OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural frame to your personal case situation

Confidential

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.

Several years ago, a peer of mine and I started a new division focused on strategy
management for our organization. She focused on project and program management,
while I focused on strategic planning. As we added new employees to the team, the
people we hired reported to her.

Several months after hiring 2 employees, she inherited some new functions of the
business and was preparing to go on maternity leave, at which time I would lead her team
temporarily and determine which of the people on the team would transition to my team
in the long run.

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

Structure, specifically restructuring, had a very large influence on this situation.

Restructuring can be a high-risk tactic, but also very successful (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p.
75). My peer had just been a part of a restructure, where the areas of internal
communications, corporate events, and strategic partnerships were moved from
marketing to her area in strategy, creating a new function titled Strategic Outreach. The
goal was to better align the tactics of these critical areas, especially internal
communications, to our corporate strategy.

Just as this team was starting to work in their new structure, their leader went on
maternity leave. This created additional changes to the structure, with 3 of her 6 team
members temporarily reporting to me and the remaining 3 reporting to an individual
contributor who would play the role of middle manager in order to help manage the
workload. Some of the contextual variables of teamwork, such as how decisions are

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 made, who should do what, and how work was going to be coordinated were all pretty
fuzzy.

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

My recommendation would have been to spend more time documenting structure and
examining team context. While the manager who went on maternity leave did put
together a “plan” of how things would work, it did not adequately address some key
components of the structure. There was no documented hierarchy that the team could
reference.

I’d say if there was a documented team hierarchy that also outlined several key
contextual variables of teams that are outlined by Bolman and Deal, there would have
been more success. If we had outlined who was in charge, how decisions were made, and
who should do what more clearly in the maternity plan, we would have had a more
successful transition. When these questions are not appropriately answered, morale and
performance both struggle (Bolman and Deal, 2021, p. 101)

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

With the benefit of hindsight, there are several things that I would do differently. First is
the alternative course of action above. We would have spent a lot more time and effort
being very clear in the maternity plan about who needed to do what and who was going
to make decisions. I think this would have cleared up several of the issues that were
prevalent, including confusion about each person’s responsibility and the process when a
decision or review of materials was needed. It also would have given the individual who
was stepping in as a temporary manager a bit more authority. ]

This leads me to my second recommendation. Because the team had been going through
several changes prior to their leader going on maternity leave, additional restructuring
that we had all agreed was needed was paused until she returned from maternity leave.
We held off on making two changes. First, 2 of her 6 employees were set to transition to
me even after she returned. Second, the person who was made a temporary manager was
slated to become an actual manager of the team upon her return as well. We should have
just made these changes prior to her going on maternity leave. This would have clarified
roles, structure, and hierarchy for the team earlier and led to better performance and
morale.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (7th ed.). Wiley.