COMMUNICATION AND
LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF
CRISIS AND CHANGE: THE
ROLE OF FRAMING
Professor Joep Cornelissen, VU University Amsterdam and
University of Leeds
In a nutshell…
Times of unprecedented uncertainty, dynamism and complexity (e.g.,
climate change, financial instability, terrorism)
→ leadership in terms of providing direction and a moral stance
→ role of framing crucial: how a person frames a situation
determines how they experience and understand it, what inferences
they make, and what moral implications are granted
→ role of communicators as lateral thinkers and wordsmiths who
can lead in the (re)framing of organizational and societal issues
Essentials of Framing
→ A frame as a structured set of background assumptions, typically
invoked by words and whose structure is rooted in some motivating
cultural context.
– The use of words, as acts of framing, is defined with respect to a
background conceptual frame and performs a categorization that
takes the frame for granted
– Frames are analogue representations that impart organizing
structure and license inferences
→ a crucial way of facilitating understanding of novel, dynamic and
complex issues or problems (such as a strategic change or
innovations) involves using analogical or metaphorical frames that
can create or expand categories of understanding.
→ analogies or metaphors also bring familiarity and license certain
inferences (e.g., war on terror, credit crunch)
Operation to chase 21/7 bombers
Description of the Case
•
Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman was in charge of the
investigation and around 10:30 advised the Police Commissioner, Sir
Ian Blair, that someone had been shot dead at the station and that it
was believed that he was one of the bombers.
•
In a first meeting with the press, Commissioner Blair reiterated that
the ‘shooting is directly linked to the ongoing and expanding
antiterrorist operation. … I understand the man was challenged and
refused to obey’.
•
At around 16:30 in the afternoon, Andy Hayman briefed a gathering of
journalists that the deceased was not involved in the previous day’s
attempted bomb attacks.
•
“The man shot at Stockwell station is still subject to formal
identification and it is not yet clear whether he is one of the four
people we are seeking to identify and whose pictures have been
released today. It therefore remains extremely important that members
of the public continue to assist police in relation to all four pictures.
This death, like all deaths related to police operations, is obviously a
matter of deep regret. Nevertheless the man who was shot was under
police observation because he had emerged from a house that was
itself under observation because it was linked to the investigation of
yesterday’s incidents. He was then followed by surveillance officers to
the station. His clothing and his behaviour at the station added to their
suspicions. While the counter terrorist investigation will obviously
take pre-eminence, the investigation into the circumstances that led to
his death is being pursued and will be subject to scrutiny through the
IPCC in due course”.
III. Example from TV Series The Wire
Radical change of setting up quarantine free zones for drug trafficking
in the District
→ involves a disruption of the status quo
→ triggers uncertainty, controversy and confusion with internal and
external stakeholder groups
Framing of the change to stakeholders in an attempt to gain their
acceptance and support
Major Colvin uses initial analogy with prohibition period, but switches to
metaphorical idioms
Implications
Role of communicators as organisational conscience, boundary
spanners and strategic messengers → framing experts
How organizational and societal issues are made sense of depends
fundamentally on frames
Reclaim the subject and craft of framing from a communication and
processual perspective (as opposed to more narrow sociological,
cognitive or economic approaches)