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

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.

I am a Process Analyst for a local credit union, and my department has been assigned to

explore the benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This technology helps to streamline

and automate repetitive processes that are typically done manually. This assignment is

challenging because our team lack experience with RPA. However, it was leadership’s request to

start this discovery work. After having gained the necessary knowledge, it was important to

quickly automate a process and build the framework for future projects.

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

Cactus Credit Union operates an Information Technology (IT) subsidiary that serves my

organization and about 50 others across the United States. I believe that this subsidiary holds

more power than the credit union itself as it has a significant influence on the approval and

prioritization of projects. Most improvements require technology and resources, which are

primarily controlled by the subsidiary. However, it can be frustrating as they often prioritize

projects that do not bring our organization much value. At times, it feels like leaders are in a

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competition for recognition and not to improve products, services, and employees' experiences

with the company.

The topic of RPA was brought up by a Project Manager of our subsidiary, who suggested

it to my director. My director was already looking for ways to enhance processes across the

organization using technology, and he saw RPA as the only solution. The Project Manager got

quick approvals to start searching for a vendor and my leader began introducing RPA to me and

the team. This fast-moving project was a surprise to us and the rest of the organization.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of

action regarding your case.

During the planning stages of this initiative, it felt like much of the decisions were set in

stone and there was no room for suggestions. The leadership team was adamant about using

RPA, but they did not consider that their approach was a solution. Ideally, when a process is

automated it usually gets improved first. The automation should be built around an almost

perfect process because it costs more to change it later. Our team tried to bring up concerns but

we felt unheard and misunderstood.

The attitude towards RPA was that we would figure it out as we went along and learn

from our mistakes. It reminded me of Cialdini’s influence technique, Commitment and

consistency. The more he pushed RPA, the more we would focus on understanding it and

potentially accepting it. This approach created a lot of stress for the team and me because the

success of the project was a reflection of our work. There were times when it felt like the

leadership was not transparent in their conversations with each other, which also affected our

team. For instance, they set unrealistic deadlines for the proof of concept project without

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considering the upcoming holidays. The perception is that the deadlines were set to make the

leadership team look good.

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

this frame.

I believe that the power of reputation could have been a valuable technique in this

situation. Although my leaders had the best intentions in incorporating RPA into our

department, they failed to recognize the potential long-term impact of a failed implementation.

A more gradual approach to introducing RPA and its importance to the organization would have

been beneficial. It would have been wise to hire someone with experience in RPA to develop a

comprehensive program. By rushing into RPA, our team was unprepared to determine how it

would be integrated into our processes, which caused frustration for our team and the

departments we worked with. So many roadblocks came up during our discovery that could

have been planned better.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership

(7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass