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.

Cactus Credit Union, located in Arizona, is the largest credit union in the state. As a

Process Analyst, my team and I have 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. However, this assignment is challenging for us because we lack

experience with RPA. To achieve the desired results, our team needed to identify an RPA vendor

who could help us identify candidate processes for automation. After having gained the

necessary knowledge, it was important to quickly automate the process.

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

Over the past few years, the organization has been diligently working towards creating a

unique brand that accurately represents its mission and culture. The brand colors have been

seamlessly integrated throughout the organization, particularly in corporate offices, which gives

a cohesive feel to the space. Whenever I go to the office, I get an overwhelming sense of

belonging, which is a testament to the community that has been fostered here. Additionally, our

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event coordinators have been hosting special employee appreciation events, complete with food

trucks and desserts, which have been a treat for all of us.

A few years ago, the information technology (IT) department was also expanded and

became a subsidiary. Its Chief Executive Officer had a vision that technology needs would grow

due to its benefits and return on investment. They created a marketing campaign to sell their

mission and establish a presence in the organization, which was a huge success. However, they

were soon inundated with requests, which led to a backlog of help desk tickets. This caused

frustration among department leaders, who then turned to their vendors or other technology

solutions that required minimal support from the IT subsidiary to solve their problems. What

started as an exciting new resource quickly fizzled out, which was disappointing.

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

action regarding your case.

When the organization was expanding its IT resources, I would have relied on the

circulating stories to help determine the success or failure of the new company. Unfortunately,

the employees were very dissatisfied with the IT resources. This created an "us versus them"

dynamic within the organization, and I recall hearing some employees suggest that we should

build a new internal IT department because the current team was too busy to work on their

tickets. Many jumped on supporting this belief. Despite having good intentions to improve

processes with technology, the IT team ultimately let many people down.

Their approach had a direct impact on my team because IT assumed that Robotic Process

Automation (RPA) was a quick fix and that our team could learn how to build bots with minimal

training. Although we received some basic RPA training, we were not taught how to launch and

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maintain an RPA program. The IT project manager assigned to our implementation project was

considered a highly skilled individual with a good reputation in both organizations, but we were

surprised by her approach.

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

this frame.

Our team required assistance in determining the appropriate size of our organization in

order to establish the criteria for identifying suitable candidates for RPA. What may work for

larger organizations cannot necessarily be applied to our own. We were grateful that our

leadership team had faith in our skills and expertise to undertake this project, but we still needed

additional support. My team and I were enthusiastic about incorporating this new technology,

but we lacked the necessary level of experience to do so confidently. Although we expressed

our concerns, our leaders downplayed them.

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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