OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political 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.

My situation is running a shift at Starbucks. I am a shift supervisor. A shift supervisor is

in charge of the floor while they are in the store, meaning it’s my job to give barista
breaks, have enough product for customers through pulling food and entering store
orders, and make sure baristas have the resources they need to do their job. It’s important
for me to know my fellow partners (employees) because it’s my job to put them in a
position on the floor that they enjoy and can succeed. Starbucks has been experiencing a
lot of scarcity with products due to supply chain shortages. These shortages arose because
COVID-19 caused many manufacturing facilities to shut down, the transportation of
goods was more difficult throughout the pandemic, and the labor shortage that resulted
from uncertain times left many jobs needing to be filled.
Most of Starbucks’ distribution centers were low or out of everyday products that
we use in-store. Distribution centers also felt the effects of the labor shortage and had
trouble finding employees to fill the open roles in our hubs. Starbucks didn’t even have
truck drivers to deliver our product if the distribution centers had it. Starbucks’ mission is
to nurture the human spirit, but this shortage oftentimes caused people’s spirit to become
disheartened. Starbucks was once a reliable place to get coffee, breakfast, and a smile.
But throughout the pandemic, we saw this notion change and customers felt frustrated
with partners because they weren’t able to get their favorite menu items.

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

Culture is paramount at Starbucks. We are in the business of serving coffee (others).

Without the people, the partners (employees), and customers we would cease to exist. It
is critical to the organization`s success to keep both happy and satisfied. Starbucks is a
major international corporation. Starbucks mission: “to inspire and nurture the human
spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks Company wants
its customers to have that experience when they enter one of their retail stores.
Underneath the customer experience is the reality of hard choices and decisions - this is
where the political frame exists.
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 Politics also played into the situation because at the time when the pandemic was starting,
Starbucks wanted to ensure they were taking care of people. People over profits was a
common theme going through the pandemic, and the company had to balance the
decisions of which stores to close, how to support partners, keep them safe, as well as
take precautions for customers. Starbucks decided to roll out an option for all partners,
they could choose to either stay home and continue to be paid an average amount set on
pervious hours worked or partners were given the opportunity to continue working with
an additional $3/hour.

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

Practicing "good" politics enables you to further your and your team's interests fairly and
appropriately. Starbucks is an incredibly large organization with diverse partners all
working towards the same mission. I would have wanted to work more closely with my
fellow leadership by informing them of current local statistics and how they were
impacting us within our community.
Scarce resources and incompatible preferences cause needs to collide (Bolman &
Deal,2021). Starbucks should have realized this would happen when they first heard of
the supply chain shortages. Using knowledge of the political frame, decisions should
have been made to lessen the blow of scarcities we’ve seen.

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

Based on this frame, I would have wanted more stores closed. Only allowing for 1
store to be open in the district. The people who wanted to continue working from each
location that was closed would be allowed to work in only this 1 store. This would
provide more support and less stress for each individual partner that was already working
during an unknown time, while maintaining morale and engagement with more staff.

Instead of keeping every location possible open with limited staffing and limited
operating hours. Stores also faced supply chain challenges; we were running out of
everything from espresso to cups. If only 1 store was open in each district, it could be
stocked with products from the closed locations from the pandemic. Something I would
do differently in this situation is anticipate counterstrategies that others are likely to
employ (Bolman & Deal, 2021). With the pandemic going on for two years and constant
changes to the workplace, counterstrategies could have been created to handle the
changing flow of Starbucks stores. The political frame emphasizes strategy and tactics
rather than conflict resolution (Bolman & Deal, 2021)

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Mission Statement. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 20222,

from https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement