reframing organizations lee g. bolman & terrence e. deal

Reframing Organizations

Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal

Typical Organization Diagnosis

• Blame the people– They are incompetent or have bad attitudes

• Blame the bureaucracy– The rules are too stifling or there is a chaotic lack

of roles and processes

• Blame the thirst for power– People are only looking out for themselves

These aren’t wrong

they’re just an oversimplification

Frames

Lenses –focus, filter some things and

allow others to pass through, help us

order experience.

FramesTools –strengths and

limitations. Wrong tool gets in the way; right tool makes the

job easier.

Structural Frame•From sociology and management science.•Emphasizes goals, specialized roles, and formal relationships.•Structures (Organization charts) fit organization’s environment and technology.•Responsibilities, rules, policies, procedures.

Structural Tensions

Differentiation (of roles/tasks)

Integration (coordination of rules/products)

– Specialized roles/committees– Rules and policies– Authority or a “Coordinator” role– Systems of control/coordination (meetings,

committees, reporting lines, etc)

Structural Frame

Problems arise when the

structure does not fit the situation.

Time to restructure.

Human Resource Frame•From psychology.•Organization as an extended family.•Individuals with needs, feelings, prejudices, skills, and limitations.•Capacity to learn—and capacity to defend old attitudes and belief.

Human Resource

Frame

Challenge is to tailor organizations to people—find

a way for individuals to get the job done while feeling good about what they are doing.

Attending to People’s Needs

• Training and Development

• Belonging

• Mattering

• Esteem (both proud of selves and feel valued by others)

• Self-actualization (reaching fullest potential)

Political Frame•Rooted in political science.

•Organizations as arenas, contests, or jungles.•Different interests competing for power/resources.•Rampant conflict—differences in needs, perspectives, and lifestyles.•Bargaining, negotiation, coercion, compromise, coalitions.

Political Assumptions

• Organizations are made of people and interest groups with their own goals/agendas

• The most important decisions involve allocating scarce resources – who gets what?

• Conflict is central to organization dynamics• Power is the most important asset• Decisions emerge from: bargaining, negotiation

and jockeying for position, and have winners and losers.

Political Resource Frame

Political skill•Know your sources of power. •Know everyone else’s sources of power and what they want.•Use informal communication.•Anticipate strategies others are likely to employ.

Problems arise when power is concentrated in the wrong places or is too broadly dispersed.

Symbolic FrameDraws from social and cultural anthropology

• Intentional shaping of organizational culture. Tools:

• Story/Narrative• Heroes/Tales• Traditions/Rituals• Initiations/Ceremonies• Symbols • Use of Space• Metaphor

Assumptions Symbolic Frame

• What is important is not what happens, but what it means (what it is interpreted to mean)

• Events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently.

• Events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced.

• Culture (shared stories, traditions, symbols) are the glue that unites people around shared goals and values.

Symbolic FrameProblems arise when actors play their parts badly, when symbols lose their meaning, when ceremonies and rituals lose their

potency.

Rebuild the expressive or spiritual side of organization through the use of symbols and stories.

Reframing Organizations: A Review

Match the theory or model with the frame.

Abraham Maslow (1954)...

defined the hierarchy of pre-potent needs

5. self-actualization

4. self-esteem

3. belongingness

2. safety, security

1. physiological1

2

3

4

5

Helgesen’s Web of Inclusion

The term “web of inclusion” originally came from The Female Advantage. The women-led organizations I studied in that book were not standard hierarchies led from the top down. They were more circular in structure and were led from the center…. I believe that great companies will all operate as webs of inclusion in the future. Webs allow organizations to draw on the widest possible base of talent, a huge advantage in an economy based on knowledge. They allow resources to flow to where they’re needed. They undermine the tendency to become hierarchical. They put organizations more directly in touch with those they serve, and make partnerships easier to achieve.

- Sally Helgesen

Bolman and Deal’s Leading with Soul

• Honor the past

• Celebrate the present

• Look to the future

Theory X and Theory Y

Mintzberg’s Five Configurations of Organizations

• Simple Structure• Machine Bureaucracy• Professional Bureaucracy• Divisionalised Form• Adhocracy

Niccolo Machiavelli

• It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.• There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the

advantage of others.• Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to

secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

• It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Denning’s The Secret Language of Leadership

In his exciting new book, The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative, (Jossey-Bass, October 2007), business narrative expert Steve Denning explains why traditional approaches to leadership communication don’t work and reveals the hidden patterns that effective leaders use to spark change. He shows how anyone can inspire enduring enthusiasm for a cause, even in skeptical, cynical or even hostile audiences and provides a comprehensive guide to the nitty-gritty of transformational leadership.

