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.

The role of my job is essentially to provide backup to the salesmen, in the way of

product knowledge, ordering, and customer payment collection. I also handle all the

finances, such as banking, payroll, and taxes. Being that I basically do everything, except

sell the product, I sit at the head of our desk area so that I can hear and see what is going

on in the store clearly.

The situation that I am discussing is a conversation that was between myself and a

coworker after a mass shooing in Boulder, Colorado in March 2021. My coworkers were

discussing the shooting, gun laws, and guns in general. One coworker asked my opinion

on the matter and my answer did not satisfy him and he starts the conversation back with

our other coworkers. After a few more minutes he says to me that people with names like

Ahmad and Mohammed should not be allowed to have guns and then things like this

would not happen. He continues to talk, and I finally interrupt him by asking a question

and the exchange went as follows.

“Statistically, how many mass shooting are committed by white men?”

“Well black people do it too.”

1
 “That is true, but not at the same rate as white men.”

“Well, they do in Chicago.”

After this I left for the day, had a discussion with the owner at a later date, he was

moved from sitting directly beside me, and he eventually quits.

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

My organization is made up of about seven fulltime employees, plus the owner. In

the case of my organization the owner has position power (Bolman, 2021), simply

because he is the owner, and everything flows them him on some level. Because of this

type of power, the owner has final say over any and every decision that is made in his

building. Under him are the salesmen and me. If I had to describe the type of power the

salesmen have, I would say it is information and expertise (Bolman, 2021). They hold

knowledge about the products we sell that they have acquired through both time and

experiences. My power within the organization can best be described as alliance and

networks power (Bolman, 2021). While I have learned much more about floors than I

could have ever imagined, the relationships I have made with vendors is much more

substantial.

Although the salesmen have more knowledge and experience than I do, it is

known that the owner appreciates and takes my ideas and suggestions over theirs in most

cases. The coalition that the owner and I have formed is very stable and known to people

both inside and outside of the organization. Pertaining to this situation, the owner was

able to address the situation in a manner that was unquestionable since he has position

power, and no one would try to contest his decisions.

2
 3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

After learning more about politics in the workplace, I know that it is not only

something that is spoken about in reference to someone getting a promotion that you

might not agree with. In this situation could use organizational politics to lobby for my

coworker to be reprimanded in a more social way. Because I have built networks and

alliances with the people both inside and outside of the organization I could have used

that to make it harder for him to do his job. Seeing as that is coercive and retaliation, I did

not choose that course of action, although I did briefly consider it.

In my case if I had position power I would have been able to make a decision in

the midst of the conversation between my coworker and myself. If I had to make a

decision in the middle of that particular conversation I may have sent him home, for the

rest of the week, so that I could cool off and not have to deal with him. Since I do not

have position power I did not have that option and chose to remove myself. After

removing myself I went to the authority in our organization and let it be handled that

way.

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

In this situation I would not change much in the political framework of things.

The owner has position power and because his position is at the top there is no one that

can, or will, debate is final decision. After the conversation between my coworker and I,

and after the conversation between my boss, the owner, he decided to move him from my

immediate area and change the way we communicate for business related things.

3
 The one thing I would do differently is implement a long-term way of handling

certain types of conflict. The owner was able to create physical space between me and my

coworker, but did not really address the underlying issues, which would be how to

discuss potentially polarizing subjects.

4
 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership.
(7th ed) Jossey-Bass.