Reframing Organizations
Artistry, Choice, and Leadership
Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal
Part I: Making Sense of Organizations
Introduction: The Power of Reframing
Basic management challenge: How do you know if you see what’s really there? How do
you avoid championing the wrong strategy or tackling the wrong problem?
- The aim of the book is to enrich the strategies that managers and leaders bring to their
work by enabling them to see organizations through four frames that offer an assortment
of lenses for viewing and understanding what they are seeing. Each is helpful, each has
blind spots. The ability to shift from one frame to another helps redefine situations so
they become more manageable.
- must learn to articulate and communicate their vision so others can see their
perspectives
The ability to reframe situations broadens a leader’s skills
- Powerful antidote to self-entrapment
- There is always more than one response to organizational dilemmas
- Result is managerial freedom and more human, productive organizations
Consolidated major schools of organizational thought into four frames/perspectives
Overview of the four frame model
Structural
Metaphor
Central
Concepts
Image of
Leadership
Basic
Leadership
Challenge
Factory
goals,
specialized
roles, and
formal
relationships
Social
architecture
Attune structure
to task,
technology,
environment
Expanded managerial thinking
Human
Resources
Family
needs, skills,
relationships
Frame
Political
Symbolic
Jungle
competition for
power and
scarce
resources
Temple/theater
culture,
ceremony,
ritual, meaning
Empowerment
Advocacy
Inspiration
Align
organizational
and human
needs
Develop agenda Create faith,
and power base beauty,
meaning
Expanded managerial thinking
How managers think
How managers might think
Limited view of organizations
Holistic framework that encourages inquiry
into a range of significant issues: people,
processes, power, symbols
Regardless of a problem’s source, often
Use a palette that offers a range of options:
choose rational and structural solutions:
bargaining, training, celebration,
facts, logic, restructuring
reorganization
Value certainty, rationality, and control.
Develop creativity, risk taking, and
Fear ambiguity and going with the flow.
playfulness. Focus as much on finding the
right question as the right answer, finding
meaning and faith amid chaos and
confusion
Rely on the one best answer or right way,
Passionate, unwavering commitment to
being stunned at the turmoil and resistance principle, combined with flexibility in
it generates
understanding and responding to events
Chapter 2 Simple Ideas, Complex Organizations
The first step in managerial wisdom and artistry is to understand the situation you face.
Properties of Organizations
- Organizations are complex
o bewildering array of people, departments, technologies, goals, and
environments
- Organizations are surprising
o Some interactions and consequences are hard to predict
- Organizations are deceptive
o They defy expectations and camouflage surprises
o Communications in organizations are seldom candid, open, or timely
- Organizations are ambiguous
o Complexity, unpredictability, and deception add up to a lot of ambiguity
o Sources of ambiguity
 We are not sure what the problem is
 We are not sure what is really happening
 We are not sure what we want
 We do not have the resources we need
 We are not sure who is supposed to do what
 We are not sure how to get what we want
 We are not sure how to determine if we have succeeded
Organizational Learning
-
We learn best from experience, but often do not directly experience the
consequences of our decisions (in large organizations)
Cause and effect often widely separated (need to understand the whole system and
how its parts interact, not just the pieces)
We sometimes try to solve problems without discussing the un-discussable or run
afoul of organizational taboos
Coping with Ambiguity and Complexity
-
-
People’s perspectives determine what they “see”
o One’s internal world is as important as what is outside
Managers face an unending series of problems, but they must take the time to
probe more deeply to pinpoint what is really going on
Theories help us do two thinks
o Tell us what is important and what can be safely ignored
o Group many different bits of information into patterns or concepts
There are many ways individuals interpret reality to protect their own belief
systems
Managers often use interactions with others not to gain new information but to
strengthen the justification for their current thinking
Common Fallacies in Organizational Diagnosis
-
-
-
Three approaches based on partial truth
o People blaming approach: explains everything in terms of individual
characteristics
o Blame the bureaucracy
o Thirst for power
The four organizational frames offer a pluralistic approach
o An assortment of lenses for viewing the organization
o Each is helpful, each has blind spots
o The ability to shift from one frame to another helps redefine situations so
they become more manageable
