reframing organization

Only in the last half century have social scientists devoted much time or attention to developing ideas about how organizations work, how they should work, or why they often fail. In the social sciences, several major schools of thought have evolved. Each has its own concepts and assumptions, espousing a particular view of how to bring social collectives under control. Each tradition claims a scientific foundation. But a theory can easily become a theology that preaches a single, parochial scripture. Modern managers must sort through a cacophony of voices and visions for help.

Sifting through competing voices is one of our goals in writing this book. We are not searching for the one best way. Rather, we consolidate major schools of organizational thought into a comprehensive framework encompassing four perspectives.

Our goal is usable knowledge. We have sought ideas powerful enough to capture the subtlety and complexity of life in organizations yet simple enough to be useful. Our distillation has drawn much from the social sciences — particularly sociology, psychology, political science, and anthropology. Thousands of managers and scores of organizations have helped us sift through social science research to identify ideas that work in practice. We have sorted insights from both research and practice into four major frames — structural, human resource, political, and symbolic (Bolman and Deal, 1984). Each is used by academics and practitioners alike and found on the shelves of libraries and bookstores.

Four Frames: As Near as Your Local Bookstore Imagine a harried executive browsing in the management section of her local bookseller on a brisk winter day in 2008. She worries about her company ’ s flagging performance and fears that her job might soon disappear. She spots the black - on - white spine of The Last Link: Closing the Gap That Is Sabotaging Your Business (Crawford, 2007). Flipping through the pages, she notices chapter titles like “ Data, ” “ Discipline, ”and “ Linking It Together. ” She is drawn to phrases such as “ It all comes down toone thing, doesn’t it. Are you making your numbers? ” and “ a new formula for 21st- century business success. ” “ This stuff may be good, ” the executive tells herself, “ but it seems a little stiff. ”

Next, she finds The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

(Covey and Merrill, 2006). Glancing inside, she reads, “ Take communication. Ina high - trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and people will still get your meaning. In a low - trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they ’ll still misinterpret you. ” “ Sounds nice, ” she mumbles, “ but a little touchy - feely. Let ’ s look for something more down to earth. ”

Continuing her search, she picks up Secrets to Winning at Office Politics: How to Achieve Your Goals and Increase Your Influence at Work (McIntyre, 2005).

She scans chapter titles: “ Forget Fairness, Look for Leverage, ” “ Political Games:

Moves and Countermoves, ” “ Power, Power, Who Has the Power? ” She chews over the book ’ s key message — that we all engage in politics every day at work, even though we don ’ t like to admit it. “ Does it really all come down to politics? ” she wonders. “ It seems too cynical. Isn’t there something more uplifting? ”

She spots T he Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary (Michelli, 2006). She ponders the five basic principles the book credits for the success of Starbucks: Make it your own. Everything matters. Surprise and delight. Embrace resistance. Leave your mark. She reads that these principles “ remind all of us — you, me, the janitor, and the CEO — that we are responsible for unleashing a passion that ripples outward from behind the scenes, through the customer experience, and ultimately out into our communities

” (p. 1). She wonders if such fervor can be sustained for long.

In her local bookstore, our worried executive has rediscovered the four perspectives at the heart of this book. Four distinct metaphors capture the essence of each of the books she examined: organizations as factories, families, jungles, and temples or carnivals.

Factories

The first book she stumbled on, The Last Link, provides counsel on how to think clearly and get organized, extending a long tradition that treats an organization as a factory. Drawing from sociology, economics, and management science, the structural frame depicts a rational world and emphasizes organizational architecture, including goals, structure, technology, specialized roles, coordination, and formal relationships. Structures — commonly depicted by organization charts — are designed to fi t an organization ’ s environment and technology. Organizations allocate responsibilities (“ division of labor “). They then create rules, policies, procedures, systems, and hierarchies to coordinate diverse activities into a unified effort. Problems arise when structure doesn’t line up well with current circumstances. At that point, some form of reorganization or redesign is needed to remedy the mismatch.

Families

Our executive next encountered T he SPEED of Trust, with its focus on interpersonal relationships. The human resource perspective, rooted in psychology, see an organization as an extended family, made up of individuals with needs, feelings, prejudices, skills, and limitations. From a human resource view, the key challenge is to tailor organizations to individuals — finding ways for people to get the job done while feeling good about themselves and their work.

Jungles

Secrets to Winning at Office Politics is a contemporary application of the political frame, rooted in the work of political scientists. It sees organizations as arenas, contests, or jungles. Parochial interests compete for power and scarce resources. Conflict is rampant because of enduring differences in needs, perspectives, and lifestyles among contending individuals and groups. Bargaining, negotiation, coercion, and compromise are a normal part of everyday life. Coalitions form around specific interests and change as issues come and go. 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 — as Machiavelli suggested centuries ago in The Prince ([1514] 1961).

Temples and Carnivals

Finally, our executive encountered The Starbucks Experience, with its emphasis on 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. It abandons assumptions of rationality prominent in other frames and depicts organizations as cultures, propelled by rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, and myths rather than rules, policies, and managerial authority. Organization is also theater: actors play their roles in the drama while audiences form impressions from what they see on stage. Problems arise when actors don ’ t play their parts appropriately, symbols lose their meaning, or ceremonies and rituals lose their potency. We rekindle the expressive or spiritual side of organizations through the use of symbol, myth, and magic.