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.

The situation for this case study is an event company that I worked for the previous 12
years which went out of business this year due to the lack of leadership, commitment, and
utilizing the company as his personal bank account by the CEO/Owner. The CEO/Owner
treated the company essentially as a hobby to maintain his portrayed lifestyle and allowed
a lot of his personal drama to impact his ability to lead. I was initially hired as the IT
Manager, but my role expanded as I learned more about the business. At the end I was
the IT Director as well as in charge of digital marketing, social media, production needs
at the event, data entry, and running the registration process at the events.

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

The symbols of the organization were a negative influence on the situation. One of the
primary reasons for this was that the symbols were adopted and/or borrowed from a
previous organization that went defunct but also had plenty of negative publicity on the
internet. The reason for carrying over these symbols was due to the CEO/Owner taking
credit for creating them when he was an executive in the previous organization. These
symbols as Bolman and Deal stated, “cut deeply into the human psyche” and in this case
his psyche. (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 252)

The CEO/Owner attempted to communicate the culture of the organization using

symbols, particularly stories. The issue was that many of these stories were not relevant
to our current situation, were embellished with too many falsehoods, repeated at every
two-hour company-wide meeting, and portrayed himself as the hero. The problem being
that was quite obvious even to the lowest position in the company that there were issues,
and the company was struggling, and anyone could quickly search the internet and find
negative articles about him and the previous company.

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 Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot stated it well. “People watch the titular heads
of companies, how they live their lives, and they know [if] they are being sold a bill of
goods. If you are a selfish son-of-a-bitch, well that usually comes across fairly well.
And it comes across no matter how many memos you send out [stating otherwise].”
(Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 258) Stories are meant to create reassurance and direction but
instead they created a sense that the company was not living up to its vision and purpose.

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

The first recommendation I and others attempted on so many occasions was to dump all
symbols of the previous company including the name. Maintaining symbols that had a
negative connotation with our potential customers and community put the company on
the wrong foot from the start. He had to set aside his ego for the betterment of the
organization. A new logo needed to be developed and a vision statement that not only
was written down but adhered to established. It was ok to utilize the experience the
CEO/Owner had acquired from the previous company but all connections to it needed to
be severed.

The next recommendation would be to create a new culture within the company which
took the best experiences the CEO/Owner had but eliminating the known issues that
caused the previous company to fail. This new culture with new philosophies would be
the backbone on which the team would understand and rally around the vision of the
company. Purpose would be created, and everyone would be able to create new myths
and heroes for future team members to assimilate as members of a winning team.

Another recommendation would be to end monthly two-hour company meetings that

reiterated the same thing over and over again. New rituals and ceremonies need to be
established. These events would not have to be serious events but ones that are enjoyable
and fun for everyone. Celebrating the accomplishments of team members, successful
events, and positive feedback from customers. These rituals and ceremonies would help
stabilize the organization, create interaction among everyone, and reassure that the
company is acting according to what it portrays externally.

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

One thing that I would not do differently was the constant struggle of trying to convince
the CEO/Owner to dump the symbols of the previous company and start over from
scratch. I realized the negativity that haunted the symbols of the company and understood
how much negative publicity on the internet impacted our current events. I watched as

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 individuals on the internet trashed the organization on social media just based on
previous experiences and news articles. In addition, it was difficult getting the best
partnerships because they had worked with the previous company or knew the reputation.
This hesitancy by the best partnerships directly impacted the profitability of the events.

Something that I could have done differently was to institute rituals, ceremonies, and
more fun into the organization. The CEO/Owner would not have stopped me if I was to
recognize individuals that deserved it, created fun and safe initiations for new employees,
or permitted the staff to come up with their own new fun way to accomplish the tasks. I
allowed the culture of seriousness and divisiveness to permeate because that is what the
CEO/Owner created. I could have stepped up and tried to create a better image of the
future.

References

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