For managers with better theories and the capacity to use their theories with skill
and grace, the world is full of excitement and possibility
Part 2: The Structural Frame
Ch 3 Getting Organized
The structural frame looks beyond individuals to examine the social context of work
- When structure is overlooked, organizations often misdirect energy and resources
Dimension
Size and Age
Structural Implications
Complexity and formalization increase
with size and age
Core process
Environment
Information technology
Strategy and goals
Nature of workforce
Core processes or technologies must align
with structure
Stable environments reward simpler
structures; uncertain, turbulent
environments require more complex,
adaptable structure
Information technology permits flatter,
more flexible, more decentralized structure
Variations in clarity and consistency of
goals require appropriate structural
adaptations (think Harvard vs. McDonalds)
More educated and professional workers
need and want greater autonomy and
discretion
The right structure depends on an organization’s goals, strategy, technology, and
environment
- There is no one best way to organize
- Structural form both enhances and constrains what organizations can accomplish
Structuring and Reengineering
Enduring Structural dilemmas: tough trade-offs with no easy answers.
* Differentiation versus Integration
* Gaps versus Overlaps
* Under use versus Overload
* Lack of Clarity versus Lack of Creativity
* Excessive Autonomy versus Excessive Independence
* Too loose versus too Tight
* Diffuse Authority versus Over centralization
* Goalless versus goal bound
* Irresponsible versus Unresponsive
Achieving the right balance is tied closely to an organization’s total situation: current
environment, workforce, technology, and past structural commitments.
Mintzberg differentiates five major components in organizational structure:
* the strategic apex: focus on outside environment, mission and grand design,
* the middle management: supervise, control, provide resources,
* the operating core: people who perform the basic work to produce the product/service,
* the techno structure: specialists and analysts who standardize, measure, inspect outputs
and processes, and
* the support staff: perform tasks that support the work of others.
Different configurations of these components lead to different organizational forms:
simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalized form,
and adhocracy.
Pressures that lead to restructuring include:
* environment shifts
* technology changes
* organizations grow
* leadership changes
Basic principles of successful structural change:
* develop new conception of goals and strategies
* careful study of existing structure/process to know how things work
* design new structure in view of changes goals, technology, and environment
* experiment: retain what works, discard what does not
Organizing Groups and Teams
Team work represents a set of values that encourages listening and responding to views
expressed by others, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, providing support, and
recognizing the interests and achievements of others.
Many classic team problems arise from ill-fitting structures.
[High performing commando unit]
In dealing with tasks, groups have a number of structural options. The one they choose or the one that evolves- must allow members to pool individual contributions successfully
without creating pathologies that often plague small groups.
* requires careful consideration of situational variables
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- What needs to be done?
- Who should do what?
- How should we make decisions?
- Who is in charge?
- How do we coordinate the efforts?
- What do individual members care about most- time, quality, and participation?
- What are the special skills and talents of each group member?
- What is the relationship between this group and others?
- How will we determine success?
Distinguishing characteristics of high performing teams:
* Top managers provide clarity of charter/rationale and the challenge, but provide
flexibility for the team to work out specific goals and plane of operation.
* Translate common purpose into specific, measurable performance goals.
* Manageable size (2-25)
* Develop the right mix of expertise
* Common commitment to working relationships (who does what, schedules, skills
needed/developed, how membership earned, how to make and modify decisions
* Team members hold themselves collectively accountable
The Human Resource Frame
People and Organizations
Ch 8 Interpersonal and Group Dynamics
- Interpersonal Dynamics
* Three recurrent questions regularly haunt managers:
+ What is really happening in this relationship?
+ Why do other people behave as they do?
+ What can I do about it?
* Argyris emphasizes the importance of "interpersonal competence" as a basic
managerial skill. He showed that managers' effectiveness was often impaired because
they were over controlling, excessively competitive, uncomfortable with feelings, closed
to others' ideas, and blind to their own impact.
* Argyris and Schon found significant discrepancies between espoused theories and
theories-in-use. Managers' talk is often unconnected to their actions. They typically see
themselves as rational, open, concerned for others, and democratic, not realizing that their
actions are competitive, controlling, and defensive. Such blindness is pervasive because
most managers employ a self-protective model of interpersonal behavior, particularly in
dealing with issues that are embarrassing or threatening. Argyris and Schon refer to this
theory-in-use as Model 1.
Model I Theory-in-Use
Core Values
(governing
variables)
Define and achieve
your goals
Action Strategies
Consequences of the Consequences for
Behavioral World
Learning
Design and manage
the environment
unilaterally
You will be seen as
defensive,
inconsistent, fearful,
selfish
Maximize winning,
minimize losing
Own and control
whatever is relevant
to your interests
You create
defensiveness in
interpersonal
relationships
Minimize
Unilaterally protect
You reinforce
You seal yourself
off (so you will not
know about the
negative
consequences of
your actions)
You get caught up
in single-loop
learning (you do not
question your core
values and
assumptions)
You test your
generating or
expressing negative
feelings
yourself (from
criticism,
discomfort,
vulnerability, etc)
Be rational
Unilaterally protect
others from being
upset or hurt (censor
bad news, hold
private meetings,
etc.)
defensive norms
(mistrust, risk
avoidance,
conformity, rivalry,
etc.)
Key issues become
undiscussable
assumptions and
beliefs privately, not
publicly
You engage in
unconscious
collusion to protect
yourself and others
from learning
* Lurking in Model I is the core assumption that organizations are competitive,
dangerous places where you have to look out for yourself or someone else will do you in.
That assumption leads individuals to follow a predictable set of steps in their attempts to
influence others.
+ Assume the problem is caused by the other person(s).
+ Develop private, unilateral diagnosis and solution
+ Since the other person is the cause of the problem, get that person to change, using one
or more of three basic strategies:
x facts, logic, and rational persuasion (argue the merits of your point of view)
x indirect influence (ease in, ask leading questions, manipulate the other person)
x direct critique (tell the person what they are doing wrong and how they should change)
+ If the other person resists or becomes defensive, it confirms that the other person
caused the problem.
+ Respond to resistance through some combination of intensifying pressure and
protecting or rejecting the other person.
+ If your efforts are unsuccessful or less successful than hoped, it is the other person's
fault. You need feel no personal responsibility.
* The result is wasted energy, strained relationships, and deterioration in decision-making
processes-all predictable consequences of Model I.
* Agyris and Schon propose Model II as an alternative:
+ Emphasize common goals and mutual influence.
+ Communicate openly, and publicly test assumptions and beliefs.
+ Combine advocacy with inquiry
x Advocacy includes statements that communicate what an individual thinks, knows,
wants, or feels. Inquiry seeks to learn what others think, know, want, or feel.
Inquiry
High
Low
Assertive
High
Integrative
Low
Passive
Accommodative
Advocacy
*When managers feel vulnerable, they revert to self-protection. They skirt issues or
attack others and escalate games of camouflage and deception. Feeling inadequate, the
camouflage their inadequacy. To avoid detection, they pile subterfuge on top of
camouflage. This generates even more uncertainty and ambiguity and makes it difficult
or impossible to detect errors. As a result, organizations often persist in following a
course everyone privately thinks is a path to disaster. No one wants to be the one to
speak the truth.
* The result is often catastrophe. In a number of well-documented aviation accidents, the
copilot believe that the captain was making a serious mistake yet chose not to say so
directly. Instead, he used vague questions to nudge the captain gently. In each case, the
captain missed the message. Perhaps the copilots feared upsetting their commander (who
was an overcontrolling jerk in several instances). Perhaps they were not sure the captain
was wrong. In any event, the errors were fatal. More direct communication could not
have made things any worse and might have saved the airplane, passengers, and crew.

