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.

My situation is of my current employer a commercial HVAC company here in the

valleywe will call them “Cool AC”. Cool AC was originally apart of a parent company
who we ill call Chill AC. Well in 2015 Chill AC was a company of around 200 plus
employees operating throughout the southwest and decided to sell a large portion of their
company, at this time Cool AC was formed and split off from chill ac. This resulted in
many of the employees who were at chill ac for 10-20 years to suddenly shift to a much
smaller organizational structure as they were now a company of 10-15. I am now a
project coordinator for a new division within Cool AC and the company is currently
experiencing major growth as we are now up to roughly 200 employees headquartered in
Phoenix but spanning the southwest. This internal role has allowed me quite a bit of
insight as I am first hand experiencing a cultural shift in the organization to a more
structured corporate environment. I will be observing the shift in this culture within the
organization throughout the remainder of this course

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

Symbols are the foundation of how perceive the world around us, this is a great tool for
us to help make sense of the world around us and connect with one another. This can
often times lead to the situation as well as the organizational symbols being interpreted
very differently from person to person. As stated in this weeks reading “Activity and
meaning are looselycoupled; events and actions have multiple interpretations as people
experience situations differently (Bolman & Deal, 2017).”

How this plays into my situation is simple, with the growth that has been seen in cool ac
in the past few years they have had to work diligently to establish a set of symbol which
reflect who they are and what they stand for. These symbols are of course derived from
their predecessor chill ac, but due to both companies harignt eh same main office it is

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 apparent that cool ac develop their own symbolism. This has been in the branding and
pride in which they display in their work towards growth of the organization. Moreso the
organization operates with a work hard, play hard cultur and encourages employees to
enjoy the fruits of their labor. I believe that the symbol and culture built at cool ac have
been a priority in order to successfully facilitate this growth.

3) "Recommend how you would use organizational symbols for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.
Looking into cool ac and the values in which they uphold there is not much I would
change. As they have grown it has become apparent that their symbolism, culture, and
push to walk out of chill acs shadow. For this reason I would instead push to use the
symbolism in which they have become slightly comfortable embracing and jump off the
deep end with it. By this I ean full on embracing the cultural benefits of the organiations
small roots and blending this with the symbols and motivations which they have let drive
and be a part of their recent growth.
With this ideas I would like to also do away with myths which pertain to the directions or
motivations of the organization. I believe that as the organization continues to grow it
inevitably will have members who will like to gossip and spread rumors about the inner
workings of the organization. As of now we have mainly turn a deaf ear to this talk but I
could easily see it becoming a distraction down the line.

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

When looking at this situation as a whole it is difficult to imagine what I may do

differently. The reason being is as a relatively new comer compared to those who have
been apart of building up cool ac I have only experienced the effects of the symbols and
culture as opposed to having had been directly affected by them and the change they
bring on a daily basis.

All that I really may do in this situation is continue to perform my job and understand the
companies goals, culture, and how the symbolism as and continues to play a part in its
success.

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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