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.

After almost a year of working at my current Starbucks location and struggling through
inconsistent and unfair management, our manager was removed and replaced with a manager
from another location. We went from an extremely toxic environment rife with cliques, gossip,
and disdain for the job to a united group that was inspired to utilize standards to create the best
financial and customer experience results the store had ever seen. This period of transition is a
great example of pushing through changing an organization’s culture to create a better
environment and improve the business. The previous manager was more concerned with being
friends with employees than actually upholding standards or holding people accountable, so
there was a huge amount of tension and resistance when the new manager came in. However, she
took the time to work shoulder to shoulder with her employees for two months, getting to know
them as people first, and seeing what they were used to in their routines. She began giving
people warnings that she would soon be starting to hold everyone accountable to standards, and
gave them sufficient time to get accustomed to the idea and start transitioning to a new way of
doing things. By the time she was writing people up and cracking down on the rules, everyone
liked (or at least respected) her and she turned our store statistics around to be the top drive
through in the area in less than six months.

I was a shift supervisor during this time and I was responsible for running individual
shifts and breaks, coaching and training baristas, and inventory management, as well as more
managerial tasks related to my development like training and coaching other supervisors and
managing team communications.

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

The culture when I arrived at this location was unlike the environments of other
Starbucks locations in which I have worked. Though it might be to varying degrees, the majority
of Starbucks locations create a culture based on the symbols the modern version of the company

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was founded on. Partners are supposed to support each other and create a welcoming
environment in which everyone upholds the standards of cleanliness, craft, and interpersonal
connection. When Howard Schultz purchased the company in 1987, he had a vision for a “third
place” environment - somewhere between work and home where customers and employees alike
could feel safe and comfortable. He brought the idea of an Italian espresso shop to the United
States, converting Starbucks from a wholesale bean provider to what it is today.

Whether my first manager genuinely bought into this story of values and purpose behind
each cup of coffee doesn’t matter, because she did not encourage her team to buy into it with her.
In my almost 9 years of experience with the company, Starbucks locations are most successful
when the symbolism is strong. As stated in chapter 12 of Reframing Organizations, “culture
forms the superglue that bonds an organization, unites people, and helps an enterprise to
accomplish desired ends” (Bolman & Deal, 2021). When employees view Schultz as a hero for
his employees and his communities, believe in his vision, and feel supported by corporate’s
efforts to listen and apply feedback, they also feel inspired to follow standards of production and
go above and beyond the call of duty for customers in their stores. They genuinely become
influential parts of their communities. We’ve also seen the opposite on a grand scale - each time
Howard tries to retire, a new CEO comes in and tries to move focus from the people to the
profits, which goes against everything Starbucks is supposed to stand for. They ultimately have
all been rejected by the employee base, and Starbucks employees are so tired of corporate
forgetting their own values that they’ve started unionizing across the United States.

I could see the difference in adherence to and faith in the Starbucks values in my new
manager. She was not only verbal about it, but she proved how she felt in her actions, and made
good on her promises. She tied every action she took to a value upheld or touted by Starbucks,
and constantly spoke about her vision for the store. She asked everyone to get on board, and if
they were unable to or refused, they didn’t last long. By staying positive and true to her vision
(and generously giving everyone many chances to make the change), she let the outliers and the
“problem people” reveal themselves through repeated negative attitudes or broken policies, until
we only had employees left that were inspired by the symbolism and storytelling of Starbucks.

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

Though I don’t think it would have been as effective with our particular mix of attitudes
and personalities at our store, another course of action using organizational symbols could have
been re-introducing everyone to the initial training modules that discuss the history and vision of
Starbucks in detail, and letting them come to the conclusion on their own that our store was not
an example of that with the previous manager. We could have created a more team-based
dynamic based on discussion that aimed to find a new vision for the store that everyone could get
behind, and allow everyone to buy into the company culture on their own terms.

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 Something I did do differently from my manager on our shifts was encouraging play and
lightheartedness in between busy times as much as possible. I think this helped encourage the
buy-in to the symbolism of the organization because people didn’t feel as stressed or like I was
nagging them the entire shift. “Play and humor are often distinguished from work… But if play
is viewed as a state of mind… any activity can become playful. Play relaxes rules to explore
alternatives” (Chapter 12, Bolman & Deal, 2021). When coaching was broken up by laughter
and community building in this way, it opened my baristas’ minds to possibly considering
realigning with standards to maintain this type of environment.

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

I would not change very much about my manager’s approach, if anything, because I saw
how effective she was in creating meaningful change in our location. However, what I would do
is add more backstory and information to my motivations when I communicated it to the team.
The Starbucks of today is very different from how it was in 2014 when I started, and I think less
and less company culture and storytelling makes its way down to retail employees over time. I
continually find myself making a reference to a part of the organization and/or its culture and I
am met with blank stares from my baristas who seem to have little or no understanding of why
things are the way they are in our stores. As I’ve learned from Reframing Organizations, linking
symbolism to ritual “connects an individual or group to something mystical, deeper than words
or rational thinking can capture. At home and at work, ritual gives structure and meaning to each
day” (Chapter 12, Bolman & Deal, 2021). My typical approach to coaching and teaching has
always included the “why” behind what I am asking of them, and now I like to include a
connection to the history of the company or a fun fact as well so that they can start to find more
meaning in what they do than just making lattes for strangers.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. “Chapter 12 Organizational Symbols and Culture.” Reframing

Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ,

2021.