Structural
goals
specialized roles
formal relationships
division of labor
rules, policies, procedures, and hierarchies
Problems arise when structure does not fit situation

Human Resources
extended family
feelings, prejudices, skills, and limitations
tailor org to people

Political
arenas
contests
jungles
interests compete for limited resources
conflict is rampant
bargaining, negotiation, coercion, and compromise
Problems arise when power is concentrated in wrong place
or when so broadly dispersed nothing gets done.

Symbolic
cultural and social anthropology
tribes, theater, or carnivals
cultures on rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, myths
org is actors

Integrating the Four Frames
Multiframe thinking requires movement beyond narrow mechanical thinking.
See Overview Table of Four Frames
Overview
of
Four-Frame Model
Structural
Metaphor for
Organization
Central
Concepts
Factory or
machine
Rules, roles,
goals, policies,
technology,
environment
Image of
Leadership
Basic
Leadership
Challenge
Social
architecture
Attune structure
to task,
technology,
environment
Human
Resources
Family
Political
Symbolic
Jungle
needs, skills,
relationships
Power, conflict,
competition,
organizational
politics
Empowerment
Advocacy
Carnival, temple,
theater
Culture,
meaning,
metaphor, ritual,
ceremony,
stories, heroes
Inspiration
Align org and
human needs
Develop an agenda Create faith,
and power base
beauty, meaning
Source: Bolman and Deal; Reframing Organizations; 1997;
Table 1.1, page 15
Structural Frame
Specialized tasks, sequential work, close supervision, top down.
increase efficiency through specialization & division of labor
1. How to allocate work
knowledge or skill
time
product
customers or clients
geography
process
2. How to coordinate different roles
Combining vertical and lateral power.
As a group, the org decides course of action, this is lateral or horizontal
decision making. Once all agree, consensus, then the leader can act in
vertical fashion because all have had a stake in its creation. Problems arise
in top down situations.
Imperatives
Pressures
Zebra pages 77 & 332
one boss is top down
dual authority task oriented
Simple hierarchy is layers
Circle borders on "web inclusion"
All-channel network is the web. Star within the circle.
Human Resources Frame
McGregor of MIT helped develop ideas. "Open system," communication of good
and bad news, self-managing teams, peer-controlled pay system. This frame
regards people's skills, attitudes, energy, commitment. This frame champions idea
that orgs can be stimulating, rewarding, and productive. If org concerns itself with
it's people's welfare then it will succeed.
Physiological (oxygen, water, food, comfort)
Safety (safe from attack)
Belongingness and Love
Esteem (to feel value of self)
Self-actualization (to reach one's potential)
ome self-fulfilling prophecies. If you have
low expectations you will get low productivity.
Conflict
If conflicts arise people tend to:
mb hierarchy to better jobs
Improving HR Management
cared for his workers by giving clean safe homes. Preschool, child care, and schools. He
knew value of human capital.
Hire right
Reward well
Provide job security
Promote from within
Train and Educate Dewey: Learn by doing OJT
Share the wealth
Autonomy and Participation
Job Enrichment and Cross-Utilization
Teaming
Democracy and Egalitarianism
-Groups: "sensitivity training," participants and researchers quorum after session to
discuss observations. Trainers and participants join in groups as a sort of "plenary."
Honest feedback is crucial.
-groups, and Surveys.
Putting it in Action
personal Dynamics
What is happening?
Why do people behave as they do?
What can I do?
problem caused by other people
develop private, unilateral diagnose and solution
get other person to change by logic, influence, force
if other resists become defensive
intensify pressure
Result is wasted energy, strained relationship, deterioration in decision-making
processes.
Emphasize common goals & mutual influence
Communicate openly publicly test assumptions
Combine Advocacy with Inquiry
-protection.
