Reframing organizations
Deel 1: Making sense of organizations
A frame is a mental model – a set of ideas and assumptions – that you carry in your head to help you
understand and negotiate a particular ‘territory’ (p.10).
Organisatiewetenschappen
• Onderzoek
• Advies
• Managen van processen
• The organizational big bang
De 4 frames van Bolman en Deal (p.15/16)
• Structural: structures – commonly depicted by organization charts – are designed to fit an
organization’s environment and technology. Organizations allocate responsibilities. Problems
arise when structure doesn’t line up well with current circumstances or when performance
sags. At that point, some form of reorganization or redesign is needed to remedy the
mismatch.
• Human Resource: The human resource perspective, rooted in psychology, sees an
organization as an extended family, made up of individuals with needs, feelings, prejudices,
skills, and limitations. Psychologically healthy organizations provide adequate wages and
benefits and make sure employees have the skills and resources to do their jobs.
• Political: Rooted in the work of political scientists. This view sees organizations as arenas,
contests, or jungles. Problems arise when power is concentrated in the wrong places or is so
broadly dispersed that nothing gets done. Solutions arise from political skill and acumen.
• Symbolical: Emphasis om culture, symbols, and spirit as keys to organizational success. The
symbolic lens, drawing on social and cultural anthropology, treats organizations as temples,
tribes, theaters, or carnivals. Problems arise when actors blow their parts, symbols lose their
meaning, or ceremonies and rituals lose their potency.
Overview of the Four-frame Model (p.19)
Frame
Structural Human resource Political Symbolic
Metaphor for Factory, machine Family Jungle Carnival, temple,
organization theatre
Central concepts Rules, roles, Needs, skills, Power, conflict, Culture, meaning,
goals, policies, relationships competition, metaphor, ritual,
technology, politics ceremony,
environment stories, heroes
Image of Social Empowerment Advocacy and Inspiration
leadership architecture political savvy
(begrijpen)
Basic leadership Attune structure Align Develop agenda Create faith,
challenge to task organizational and power base beauty, meaning
(afstemmen (lijn
structurele organisatorisch)
taken), and human needs
technology,
environment
,Each frame tells a different story, but no single story is comprehensive enough to make an
organization fully understandable or manageable. Effective managers need frames to generate
multiple stories, the skill to sort through the alternatives, and the wisdom to match the right story to
the situation.
Expanding Managerial Think
How managers think How managers might think
They often have a limited view of organizations They need a holistic framework that encourages
(for example, attributing almost all problems to inquiry into a range of significant issues: people,
individuals’ flaws and errors). power, structure, and symbols.
Regardless of a problem’s source, managers They need a palette that offers an array of
often choose rational and structural solutions: options: bargaining as well as training,
facts, logic, restructuring. celebration as well as reorganization.
Managers often value certainty, rationality, and They need to develop creativity, risk taking, and
control while fearing ambiguity, paradox, and playfulness in response to life’s dilemmas and
‘going with the flow’. paradoxes, focusing as much on finding the right
question as the right answer, on finding meaning
and faith amid clutter and confusion.
Leaders often rely on the ‘one right answer’ and Leaders need passionate, unwavering
the ‘one best way’; they are stunned at the commitment to principle, combined with
turmoil and resistance they generate. flexibility in understanding and responding to
events.
How managers think: rational-technical mind-set emphasizing certainty and control
How managers might thin: expressive, artistic conception encouraging flexibility, creativity, and
interpretation
Common fallacies (drogredenen) in explaining organizational problems
- Blaming people: blaming people points to the perennial importance of individual
responsibility. Some problems are caused by personal characteristics.
- When it’s hard to identify a guilty individual, a second popular option is blaming the
bureaucracy: this perspective starts from a reasonable premise: organizations exist to
achieve specific goals. They are most effective when goals and policies are clear, jobs are well
defined, control systems are in place, and employees behave prudently.
- Thirsting for power (dus je wil meer macht en meer geld, maar denkt niet aan het belang van
het bedrijf): this view highlights enduring, below-the-surface features of organizations.
People both seek and despise power but find it a convenient way to explain problems.
Each of these three perspectives contains a kernel of truth but oversimplifies a knottier reality.
Peculiarities of organizations
The first step in managerial wisdom and artistry is to recognize key characteristics of organizations:
- Organizations are complex
- Organizations are surprising
- Organizations are deceptive: they camouflage mistakes and surprises.
- Organizations are ambiguous (dubbelzinnig): it has many sources, sometimes available
information is incomplete or vague, different people may interpret the same information in a
variety of ways.
, Waarom zijn organisaties ambigue?
• We weten niet wat het probleem is
• We begrijpen niet wat er precies gebeurt
• We weten niet zeker wat we willen
• We hebben de middelen niet
• We weten niet wie wat zou doen
• We weten niet hoe we kunnen krijgen wat we willen
• We weten niet hoe succes gedefinieerd wordt
Omgaan met complexiteit
Het ontwikkelen van betere cognitieve modellen die anticiperen op gecompliceerde en
onvoorzienbare problemen.
Mental models
Mental models are deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit us to
familiar ways of thinking and acting. Very often, we are nog consciously aware of our mental models
or the effects they have on out behavior.
Impact of mental models
Changing old patterns and mind-set is difficult. It is also risky; it can lead to analysis paralysis,
confusion, and further erosion of confidence and effectiveness. This dilemma exists even if we see no
flaws in our current mind-set, because out theories are self-sealing filters. They block us from
recognizing our errors. Extensive research documents the many ways in which individuals spin reality
to protect existing beliefs.
