OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

Situation & Role within the Organization

My analysis will be focused on the 2022 historic event in Staten Island where Amazon
workers voted in favour of having a labour union. This event was led by former Amazon worker,
Chris Smalls, and was the first of its kind to win against the retail giant (Caturano & Sandoval,
2022). While Amazon’s success is evident in its figures, its organizational culture, structure,
internal politics and symbolic frames all have gray areas that stifles the full potential of
organizational growth. The union serves as a medium for employees to speak out against poor
work conditions, being underpaid, human resource issues and high turnover rates. Rather than
addressing concerns openly, the company adopts an avoidance approach by releasing employees
of their duties. My role in the organization will be as an external consulting agent seeking to find
the underlying causes of Amazon’s high turnovers and other issues. Having identified the issue, I
will undergo a process of evaluation and subsequently elimination. Because of the disconnect
that the company faces due to their organizational structure, I will aim to bridge the gap and
provide a sense of connectivity between managers and employees. The overall aim is to find
ways to both address and resolve the issues thereby improving Amazon’s situation.

How the politics of the organization influenced the situation.

In the political frame, power, conflict and coalition are the key ingredients. In the incident
mentioned above, politics was a driving force behind the occurrence. Under the concept of
power, the typical structure of organizations is viewed from a top-down approach and company
profitability is often prioritized over any other factor. Internal coalitions are present but Bolman
& Deal (2021) identified one assumption under the political frame as coalition members having
enduring differences. This was event in the case of Amazon because executives and senior
management's perception of reality collided with the employees perception. Because of the
hierarchal structure that Amazon uses, direction was channelled from top down and it was very
rare for a bottoms-up approach to be used. Therefore the concerns and ideas of workers were
suppressed and they felt as though their voices were unheard (Palmer, 2021). The protests mainly
involved warehouse workers who were dissatisfied with the workers and treatment that they
received from the company. Amazon pushes a culture that seeks to prioritize the customer. They
pride themselves on their fast deliveries and customer satisfaction (Amazon, n.d.). However, the
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 workers felt as though they were being left out of the equation. Accordingly, the service
standards imposed on workers were not suitable or realistic from the employees perspective
(Palmer, 2021). This constitutes a form of political infighting where the interests and
expectations of internal members clash.

Power and coalition was the driving force of the union. Bolman & Deal (2021)
mentioned that at every level of an organization, alliances form because members have common
interests. They believe that by forming a coalition, they can gain the power they need to
accomplish what they want. Since the workers felt as though their voices were not being heard
individually, the best option was to form a union. With Amazon being a powerful force, this
would have required great effort to win against the retail giants. Under the political frame, scarce
resources and incompatible preferences cause a need to collide. By getting multiple workers on
the same page, it would form a coalition strong enough to stand against Amazon’s power. At the
time, their people became the scarce resources and Amazon chose to exploit them. This
incompatibility sparked the friction and caused the rallies for Amazon to unionize.

How organizational politics can be used for an alternative course of action

Since the allocation of scare resources is a priority under the political frame, I would have
opted to implement measures that protect these resources during that time. As previously
mentioned, the pandemic resulted in tremendous loss of workers for Amazon due to lay offs.
However, one of the factors that led to the unionization was the workers feeling as though their
work conditions were unfit for their protection and safety during the pandemic. One report
mentioned that at the peak of the pandemic, the warehouses remained crowded and continued to
operate at full speed (Palmer, 2020). To address this, I would have doubled down on shift
systems and restructure the operations to have fewer employees working per shift. During the
pandemic, social distancing was widely encouraged. Fewer persons working per shift would
have resulted in an increased chance for social distancing in the warehouses and would also
reduce the spread of the virus.

Another measure that I would have implemented during this time would have been to
alter the regular shipment time. Yes, fast delivery is the company’s practice, however, during the
pandemic, operation could not be as normal. It was understood by many organizations that
operations would likely be slowed. By regulating the ‘normal’ operating standards employees
would have been given greater flexibility to protect their own lives and the lives of others.
Palmer (2020), reported that Amazon made it mandatory that only positively tested employees
should not come in to work, accordingly, some workers had to go to work even if they were sick
for fear that they would lose their jobs. By implementing these measures, Amazon would have

 ensured that they valued their scarce resources and this could have avoided such a blow to the
company.

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

The political frame proposes that goals evolve through an ongoing process of negotiation
and bargaining from major interest groups (Bolman & Deal, 2021). This, in turn, allows
managers to map the political terrain. With Amazon making decisions using a top-down structure
and with no involvement of employees, they essentially entered entered the play field blindly. To
do this, rather than limiting communication as Amazon chose to do, I would have opened
channels of communication to seek the input of those who would be directly affected by the
decisions that the company made.

What I would also do during this time was to build coalitions and relationships since this
leads to sustainability. Had Amazon sought to build relationships with their workers, they would
have cultivated cheerleaders who would have been willing to stand behind the organization
rather than burning bridges. Bolman & Deal (2021) indicated that by building these relations,
people will likely be there when you need them.

 References

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

Palmer, A. (2020). They’re putting us all at risk: What it’s like working in Amazon’s warehouses
during the coronavirus outbreak. CNBC. Retrieved 02/05/23, from https://www.cnbc.com/
2020/03/26/amazon-warehouse-employees-grapple-with-coronavirus-risks.html

Palmer, A. (2022). Amazon workers on Staten Island vote for company’s first unionized
warehouse in U.S. CNBC. Retrieved 02/05/23, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/01/
amazon-workers-in-staten-island-vote-to-unionize.html