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 was part of the beginning stages of the fiber infastructure upgrade project. I was a fiber
technician that was responsible for running the fiber optics into the first apartment
complexes. This project consisted of teams that would complete a whole complex within
a certain time frame. This would allow the company to get the necessary information to
better understand the most efficient way of running the fiber and reliability.

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

While working on the project we were told what to do by authority power. These plans
came fromt the top down and since it is a position of power the people who are told what
to do listen since these managers are non union. The techs on the other hand were
unionized so we knew we had coercive power if we did not agree with what was asked of
us by higher management. The constant attacks of managements authoritative power
were often felt which sometimes made us uncomfortable. We understood the demands,
but we also knew we had to stand our grand and be realistic on our projects time frame.

The union helped us control the organizational authority aspect of what route the project
was going to be completed and the time it would take to be completed. The union also
helped us not have to cut corners in order to complete the fiber run on budget or time
constraints. There were times that they wanted us to do tasks that were no safe, but using
the unions power we were ablet o control their authoritative efforts to try to control us.
The unions ability to have coercive power allowed us to work in better conditions and not
have to stress on the organization breathing down on us.

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

In order to get all of us on the same page and perform a new course of action needed to
be done for us to go above and beyond. We were all blinded on what the initial asks were
and how long these projects were going to last so we were all basically there doing of
what was asked by the organization. The not knowing of what we were doing with the
fiber infastructure build really has us guarded on what to expect. We also did not feel as
if we could really get behind the project.
I would have used the politics of giving access and control of the agenda when we were
first picked to be on the project. This would have allowed us to feel part of an important
infrastructure change that was beneficial for all Americans futures. We did not know this
was a trial for how we would plan to upgrade Americas infastructure for faster and more
reliable internet. I would have also given all the information so that we can have the
expertise of know the why, how, and what. This information is what would have
motivated us to fell part of the project and our performance would have probably
increased to have happier customers with high speed internet.

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

Since we were part of a union what I would have done differently would have been not
having the union involved. The way the project team was picked really messed with the
ability to pick a top performing team since it was all based on seniority. I would have
picked a team that had techs with liking, personal power, alliances and networks,
reputation, information expertise, and commitment consistency. All these traits were
needed to run an infastructure trial change for the organization that needed the pojects
success in the right direction as quickly as possible.
Getting a team based off of seniority due to union rules really hindered getting the best
team possible. Just because these techs were here the longest time didn’t mean they had
all these previously mentioned abilities. What I wouldn’t have changed was cutting
coners due to the organizaitons constant authority demands. These demands could have
cause many of us to get injured, stress us out, and maybe even cause greater infrasture
damage which would have only damanged the organizations image. In the end we made
it possible with the politics that were in the organization.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (6th ed.). San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass