5 Symbolic Frame Worksheet

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:
PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the symbolic frame
2. Apply the symbolic 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.
Recently there has been management changes in my department, my old boss,

KB, is no longer my direct manager. They created a new management role for my team,
the CMSS Manager role, that I will to report directly and they will report up to KB. The
new manager, ER, is in Ohio with half of our team (4), and the rest of us (5) are here in
Arizona. Since the changes there have been issues with the dynamics of the teams. The
Ohio team has been working a considerably lighter case load, continuing to work a
flexible schedule of their start and stop times, and have less inbound phone time. The
Arizona team no longer operates the same way. We now have a set time of 7am- 4pm
(Arizona time), and our scheduled inbound phone time increased. We can see how many
cases each person is working, I work about 100 cases more than the Ohio team a week.
Before the changes I only worked about 50 more cases than my Ohio counterparts. The
situation seems to be that the new manager is favoring the Ohio team by delegating
responsibilities to the Ohio members, that have negatively impacted the Arizona team.
Since he was recently a team member and built relationships for years with the Ohio team
he is leading them with trust and giving them responsibilities. Since the Arizona team is
new, we have not had the same time to build trust and closeness with him and therefore
have not earned his trust.
2) Describe how the symbols of the organization influenced the situation.
I have not thought of JPMorgan Chase as a hugely symbolic organization, we

have the blue Chase logo and that’s about it. In reality it is actually a very symbolic
organization I just did not have the eyes to see it yet. We have cubicles but they are set up
in little units and the top portion are all glass so we can see each other this allows us to
have a feeling of togetherness throughout the day. Everyone dressed either casual or
business casual, and we have “hang-out” spots spread around the building. I feel this is so
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we feel relaxed and more at home even though we have to come into the office,
especially in a post COVID-19 world. The goal of the environment was to help build
relationships and bonds which I believe it does. The Cash Management department has
one whole section to ourselves and then the CMSS team has its own little spot where we
all work. This set up forces you to bond with your coworkers, which is nice on our down
time we just sit around talking about our weekend plans, families, or whatever it may be.
It is meant to feel very casual, the bosses will sit in-between everyone in cubicles so they
don’t feel unknown or distant. I can pop my head over and ask one of the managers a
quick question and go on with my day so it feels very informal.
I feel like the “stage” deeply contributed to the situation we find ourselves in with
our manager ER having a bias towards the Ohio people. For years he was a CMSS sitting
right along with them day in and day out. They built relationships over time, bonded and
really got to know each other. Also the informal feeling of your boss being another co-
worker rather than a distant manager has also contributed. Because we are all the way in
Arizona and my team is all newer we have not built that bond. ER is not being malicious
or out to get us in any way. We are constantly told we are “One Chase” every employee
holds value to the benefit of our teams and the organization. We have Employee
Appreciation Week, Monthly birthday celebrations, National Achievers Awards, the “5-
Keys of Customer Service. All symbols of how we are customer service driven and all
one organization. However, without being able to build those bonds those symbols ring a
bit empty and feel like they only apply to the Ohio team.
3) Recommend how you would use organizational symbols for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.
When I think about a way to use organizational symbols for an alternative course
of action I immediately of “One Chase”. We are one organization all with the same golas
in mind, all wanting to help our clients and push our organization forward. This is a
sentiment that is shared with Ohio team but not the Arizona Team. If ER came out to
Arizona for some of our Monthly birthday celebration or Business Banking Rallies it
would begin to build that bond that we are one team and he can trust us. I also feel like
working along side a week here and there would help all parties for more comfortable
with each other, and allow ER to trust the Arizona team to take on some of those tasks
that have negatively influenced our team.
Another symbolic alternative would be the National Achievers ceremonies Chase
does annually. In every department the highest ranking employees get flown out, the
company holds a ceremony dinner and employees receive awards. ER qualifies for this
award as a manager and should try and do a good job in a tangible way that can be
recognized. He is also the one that recommends someone on his team for the award at the
end of the year. Recommendations have to be accompanied by actual proof of why they
are deserving. I feel like if he took the award seriously he would begin to monitor more
2
of what we do on our day to day, and would be able to see the huge discrepancy in the
way Arizona and Ohio work.
4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.
When doing this weeks readings, I really liked how it viewed organization
process as theater. “They serve as scripts and stage markings for self-expressive
opportunities. . .” (Bolman & Deal. 2021) the text goes on to talk about meetings,
planning, and a few other things. I really liked the way this opened my eyes to see the
situation and how I reacted to things and how I could have reacted differently. I would
have addressed things in meetings in a more formal way that when KB was my manager.
I feel like the informality in our department has played a huge part to the situation. I
would have asked what his plan was as our new manager as well. We have bi-weekly
meetings and I feel like had I asked his plan for our team we could have established clear
expectation him as manager and myself as an employee.
Looking at the situation from a symbolic frame, my organization wants use to feel
comfortable at work and to build interpersonal relationships with each other. The way the
building is set up, the different types of activities and events it holds throughout the year,
and even the extra PTO hours we get to go and volunteer with our team fosters a very laid
back environment. However,, other symbolic things like titles, national achiever
ceremonies, and incentive pay outs also shows our organization want us to work hard and
be competitive. I would use these things to my advantage and be more vocal about how
things are changing in a negative direction and how it does not benefit our team,
department or organization.
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Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
Jossey-Bass.

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OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

Recently there has been management changes in my department, my old boss,

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

I have not thought of JPMorgan Chase as a hugely symbolic organization, we

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