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.

I held an internal role within the grocery store chain. During my tenure at Winn-
Dixie, I was a cashier from May 2001 to September 2003. Provides a positive customer
experience with fair, friendly, and courteous service. At Winn-Dixie, my daily duties
consisted of processing grocery sales on a cash register by scanning items, itemizing and
totaling customers' purchases. I also helped resolve customer issues and answer product
questions. I would also bag purchases if needed.

When I first started working at Winn-Dixie as a cashier, the current management

team would use overtime pay as a tool to promote employees to take on more hours at
work. It was not uncommon for most employees to make additional income during the
month when the opportunity to work under overtime pay presented itself. This scenario
was a win for both management and employees. Winn-Dixie was always hiring people
throughout the year; it was never seasonal like other companies I had worked for. The
grocery store had a revolving door work climate. After my first year at the company, I
concluded that management was forced to get creative to keep employees on the clock
longer. They needed to keep employees on the clock longer to make up for the lack of
production that otherwise would not have gotten generated. At the end of the day, most
employees, including myself, took advantage of the overtime pay.

The following year, the economy shifted in a way where things like gas, utilities and
rent was higher. Two months into the new year, the management lead was replaced by a
transfer from the headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. His name was Daniel Brown. Mr.
Brown was an older gentleman who decided to make changes in the first sixty days he
was in the position. One of the changes he instantly implemented was the ability to accept
tips from customers regardless of position. As the weeks went by people continued to
volunteer to work overtime as the company was still not efficiently retaining adequate
staff. When the pay period had closed, and the checks were printed on the first of the

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 month, some of the employees were confused. Employees that had worked overtime
during that pay period were missing the overtime column on their pay stub. A few weeks
after, employees were told by management not to come to work for days they were
already scheduled to work. Mr. Brown decided to count their overtime hours towards
their 40-hour work weeks. That was the max employees were able to work a week. This
combination of immediate change from new management and false hope of overtime pay
was a negative hit on employee morale and retention.

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

The way Winn-Dixie was structure was not efficient. In reference to the way information
traveled from the managers to the employees, the structure lacked simplicity. Out of all
the structure description in chapter two of Reframing Organizations 7th edition, Lack of
Clarity Versus Lack of Creativity correlates with how Winn-Dixie was structured. The
chain of command within the store gathers most of the information from the employees.
They would often only share small pieces of information from the Florida headquarters.
The organization did not share that a new manager was going to replace the current
manager in a lead role. When the new manager arrived, it was only then that employees
noticed sudden changes to the daily work schedule. The new manager's methods of
generating a work schedule were based on equal hours amongst employees. He wanted to
make sure all employees received a maximum of 40 hours per week.

Mr. Brown never voiced the new structure in which he would manage the work schedule.
In my experience, sudden change at any workplace is looked at in a negative light. When
sudden change is implemented the right way, it can be received positively by employees.
The lack of clarity between Mr. Brown and the employees forced a us versus his work
climate. He was perceived as the bad guy due to how he implemented the changes. Some
Winn-Dixie employees were clocking in close to double the weekly hours during the
regular work week. I am sure that Mr. Brown noticed and wanted to give more hours for
those who were not getting it. He could have gotten a little creative in the way he
implemented the new work schedule by maybe doing it in phases.

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

In my case, I would recommend that the Florida headquarters implement

additional training among their manager glide path program. A block of instruction on
demonstrating empathy with employees would have been so beneficial in my case. I
believe empathy brings a more personable quality to the manager role; managers must be
approachable to get real time feedback from employees to run an organization efficiently.

In the event of how Mr. Brown implemented the work schedule changes, I would
have verbally told the staff how unfair the old system was not fair to others. I would have
used a schedule that rewarded the employees who accomplished or helped accomplish

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 store quarterly goals. Overtime is a tool in the workplace for an opportunity to make
more income. If overtime pay was used as an incentive instead of a right, I believe it
would bring a better outcome and promote a goal based positive environment.

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

The structural frame of an organization should be the basis for how all business is done
within all departments. In my case, the information was not structured in a way to
promote transparency with leadership and subordinates. I would structure the way
information is disseminated differently. At every level of leadership, I would implement
meetings and open discussion forums for employees to receive information on how the
company is doing to include goals to meet within every department.

At the time, I didn't know that there was a good chance Mr. Brown was not acting alone
in his decisions. Today I know that nearly all decisions must be made with higher leaders
involved, especially if it will affect the chain of stores. While I worked at Winn-Dixie as
a cashier, I would often see multiple managers working the same hours. It was not always
obvious who was working as the lead manager for the day. Sometimes employees would
receive conflicting guidance from two different managers. I would change that to one
manager per shift with a shift team leader. This structure addition would take the
confusion out of daily operations among employees.

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 References

Berdychowski , Bernadette “How Winn-Dixie became one of Florida’s top grocery store
chains” Tampa Bay Times, https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2023/08/18/how-
winn-dixie-became-one-floridas-top-grocery-stores/

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.