Personality Tests
Meyers-Briggs
Barbarian's Online Test Page
creates informal roles with so many formal roles around
informal rules evolve
develop listening skills
agree on basics
search for commonness
Experiment
Doubt your infallibility
differences of personalities are a groups responsiblity
Political Frame
Sees orgs as alive screaming arenas. Political Frame appears to be primary determinant of
success in certain jobs. p 278
Focus of the political Frame is not on resolution of conflict, but on strategy and
tactics.
PF Insists Orgs are Coalitions
result can be confusing with multiplicity of goals
many in conflict
Power
one power
liances and networks
Conflict
status quo
Summary
be "constructive" politicians.
Skills of Political Manager
sets goals and schedules
statements of interests and direction
provide a vision and strategy for achieving vision
provide direction while tending to needs of stakeholders
while gathering plant too.
a vision without a strategy is an illusion
not automatic
find order amid chaos
move with speed and focus
know where explosives are
channels of informal communications
id principal agents of influence
possibility of internal and external mobilization
anticipate strategies of others
draw it up on paper
Id relevant relationships
Assess who might resist, why and how strongly
develop relationships with opponents to facilitate communications
When 3 fails be forceful or subtle
No strategy will work without power base
Find friends, cheerleaders
"horse trading", negotiating
bargaining is central to decision making
Creating Value vs Claiming Value
Creative = be inventive and cooperative for win-win
Claiming = be forceful, to achieve win-lose
Positional bargaining means you start at a place and give concessions
Principled bargaining: emphasizes creating not claiming
1. separate people from problem
2. focus on interests, not positions
3. invent options for mutual gain
4. insist on objective criteria: standards of fairness
Morality
tell them your vision
state your best understanding of their position
Id your own contribution
What you plan to do
following rules that are understood and accepted?
comfortable discussing and defending your action?
Would you want someone to do it to you?
What if everyone acted that way?
Are there more ethical ways?
Mutuality
Generality
Caring
Arenas
-Up Pol action
Unions
civil rights movement
Central admin institutes
Workers are surprised, not in process
Agents
Symbolic Frame
Organizations reek of symbolism from the edifices they work in to their mascots, colors,
and products. That some company names have become words, i.e. Xerox, scotch tape,
coke, attest to the power of symbolism.
not what happened but what it means
d stories.
mystery
myths, fairy tales, stories provide explanations
rituals and ceremonies give heritage
Metaphor, humor, and play loosen up and provide depth to situation.
opportunities. Myths are not authority. They can keep us sane. All orgs rely on myths or
sagas. Myths create internal cohesion, sense of direction, confidence.
order, clarity, and predictability. Intiate newcomers.
special events.
, & PLAY show "as if" quality of symbols. Metaphor: Cook
says he is a professional, an artist, a business person and a worker. Humor allows for
loosening of tension.
org without a plan is rudderless, short-sighted, and reactive.
Plans are symbols
Plans become games
Plans become excuses for interaction
Plans become advertisements
ymbolizes success or failure.
Leading Principles
done by ritual, applying, interviewing etc
edge
portionately to Formal Roles
Integrating Frames
Four Interpretations
of
Organizational Processes
Process
Strategic
Planning
Decision
Making
Reorganizing
Structural
Strategies to set
objectives and
coordinate
resources
Human
Resources
Gathering to
promote
participation
Political
Arenas to air
conflicts and
realign power
Symbolic
Ritual to signal
responsibility,
produce symbols,
negotiate
meanings
Rational
Open process to Opportunity to Ritual to confirm
sequence to
produce
gain or exercise values and
produce right
commitment
power
provide
decision
opportunities for
bonding
Realign roles and Maintain balance Redistribute
Maintain image of
responsibilities between human power and form accountability and
to fit tasks and needs and formal new coalitions responsiveness;
environment
roles
negotiate new
social order
Process
Evaluating
Approaching
conflict
Goal Setting
Structural
Way to distribute
rewards or
penalties and
control
performance
Maintain
organizational
goals by having
authorities
resolve conflict
Keep
organization
headed in right
direction
Human
Resources
Political
Symbolic
Process for
Opportunity to Occasion to play
helping
exercise power roles in shared
individuals grow
ritual
and improve
Develop
relationships by
having
individuals
confront conflict
Keep people
involved and
communication
open
Human
Process
Structural
Resources
Communication Transmit facts
Exchange
and information information,
needs, and
feelings
Meetings
Formal occasions Informal
for making
occasions for
decisions
involvement,
sharing feelings
Motivation
Economic
Growth and selfincentives
actualization
Process
Structural
Human
Resources
Develop power
by bargaining,
forcing, or
manipulating
others to win
Provide
opportunity for
individuals and
groups to make
interests known
Develop shared
values and use
conflict to
negotiate meaning
Political
Influence or
manipulate
others
Symbolic
Tell Stories
Competitive
occasions to
win points
Sacred occasions
to celebrate and
transform the
culture
Symbols and
celebration
Coercion,
manipulation,
and seduction
Political
Develop symbols
and shared values
Symbolic
Source: Reframing Organizations; Bolman and Deal; 1997; Table 15.1, pages
267-8
Hypertext
Choosing A Frame
of
Choosing A Frame
Press BACK to return from whence you came.
