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

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 organizational situation I have selected to analyze concerns a dilemma that I

had encountered within my current job. The organization I work for is a company called
DevStride, which is a project management software company the supports project teams
manage their project more effectively through the Agile framework. Within this
company, my role is to assist the documentation team by helping develop a user guide
that aims to aid the user in understanding how the features of the software work as well
as how they should be used. While creating the user guide, we decided to switch to a
platform that would allow us to generate a more elevated knowledge base where all forms
of our documentation could be stored.
My coworker had already selected the platform that would be used to enhance our
documentation knowledge base which would store our newly developed user guide. My
role in this situation was to schedule a demo with the sales representative for this
documentation site to gain more knowedlege regarding their features and values.
However, after the demo was complete, I felt as if the sales representative’s poor
behavior made us rethink our decision of using their platform. With this set back, we
needed to make a decision whether to move to this new platform despite our bad
experience in the demo or research other alternatives. Each avenue would have both
positive and negative impacts which would effect the publication timeline of the user
guide. In the end, we decided to explore other platforms, under the direction of the CEO,
which ultimately lead us back to the platform we orginally selected. However, we
decided as a team that this platform was the best on the market and would allow us to
elevate our documentation site in the way we desired.

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

DevStride is a fairly small company as it is a start up that was founded no more

than 2 years ago. From my observations, I conclude that the organizational structure
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 exhibited by DevStride closely resembles a simple structure. According to Reframing
Organizations, a simple structure is one where authority is highly prevalent as it guides
the course of daily operations (Bolman & Deal, 2021). In DevStride, authority is what
drives the organization as the CEO and the high level managers drive daily meetings to
ensure our tasks reflect what has been discussed in our sprint planning. For example, our
engineering meetings, which also include the documentation team, take place daily. Not
only do these meetings include one manager, but every high level authority figure within
the organization, which mirrors a simple structure. Another example of this structure is
seen within our sprint planning meetings where the managers, more specicially the
founders, would delegate tasks that needed to be done by the end of the cycle. Bolman &
Deal (2021) also mention that within a simple structure, coordination is typically
achieved by close supervision which would happen within the engineering meetings.
From my observations, communication and coordination would happen very frequently,
often multiple times a day through Zoom and Slack. Most may assume that this type of
authority interaction would be considered “micromanaging”, however, that is not the case
whatsoever. A startup has multiple moving parts and high level managers need to have
complete and frequent authority to ensure each task is being completed with purpose and
within the scope of the organization. A business that has just begun has more at stake
than most companies which is why a simple structure allows DevStride to keep afloat.
Returning back to the situation, the simple structure influenced the descision
made in the presented dilemma. Since I am a lower level employee, I do not call the
shots, but instead, I follow the orders of the managers. The direction I received was to
continue researching new alternative platforms that would enhance our documentation
knowledge base which I agreed with. However, despite my concurrence with the
decision, it did have a slightly negative effect on our overall project timeline. In the
Reframing Organizations, Bolman & Deal (2021) suggest that an authority’s focus on
daily operations can distract one from long-term issues which was displayed within this
particular situation. Luckily, our organization practices Agile project management which
allows our company to be flexibile when a setback or change occurs. Since we can adapt
fast to setbacks, similar to this one, we were able to get back on track after the delayed
timeline. If DevStride had a less authoritative structure, it may have impacted this
situation differently than it had with our current structure. However, it is important to
recognize how organizational structures can impact small decisions similar to the
diliemma my documentation had been faced with.

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

Even though the structure of the organization is ultimately what lead to the end
result of this situation, the same structure could have been used to make an alternative
decision. The structure may lay the basis of a foundation for a company, however, there

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 are many different structural attributes that give each company a unique character. For
more clarification, even though authority is a core concept within the structure, our
structure also supports high performing teamwork. Like I mentioned above, we have
daily meetings where project tasks are typically delegated. However, after our scheduled
time dedicated to workflow management and task delegation, there is time set aside for
questions and concerns that have manifested throughout the sprint. During this time, we
are given the freedom to mention any bottlenecks we have faced as well as the concerns
we may have for the future. Even though the final decision is ultimately the authority’s,
in situations such as mine, we are still allowed to share our thoughts and own
perspectives that are taken into account.
Now understanding one attribute of DevStride’s simple structure, I could have
used the opportunity after the meeting to generate a different course of action. I would
have used the time that is allotted after our meetings, to share my concerns about the
timeline as well as problem solve other alternatives. Even though our structure is fairly
hierarchical, we also elicit a collaborative structure which could have been taken
advantage of in my situation. For example, since there is only two people on the
documentation team, we could have brought up our concerns about researching alternate
documentation websites which may have resulted in a different outcome. Since we have
multiple authority figures, that have different perspectives, which is very evident within
the meetings, we could of used this structure to help facilitate a more collaborative tone
which may have saved us a lot of time researching new documentation tools.

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

Given what I have learned about the different structures mentioned in the
textbook as well as the structure at DevStride, there isn’t anything in particular that I
would have done differently. Within an organization, it is important to understand the
structure as it drives the objectives and actionable goals within the company to reach its
main purpose. By understanding this, our hierarcal structure allows the company to stay
on track with it’s quarterly goals. The main quarterly goal, at the organizational level,
was to ensure our documentation website was fully functional by the end of Janurary.
The reason I bring this up is because the manager made the decision for us to conduct
research in attempts of discovering new documentation platforms rather than settling for
the one we orginally selected. The goal may have been to ensure our documentation
knowledge base was fully function, but the purpose of having it fully functional in the
first place, was to attract new customers.
Once I was able to understand our CEO’s thought process behind the decision
allowed me to gain a newfound undersanding of how it aligned with our organizational
goals. His authority in making the decision showed that this structure is needed for

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 making hard decsisions such as this one. As I previously described, we are an Agile
company which allows us to adapt to change that may occur within the project. This
allowed us within this situation, to react to the setback and create flexibility into the
schedule to ensure our timeline was not delayed so much so that our end deliberable was
unattainable. With that being said, I believe my team took the correct course of action
which leads me to believe there isn’t much I would of done differently besides the
alternate course of action I mentioned in the response above.

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 References

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