Prompt #1:  What did you learn about organizations, and/or the behavior of individuals within an organization?  How do the ideas presented in Part Four (the Political Frame) of the B&D textbook enrich your understanding of the ways in which organizations and the people working in them function?

I learned that all organizations have some level of politics.  My thought was always that if I worked for a smaller, more family owned organization then there wouldn’t be those same issues, but that may not be true.  I also learned that some level of politics and conflict are actually good for the organization.  As a leader, you want to encourage your team to express their thoughts and opinions, and I always try to celebrate the diversity and differences amongst my staff, but that means sometimes there will be conflict and differing opinions. “Organizations are coalitions composed of individuals and groups with enduring differences who live in a world of scarce resources.  That puts power and conflict at the center of organizational decision making.” (Bolman and Deal page 204) This does not have to be a bad thing.  Lots of opinions is good, it opens up new ideas and new possibilities.  As a leader, you just have to know how to handle it. 

 

Prompt #2:  How can you apply the concepts that you have learned about in the readings to your personal or organizational life?  Be specific.

I actually enjoyed the section about the political skills every manager should have.  Agenda setting, mapping the political terrain, networking and building coalitions, and bargaining and negotiating are all skills that I don’t necessarily think of as being political, but just good leadership skills. An agenda is a schedule, an outline of goals, or a statement of interests.  These is good for any leader to have and make known to their team.  Mapping the political terrain is essentially identifying which people in your organization and possibly outside are the big players, and could potentially help you if you have an idea or project you want to get pushed through.  Networking and building coalitions is also a big deal for any leader.  You can’t do it on your own, so you need to build a strong team to help you.  By networking, you meet other influential people, and they can give you new and innovative ideas.  Any manager knows that sometimes there has to be some bargaining and negotiating.  I hate to say this, but sometimes being a manager is like being a babysitter.  In order to get things done, you have to bargain with your staff to get what you want or need.  It is a skill that I prefer to not have to use, but I know sometimes it is necessary. 

 

Prompt #3:  Compare how structural theorist, human resource, and political frame theorists view power.

Structural theorists believe that organizations need to put more emphasis on putting the right people in the right roles.  If they do so then the organization will achieve its goals and enhance performance and efficiency.  There is a focus on rationality over personal agendas and extraneous pressures. 

Human resource theorists emphasize dealing with issues by “changing people (through training, rotation, promotion, or dismissal).” (Bolman and Deal page 45) The assumptions in this frame of thought are that organizations are there to serve people, and that organizations need people and their talent to be successful.  A good fit between the organization and the individual is benefitting to both parties, individuals find their jobs meaningful and organizations get the talent they need to be successful.

The political frame emphasizes contests between individuals and the group interests. “Organizations are coalitions of different individuals and interest groups.” (Bolman and Deal page 188)  Because individuals within the organization have different values, beliefs, interests, and backgrounds there is going to be some conflict, which is not necessarily a bad thing in the political frame.  Decisions come from bargaining and negotiating. 

 

Prompt #4: What are the four strategies of principled bargaining?  Come up with an example of a bargaining situation in which you were involved (or that you are familiar with).  Connect the use (or failure to use) each of the strategies within the context of your example.  

The four strategies of principled bargaining are to separate people from the problem, to focus on interests and not positions, to invent options for mutual gain instead of locking in on the first alternative that comes to mind, and to insist on objective criteria-standards of fairness for both substance and procedure. 

