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 the head of platform integration at FedEx working on expanding our organization

from just a mailing service to a E-commerce Platform. In light of amazons rise to
success we have decided to create a platform for online sellers to be able to personalize
their products and how they are shipped. We hope to create a platform that tackles all
the problems associated with E-commerce from the start the end of the process.
Creating this platform allows us to be connected directly to the distributor allowing us to
cut down the amount of time thats needed to deliver products and it allows us to create
custom personalized packaging for our users.

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

As new management comes in there is a shift in the political power within an

organization. With out old business model becoming more and more difficult to compete
in it came down to those in power to make a decision as to where our company should go
next. A change this great doesn’t come without a power struggle though as many
individuals may be against changing the business model of the company so drastically.
The biggest source of power for this change is the control of rewards, being able to bring
in more money, create new jobs, and branch out into other areas of our industry
influenced those in charge to create this change. The control of rewards is described by
Reframing Organizations as “the ability to deliver jobs, money, political support, or other
rewards.” (Bolman 1991) Which are all changes we hope to create with the creation of
this platform.

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 Another big factor in this change is our reputation. FedEx has a long standing
history of being one of the largest and most trusted mailing sources in the world, but with
the rise of amazon we have fallen behind with our ability to deliver packages the
quickest. With the speed of amazon damaging our reputation we are forced to look at
alternative options to ramp up the speed our packages get to our customers. By having the
stores selling these items run directly through our program we are able to cut down the
wait time dramatically allowing us to keep up with the speed amazon has created

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

One major thing I would alter is our alliances with others in the industry. I believe
if we reached out to amazon to set up a deal to merge our two companies into one mega
delivery service both of us would benefit tremendously. We would gain the platform that
amazon already has in place along with all of their online sellers. While amazon would
gain our massive fleet of trucks and brick and mortar stores all across the country. This
would allow locations for distribution centers to send products that can then be brought
along our already established mailing routes. Its a win win for the both of use since we
both gain the advantage the other company has, while fixing our major problems.

If we weren’t going to go the route of merging with amazon I believe we should

merge with another e-commerce platform known as Shopify. They are currently the
largest E-commerce platform in the world and follow a similar structure as our company.
This would reduce every sellers distribution time for their websites and would allow for a
much more custom experience for not only the customer but the seller as well. The
biggest downside to Shopify is that they have no physical locations, but with us merging
it would open up the platform to allow for online and and in-person stores.

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

After reading through this Frame I believe I would keep our political structure the
same as it is now. FedEx has a really strong structure in place and is regarded as a highly
respectable and enjoyable place to work. We have not only a strong line of
communication within our stores, but strong management as well. As an organization we
have worked hard to create this sort of community within our organization so I believe no
matter what we change within our company we should work to keep this community
alive.

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 One thing I would do differently is create an agenda for how we want the creation
process of our platform to go. Creating a agenda allows our team to get a visual
representation of all the goals we wish to accomplish during this project. It will allow any
brainstorming sessions to follow on track of what our end goals are and allow for
individuals to constantly be thinking forwards about what task they need to accomplish
next. This agenda will also create more team buy-in for those working on the project
since they will be able to see how the work that they are doing everyday is directly
effecting the progress of the project

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 Reference or References

Perusall. (n.d.). https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-481-org-leadership-pro-seminar-i-2024-

spring-a-986211464/reframing-organizations-artistry-choice-and-leadership?
assignmentId=XLv4ZyqFWyfJ4s6iK&part=1