Question
Are individual commitment and
motivation essential to success?
Is the technical quality of the decision
important?
Are there high levels of ambiguity and
uncertainty?
Are conflict and scarce resources
significant?
Are you working from the bottom up?
Frame if Answer is Frame if Answer is No
Yes
Human Resource, Structural, Political
Symbolic
Structural
Human Resources,
Political, Symbolic
Political, Symbolic Structural, Human
Resources
Political, Symbolic Structural, Human
Resources
Political
Structural, Human
Resources, Symbolic
Source: Bolman and Deal; Reframing Organizations; 1997;
Table 15.2, page 271
Reframing in Action
Essence of reframing is examining the same situation from multiple vantage points to
develop holistic picture. Each Frame provides advantages, but also blind spots.
Does this
mean schools should be concerned with things in the home etc? Reliance on structure
negates other frames influence.
looking for growth and collaboration.
nicism and mistrust. Often misunderstood to be amoral,
scheming, and unconcerned about the common good.
camouflage
Pages 282-293 provide a great look at how to utilize the frames in action. Cindy
Marshall in new position and how she could handle given situations to her
advantage/disadvantage.
Leadership
engaged parties.
eaders to persuade or inspire not coerce
subtle process of mutual influence fusing thought, feeling, and action
to produce cooperative effort in the service of purposes and values of both the leader and
the led.
work well, inspire trust and build relationships, honesty.
Reframing Leadership
Reframing Leadership
of
Reframing Leadership
Frame
Structural
Human
Resources
Political
Symbolic
Effective Leadership
Leader
Leadership Process
Analyst,
Analysis, design
architect
Catalyst,
Support,
servant
empowerment
Advocate,
Advocacy, coalition
negotiator
building
Prophet, poet Inspiration, framing
experience
Ineffective Leadership
Leader
Leadership Process
Petty Tyrant Management by
detail and fiat
Weakling,
Abdication
pushover
Con artist,
Manipulation, fraud
thug
Fanatic, fool Mirage, smoke, and
mirrors
Source: Bolman and Deal; Reframing Organizations; 1997;
Table 17.1, page 303
do their homework
rethink the relationship of structure, strategy, and environment
focus on implementation
experiment, evaluate, adapt
believe in people and communicate their belief
visible and accessible
empower others
clarify what they want and what they can get
assess the distribution of power and interests
build linkages to key stakeholders
persuade first, negotiate second, coerce when necessary
use symbols to capture attention
frame experience
discover and communicate vision
tell stories, See Gettysburg Address
Reframing Change
turbulent middle, and a discouraging ending
Reframing
esp. when new technology comes in
terans become neophytes
predictability, and security.
-sitters
status quo prevails and change agents lose
Arenas provide rules, referees, and spectators
arenas
Soul
ove
Chapter 20 pages 354-376 provides a great scenario of using the Frames in action.
New Principal walks into problems and uses frames to solve them.