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

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

In my role as a senior tax preparer at H&R Block, there was a moment when a former
manager of mine, Judy, was blaming the problems of missing bank deposits on us employees and
threatened that we were all at risk of losing our jobs. Over the course of three weeks, at
openings, we noticed that the envelopes to the deposits were opened after they were sealed the
night prior. Our company policy states that two closers must count the deposits then sign and
write our employee numbers on the seal of the envelope before putting it away in our drawer. As
an opener, I was usually expected to arrive twenty to thirty minutes prior to the opening of our
office and while I always arrived early, my manager always sat in our office before I arrived. I
could always hear her rustling through our supply room which made me investigate what she
was doing. The next thing I knew I saw her digging into the filing cabinet where we kept the
deposits, and she was always coming up with an excuse for me to leave the room.

This brought on a team meeting joined by our District General Manager (DGM) where we
were put through a series of interviews to see what was going on with the deposits. Judy pulled
me aside and asked me how I could get my coworkers to comply with her story to find the culprit
because she knew that I would be more forthcoming with information. She implied that I would
be rewarded for lying to our DGM pinning this on one of our newest employees, but what she
didn’t know is that I was already prepared with documented accounts of the events as proof of
her misconduct. During those weeks I made Judy uncomfortable by pointing out that she really
needed another employee to count the money to confirm the deposits to the bank. I always
offered to recount the deposits with her, however, she would always decline, and we found out
that she would use our newest employee’s identification number as someone who verified her
numbers which was a violation since this employee was strictly part-time on only there on
certain days. Judy’s way of managerial thinking always came across in a rational and passive-
aggressive manner making it extremely difficult to communicate with her. Judy was later fired
by our DGM and arrested for stealing from the company.

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

The political frame of an organization needs to master many of the basic skills of
individual managers as politicians: developing an agenda, mapping their environment,
managing their relationships with both allies and enemies and negotiating accords and
alliances (Bolman & Deal, 2022). In this scenario, we have a leader who was developing a
personal agenda to try to embezzle funds from the company without being noticed. Judy
strategically developed a plan to map her environment by knowing her schedule, knowing
who would be in the office, and knowing when to make her move into stealing the cash
deposits. She strategically managed her relationships with upper management and her
employees as her allies, or so she thought, through lying and manipulation until some of us
became her enemy. She tried to negotiate with me into lying to her and offered me a reward
for my compliance, which of course I denied.

At H&R Block we are a performance-oriented culture essential to establishing a culture

of accountability and coordination (Bolman & Deal, 2022). Since accountability is highly
encouraged within our organization, it impacts our political ecosystem in a way that stresses
the importance of morality and mutuality. Judy herself was given higher accountability as a
leader and yet abused her powers to get what she wanted. Judy knew that since she had
tenure and loyalty to the company, she had more political influence over those around her,
and then tried to implement counterstrategies to get what she wanted. I feel that Judy was
trying to build a power base because she felt that no matter what good she was doing for the
organization, she would not be properly rewarded for it.

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

In this scenario, I would use organizational politics to demonstrate that a preventive

measure against this happening again would be the reliability of the employees of the
organization. If I were in upper management, I would have developed a way to track the
money better or just simply hired an auditor. Someone who is tasked with following that
money and making sure that everyone is compliant. This could be the deterrent that H&R
Block needs to break this cycle and negotiate any middle-ground opportunities that may arise
in the future. Sometimes when too much trust is given to any individual it can often go in the
wrong direction. In this scenario that is exactly what happened. Judy deliberately took the
money without any remorse for her actions. She lied to her coworkers and upper
management stating that she would be handling this when clearly, she wasn’t.

It is not within my role to go out of my way to watch the behaviors of others as I do not
get paid for that. However, if this preventive measure were to change then maybe the
political dynamics of the organization would change with it. There must be a responsibility to
uphold our morality and stealing is not the answer. If I were a leader and I caught my

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 employee stealing from the company I wouldn’t sacrifice the human needs of others and just
let things go, I would act. There needed to be more mutual respect between Judy and the rest
of us employees, especially when she made threats that we would be losing our jobs. The
threat was not convincing to me because I knew better, however, someone who was new to
the company and didn’t know the ins or the outs of the organization probably felt that she
was convincing.

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

I would say that while looking at this scenario from a political frame, I feel that my
organization puts a lot more faith in its leadership team that is open to temptation. Not only is
this a temptation to potentially steal profits, but this is a temptation to maintain their political
skills but apply them in a negative way. The organization needs to look at its political
environment and see just who is more responsible when something goes wrong. Is it the CEO
of the corporation who should be responsible? Is it the DGM or the direct leader or should it
be the frontline employees who should be held accountable? All of this comes down to the
accountability of embezzling funds and why it should never happen. Ultimately there will be
consequences at not only the organizational level but at the state and federal levels, and as
leaders of the future, we should understand the political dynamics of our organizations for
our job to be effective.

There also should be more detailed training on this, and I feel that since this does happen
more often than we think, that H&R Block should take some responsibility for preventive
measures. Will this cause a deficit in their profitability by expensing out more intensive
training? Absolutely, however, I feel that sending a clearer message stating that the company
has a zero-tolerance policy on this type of behavior that should be a part of our yearly
required training which include sexual harassment and discrimination. Overall, I learned that
regardless of your role within the organization you too can play a part in the political frame.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2022). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (7th ed.). Jossey-Bass