An example that I can come up with for principled bargaining is when I took over my most recent banking center.  The old manager was retiring, and as I came in there, it was easy to tell she had chosen not to make certain staffing decisions or changes because she knew she was on her way out.  The branch was over staffed, and there was one woman there who was a teller.  She had worked at that banking center since it opened ten years ago, and had worked for the bank as a whole since 1988.  She is a very sweet woman, clients loved her and they ask about her to this day, but she was making some serious mistakes that was causing the bank and some of our clients a big loss.  Coming into a new center, I didn’t want to be the bad guy, I wanted to make a good impression with the staff, but I also wanted us to be successful and I knew that there were a lot of policies and procedures that were not being followed.  I had to take the personal nature of the woman out of the equation, she was so sweet, and that was never a question, but the other problems she was having were much more than that.  I had to look at the interests of the bank, the banking center, and the individual to see what the right thing to do was.  I tried to come up with options that would keep the woman from losing her job, but that also made sense for everyone involved.  In the end, I figured that moving her to a much slower branch that was open limited hours might be a good solution for her. The branch was in need of a teller, it would allow her to keep her job, and it was less pressure for her so it should help her do her job better.  When I had to present this idea to her, it wasn’t easy.  She had literally just met me a few hours prior, and now I was changing a lot for her.  I just had to present it to her in the most objective way possible and make her see the benefits.  It has helped her in the long run, she is still working with the bank, and although she still struggles, it is not as overwhelming for her.

 

Prompt #5:  Throughout your progression in the Organizational Leadership program, you have had a number of courses that include content complementary to the political frame.  Please highlight what you would consider to be two of the most important things (ideas, concepts, theories, models, processes, skills, etc.) that you have learned in previous coursework that you can relate to the Political frame.  Briefly discuss each key learning, the course where you learned it, and its connection with the Political Frame.

One class that I feel had a lot to do with the political frame was my Diversity and Organizations class.  We learned about different culture bias, gender bias, stereotypes and how that all affects the workplace.  In our text book, Bolman and Deal talk about how there is a strong correlation between power and dependency.  Individuals and organizations need things from each other.  Even though there is a lot of bias and stereotypes, the political power outweighs the immorality a lot of times.

Also, my Project Leadership had a lot of correlation to the political frame as well.  I really feel like as the Project Leadership class talked about the best steps to take to be a good leader and handle conflict, the four political skills needed for a manager would correlate.  Agenda setting, mapping the terrain, networking and building coalitions, and bargaining and negotiating are similar to the steps that you take to get ready for a project.  You need a clear plan set up(agenda), you need to anticipate any issues that could arise(mapping), you need to build your team based off of skills or personality traits(building), and then you need to get your project finished on time which sometimes requires extra time, money or resources(bargaining).

 

Prompt #6:  How does politics work in an organization, group, or team with which you are affiliated? 

Working in a large corporate bank, the politics is pretty bad honestly.  I worked in a somewhat smaller bank before, and I swore I would never work for a big bank like I do now.  I wanted to work in a small, community bank, where the owners know all their employees and there is less politics.   That is not how it worked out for me.  My organization has its own agenda of what it is trying to accomplish.  They use their size and extremely well known name to get what they want.  They do not offer competitive interest rates or fees because they know they do not have to.  They also use their size and popularity to push their political issues, in fact there was protestors outside of one of our branches the other day because the Bank as whole is prolife and has started making that well known.

 

Prompt #7:  How does politics affect outcomes in your place of employment (or other organization) for, say, customers, employees, colleagues, stockholders, surrounding community and/or any other stake-holders?  How has your organization or team demonstrated being a political arena and/or political agent?  Describe enough of a situation concretely to provide context and use concepts from the readings in your response. 

AS I mentioned above, one of our branches had protestors outside on Tuesday morning.  They were peaceful protestors, but none the less it draws a lot of attention.  The bank apparently made some national announcements about being prolife, and so protestors have been having some demonstrations outside of locations.  It is hard because that is not necessarily the views of everyone who works in the bank.  Not only that, as the branch manager, we are the ones that have to answer the questions for the clients who want to know about the protest.  Then it can create political debates inside the lobbies, which is not what anyone wants.  It puts those of us inside the banking center in an awkward position because higher up people want to use the banks size and popularity as a platform for their personal political views.  We have to represent the bank in a positive way, but that can be hard depending on the situation that the big wigs have put us in.