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.

Starbucks coffee company has been faced with one of its most challenging issues in the
last few years, unions. Starbucks has been known for participating in union busting
methods for a while and two years ago a memo was leaking from the CEO at the time to
do whatever it takes to stop the unions. As a member of the management team in my
store I was tasked with getting a feel from my partners on what their thoughts were
regarding the union and then reporting my findings to upper management. The problem
was, I had a very close working relationship with my team at the time and did not want to
violate this trust we had built in my store, but on the other hand I did not want to upset
upper management by not reporting all that I was hearing. I was put in a very difficult
situation as I knew the company was finding reasons to fire employees who were
spreading union propaganda, I know this is illegal and Starbucks did face congress over
this, and I had some amazing parters working for me who I believed could have been
doing so.

I did everything I could to not get involved so I would not have to report findings to
upper management, even though who we were supposed to report too was unclear. This
caused a wedge between me and my partners working for me as I tried to distance myself
from the entire situation. I stood back and did nothing for a while until I saw an
opportunity to step in and give my partners needed information and asked that they would
trust me in doing what I believed was best for our store. The relationship between
partners and corporate was at an all time low during this as many agreed that Starbucks
was on a hunt for union organizers and was trying to fire anyone involved, this
relationship is still rocky to this day.

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

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 The politics within Starbucks Corporation play a crucial role in shaping the minds of its
baristas. The company has always taken pride in considering themselves ethical in all
they do, from ethical farming and sourcing to social responsibility. The values in which
Starbucks was founded on and still operates under today are evident in a lot of what we
do, we strive to be a company that the public trust and where each partner belongs, this
was not apparent in this case study. A witch-hunt for partners were wanting to unionize
took place throughout the organization and many unethical decisions took place such as
the illegal firing of partners who wanted to do so. A sense of belonging went out the
window when the decision to pry into the minds of partners and report this information
back took place, some who did not wish to be a part of a union but were questioning the
idea of unionizing were made to feel as though they did not belong in the corporation.
Regardless of what was going on in the company the company still had a responsibility to
its partners to inform them on the consequences of unionizing from their perspective,
instead partners were forced to attend many sessions on why they should not, and the
sense of democracy was gone. Many people lost faith in the CEO for sending out memos
to “get rid” of the problem without listening to the many voices who had real issues they
were trying to solve.
The sense of togetherness and openness throughout the organization changed during this
time and we still struggle to maintain some of it today. With union talk still going on I do
believe there is a plan that is taking place if not already in place to stop the unions at all
costs regardless of how. This causes me much anxiety as I feel the connection we once
had with corporate is lost.

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

An alternative course Starbucks could have taken in this case would be to use their power
they have in making their own case for why partners should chose to not unionize instead
of trying to get rid of the problem. By trying everything in their power to get the problem
to go away the partners lost faith in the company to do the right thing. Starbucks has so
much influence on its partners as its most baristas first job, the culture is very strong in
the company and this culture could have been used as influence for keeping partners
away from wanting the unions to come in. Had Starbucks have had their store managers
sit down with partners who did not understand the unions and had an open and honest
conversations regarding the topic and focused more on why partners felt the need to
unionize rather than who wanted to unionize I do feel as resolution would have come to
light. The politics Starbucks could have used also in this situation would be the strategy
of finding multiple solutions rather than just locking in on one and not exploring any
others.
A bottom-up political action was what the employees put into place by bringing in
unions to try and let their voices be heard, and we see this happen time and time again

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 when people feel they are being ignored. These issues do not come out of nothing and the
signs were all there for this to happen at Starbucks for years leading up to this event, I do
believe Starbucks did not take the threats seriously and let the issue go on unresolved
which eventually led to partners saying enough is enough, if you will not listen to us and
hear our concerns than we will get your attention another way.

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

I would use more of my own power to help others during this time after reading the
political frame examples we went over this week. Before gaining confidence in my
leadership abilities I leaned on the power of others more than my own power, I did not
see the power I held until faced with this issue. I understood during this how the people
under me looked at me for guidance in dark times, I would love to keep this power during
this and be a beacon of hope for my partners as I feel I did. I would change my
invlolvment in doing more to separate people from the problems, (Bolman & Deal, 2017
pg. 219) we saw in this weeks reading how when we do not separate the people from the
issue one will turn on the other. This would be tough to imagine how to go about this as
my baristas have little connection to the corporate side of the company but through me
but I would have liked to play a more mediator role during this time. I do feel as though I
acted in a cowardly way but not standing up for my baristas who may have wanted to
unionize but feared being fired and I would love to go back and ask them why they felt
this way and communicate this to corporate.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017b). Reframing

organizations. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119281856