Fisher and Ury’s, Getting to Yes

Do not engage in positional bargaining – staking out a position and making relectant concessions.

•Separate people from the problem

•Focus on interests, not positions

•Invent options for mutual gain

•Insist on objective criteria – standards of fairness in substance and procedure

•Create value for both parties

Overview of the Four-Frame Model

Frame

Structural Human Resource

Political Symbolic

Metaphor for Organization

Factory or Machine

Family Jungle Carnival, temple, theater

Central Concepts

Rules, roles, goals, policies, technology, environment

Needs, skills, relationships

Power, conflict, competition, organizational politics

Culture, meaning, metaphor, ritual, ceremony, stories, heroes

Image of Leadership

Social architecture

Empowerment Advocacy Inspiration

Basic Leadership Challenge

Attune structure to task, technology, environment

Align organizational and human needs

Develop agenda and power base

Create faith, beauty, meaning

Organizational Ethic

Excellence Caring Justice Faith

Leadership Contribution

Authorship Love Power Significance

Source: Bolman & Deal (1997), p. 15 & p. 344

Reframing Organizations: A Review

Identify your natural frame(s)

Implications for Leadership

Reframing Leadership

Frame

Structural Human Resources

Political Symbolic

Effective Leader

Analyst, architect

Catalyst, servant

Advocate, negotiator

Prophet, poet

Effective Leadership Process

Analysis, design

Support, empowerment

Advocacy, coalition building

Inspiration, framing experience

Ineffective Leader

Petty tyrant Weakling, pushover

Con artist, thug

Fanatic, fool

Ineffective Leadership Process

Management by detail and fiat

Abdication Manipulation, fraud

Mirage, smoke & mirrors

Source: Bolman & Deal (1997), p. 303

Effective Structural Leaders

• Do their homework, they understand all aspects of the organization and how each affects the others

• Understand the relationship of structure, strategy and environment

• Focus on implementation, are ready to address resistance, training, and power grabs

• Experiment, evaluate, and adapt

Effective Human Resource Leaders

• Believe in people and communicate their belief

• Are visible and accessible

• Empower others

Effective Political Leaders

• Clarify what they want and what they can get

• Assess the distribution of power and interests

• Build links among key stakeholders

• Persuade first, negotiate second, and coerce only if necessary

Effective Symbolic Leaders

• Lead by example

• Use symbols to capture attention

• Frame experience

• Communicate a vision

• Tell stories

• Respect and use history

When to use which frame?Chapter 16: A case study

When to use which frame?Four Corners

Choosing a Frame

Question Frame if answer is Yes

Frame if answer is No

Are individual commitment and motivation essential to success?


Choosing a Frame




Human Resource, Symbolic

Structural, Political

Is the technical quality of the decision important?


Choosing a Frame







Structural Human Resource, Political, Symbolic

Are there high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty?


Choosing a Frame









Political, Symbolic Structural, Human Resource

Are conflict and scarce resources significant?


Choosing a Frame












Are you working from the bottom up?


Reframing Change

Frame

Structural Human Resources

Political Symbolic

Barriers to Change

Loss of clarity and stability, confusion, chaos

Anxiety, uncertainty, feelings of incompetence, neediness

Disempowerment, conflict between winners and losers

Loss of meaning and purpose, clinging to the past

Essential Strategies

Communicating, realigning and renegotiating formal patterns and policies

Training to develop new skills, participation and involvement, psychological support

Creating arenas where issues can be renegotiated and new coalitions formed

Creating transition rituals: mourning the past, celebrating the future


No one best way…

Learn to work across and integrate frames.

Organizations simultaneously have multiple true realities.

Have awareness of your natural tendency.

Use that strength

Remind yourself to use other frames

reframing organizations lee g. bolman & terrence e. deal

Documents

deal slide

oversimplification slide

political frame

fullest potential slide

power people

structural frame problems

assumptions symbolic

organization dynamics