OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the symbolic frame
2. Apply the symbolic 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.

The current situation I want to describe is on my current project where the client
has asked us to start work without an IFC’d (issued for construction) design package. A
quick note about construction and the design drawings are that there are 4 parts,
Schematic Design (SD), Design Development (DD), Construction Documents (CD), and
Issued for Construction (IFC). As a rule of thumb, you do not start work until the final
design (IFC) is issued for construction by the engineer to avoid any issues with changes
in the design.
One of my key roles is to review drawings as early as possible to identify the
material that is needed for the scope of work. I will also identify any long lead items
based on the historical date of material deliveries and reach out to our contractor and
vendors for lead times. Doing so helps our team build and adjust the schedule
accordingly. As each package is issued for construction, I identify any changes in the
design and log the risk. I then take the changes and risk to the owner so that the risk is
captured and change orders can be issued for the change. As one can imagine, this gets
expensive quickly. Thankfully, we are avoiding a lot of issues by reviewing previous
packages, spec requirements, and collaborating with the owner directly to ensure that
there are minor changes to the design between CD and IFC

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

The symbol of the organization has influenced the situation in a positive way
through the organizations culture. Organizational symbols are a variety of things to
include culture (Boleman & Deal, 2021). One symbol that comes to mind, is the three
letters that have been passed down by the fourth president of our company in 1989. The
letters were passed down with instruction that stated they should never be opened unless
the exceptional performance of the company was in jeopardy. These letters have become
a part of the company’s folklore and a reason the company strives for excellence in all

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 that we do. No one wants to be leader that has to open the letters. With that, everyone
looks to mitigate risk in every aspect of our jobs.

The letters have created a culture of excellence and help our team accept new
challenges like the one above, but also helps us the team come up with new ways to
mitigate risk. This culture has also influenced an organization that is focused on
innovation that allows for us to adapt to the ever-changing environments of construction.
Being an innovative company allowed for us to accept the challenges of this project and
continue to help us work through problems as a team.

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

One way I would use organizational symbols for an alternative course of action
would be to make ensuring that everyone on the team is aware of the company’s vision
and culture. It’s easy for people to not understand the culture of the company when they
are a new employee. I would want to utilize training’s early one for employees to
understand the culture of the organization and how the culture can be applied to our
current project and the other projects that we have going on.

Overall, I think that our organization does a great job with training. In fact, we
have what we call train your replacement. Everyone is responsible for training the people
below them and doing so shows that you understand your position and the company
culture. Sometimes it’s easy to get sucked into the day to day and loose focus on the goal
but having training on the organization helps with realigning to the goals of the
organization.

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

Given what I have learned, there is not much that I would want to change with
how the organization that I work for operates. The company sticks to their values, vision,
and really puts a focus on the company culture. High performing organizations tend to
tell stories and keep traditions alive (Boleman & Deal, 2021). I think that this is
something that the organization does well, and they are also good at getting people to buy
into the culture.

Additionally, I think that since the company does such a great job of
communicating the culture and getting people to believe in it, they have such a high
retention rate. The high retention rate also derives from people feeling like they belong
and have a sense of identity. Having a sense of identity leads to high performing teams,
even in new and challenging situations like the one we are in now.

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 Reference
Bolman G. L., & Deal T. (2021) Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice, and Leadership 7th
Edition. Published by Jossey-Bass