemented from a top-down approach and was not always received openly

by the team. While implementing the change, the organization did not always have a

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strong plan for resistance from the team. There were many gray areas around those who

qualified for a paid leave of absence and the mask requirements. Much of the change was

out of the organization’s control due to the government’s constantly changing mandates.

Another result of a rapidly changing society was a lack of clear goals and expectations

from the top. We became dependent on getting communication from the top that we were

uncertain how to navigate through the barriers we faced. We constantly ran out of

essentials that our guest demanded but found ourselves unable to make a good business

decision.

Target did a great job of bargaining and meeting the needs of the bottom tier of

the company. The organization achieved this by raising the starting wages for all hourly

team members and offering bonus incentives based on individual performance and ability

to adhere to Target’s core values. The corporate decision makers understood how much

the business relied on those in the front lines of the stores directly servicing the guests.

Without them, the organization stood no chance turning a profit. They also recognized

how unpredictable the workload was and the lack of resources that were provided. This

incentive helped counteract the feelings that many team members had by giving them a

sense of stability that most other companies were unable to provide during the pandemic.

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

action regarding your case.

In regard to this situation, I believe a bottom-up approach to decision making

would have been better. The world was experiencing a pandemic that sent people into

panic mode. Businesses were closed and people were forced to work from home. While

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most organizations slowed and had to make cost cuts, Target exploded with sales. Team

members were working overtime to fulfill the needs of the guests and maintain strong

sales. On the other hand, the corporate decision makers of the organization also began

working remotely. District leaders were directed to stop visiting stores and instead

communicate via Zoom. This led to some distrust with the team of where the company’s

morals and values were.

I would have used feedback from those working on the frontline every day to

make organizational decisions. I would have created a more democratized system where

everyone’s concerns felt heard. I would have also encouraged leaders who typically work

in an office, that are now working from home to visit stores, so the team felt their

support. This would have eliminated the feeling of exploitation that the team felt

originally because of the lack of hire up appearances at the store level.

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

about this frame.

Reflecting on the situation and hardships I faced with my team, I would have first

created an agenda. The purpose of an agenda is to “convey direction while addressing

concerns of major stakeholders” (, p. 205). I would have used the goals and direction I

received from the company direction and interpreted them in a way that my team could

understand. I would have then broken them down into a clear road map for us to follow to

meet the expectations we were given. Rather than taking the time to slow down and set

attainable goals, I let the chaos of the situation overwhelm me and blindly led my team

through the pandemic.

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I would have also networked and built coalitions with my peers to succeed as an

entire team. I focused too hard on my direct team’s success and pushed the store’s needs

to the side. If I would have viewed my peers as allies, we could have worked together to

convey the same messages to our teams to ensure we were all working towards the same

goal. This would have also helped the team to see us as a united front of leaders standing

together.

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Reference or References

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

John Wiley & Sons.