6/28/2017

SGDU 5024 LEADERSHIP IN

EDUCATION
(GROUP B)

LECTURER : MEJ (B) MUA’AZAM BIN MOHAMAD

Four-Frame Model

Reframing Organisations
Bolman & Deal identify four
distinctive ‘frames’ from which
people view their world -
Structural, Human Resources,
Political, and Symbolic.
Each frame comes with a range
of concepts, metaphors and
values which provide the
scaffolding for organising raw
experience of the world.
No one uses only one frame all
the time, although people
often show a preference for
one or two frames.

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Concept of multiple lenses

• Organizations have numerous layers of management and
hierarchy
– Difficult and ineffective when trying to really uncover how an
organization works.
• Using the concept of multiple lenses to view organizations
and their internal systems and framework, seems to be
very appropriate.
• Bolman and Deal present the concept of “reframing” as a
method for examining organizational issues and a way to
achieve “clarity” when looking at organizations.
– they are” complex, surprising, deceptive, and ambiguous”

Frames
Lenses – focus, filter some
things and allow others to
pass through, help us
order experience.

Frames
Tools – strengths and
limitations. Wrong tool
gets in the way, right tool
makes the job easier.

Possess a tool – but know

how to use it well.

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Multiple Frames
• Structural • Political

• Human Resource • Symbolic

Structural Frame
• Origins - sociology &
management science.
• Goals, specialised roles,
and formal relationships.
• Structures fit
organisations
environment and
technology.
• Responsibilities, rules,
policies, procedures.

Structural Frame
Problem arises when the
structure does not fit the
situation.

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The Structural Frame

• Rules
• Roles
• Goals
• Policies
• Division of labour
• Coordination of
activities
• Hierarchies

The Structural Frame

•What are the task assignments
within this organisation?
• How are tasks/roles assigned
and filled?
• What are the overt/explicit
goals and strategies of the
organisation?
• How does technology
influence the organisation’s
structure?
• How specialised are tasks,
roles, jobs, positions?

The Structural Frame

•Co-ordination and control:
•How are these two objectives
balanced?
•Where does the final authority
lie? Is this clear or unclear?
•Are rules and policies rigidly or
loosely adhered to?
•Does the organisation have
standard operating procedures?
•Does the organisation’s
structure create, compound or
facilitate problems?

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Structural leaders
• Structural leaders define clear goals, assign
specific roles for their constituents, and
coordinate specific activities with specific
policies, procedures, and chains of
command.
• The structural leader tries to align the
internal processes of the organization to the
external environment while dealing with
organizational dilemmas

Human Resources Frame

• Organisations as • Origins - psychology.
extended family. • Capacity to learn – and
• Individuals with needs, capacity to defend old
feelings, prejudices, attitudes and beliefs.
skills and limitations.

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Human Resources Frame

Challenge is to tailor
organisation to people –
find a way for individuals
to get the job done while
feeling good about what
they are doing.

The Human Resources Frame

• Individual needs
• Skills
• Competency profiles
• Relationships
• Motivation levels
• Enthusiasm
• Harmony
• Cooperation

The Human Resources Frame

•Is there a congruence between
what individual employees need
and what the organisation
needs?

•Does two-way communication

exist between various
hierarchical levels?

•Does the organisation have

leaders who believe in their
people? Do they act on this
belief?

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The Human Resources Frame

•To what degree is there:

• - participation in decision-making?
• - support for idea-generation?
• - shared information?

•Does the organisation use rigid controls to monitor

employee attendance and performance?

•What are management’s assumptions about

employees? (resistant to change, lazy, unmotivated)

• The human resource frame focuses on needs

of people.
• Leaders working within the human resource
frame value the feelings and relationships of
people, and assume the organization must
meet basic human needs through facilitation
and empowerment.

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Political Frame
• Origins - political science. • Bargaining, negotiation,
• Organisations as arenas, coercion, compromise,
contests, or jungles. and coalitions.
• Different interests
competing for power and
resources.
• Rampant conflict –
difference in needs,
perspectives, and
lifestyles.

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

The Political Frame

• Power
• Influence
• Coalitions
• Alliances
• Competition
• Persuasion
• Negotiation
• Networks

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The Political Frame

• What coalitions can be identified in this organisation?

•(A coalition is a set of individuals who band together to pursue a
particular goal or set of goals).

• What boundaries does a particular coalition span? (eg:

hierarchical levels, departments, professional groups, gender and
ethnic sub-groups).

• What enduring differences can be identified among individuals

and groups in their value-preferences, beliefs, and perceptions of
reality?

The Political Frame

• What scarce resources may be identified, and how are they
allocated?
• Over what issues does conflict exist?
• What power-bases exist? Who has them?
•Power bases include:
1. positional power (formal authority)
2. information and expertise
3. control of rewards
4. coercive power

• Alliances, networks, control of agendas, control of meaning,

personal power

Political leaders
• The political frame focuses on individual and
group interests.
• Political leaders advocate and negotiate
between different interest groups for use of
limited resources.
• Political leaders build power bases through
networking and negotiating compromises.

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Symbolic Frame
• Origins - social and
cultural anthropology.
• Organisations as tribes,
theatres, or carnivals.
• Culture – rituals,
ceremonies, stories,
heroes, and myths.
• Organisation is theatre –
actors play role while
audiences form
impressions.

Symbolic Frame
Problems arise when
actors play their parts
badly, when symbols lose
their meaning, when
ceremonies and rituals
lose their potency.

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The Symbolic Frame

• Culture
• Ritual
• Ceremony
• Stories
• Heroes & heroines
• Myths & legends
• Symbols
• Charisma

The Symbolic Frame

•Underlying meanings are important.
•What differences are there between the meanings
attached to a particular event by different interest
groups?

•Ambiguity and uncertainty:

•What examples are there of events, actions, or
behaviour being ambiguous in meaning to people in
the organisation?

The Symbolic Frame

•Difficulty in using rational approaches to problem-
solving?
•What examples are there of problems being more
easily solved by symbolic action than by logical
action?

•Heroes and heroines:

•Who are the organisational heroes and heroines?
•What are the myths, legends and stories that
surround them?

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The Symbolic Frame

•Rituals and ceremonies are
important.
•What examples are there of these?
•What ideologies do they reinforce?

The symbolic leader

• The symbolic leader develops symbols and
culture to shape human behavior and reflects
a shared mission and identity for the
organization.
• Leaders working in the symbolic frame instill
enthusiasm, a sense of charisma, and drama
to the organization.

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Overview of the Four-Frame Model

Structural Human Resource Political Symbolic

Metaphor for Factory or Family Jungle Carnival, temple,

Organisation Machine theatre
Central Concepts Rules, roles, goals, Needs, skills, Power, conflict, Culture, meaning,
policies, relationships competition, metaphor, ritual,
technology, organisational ceremony, stories,
environment policies heroes

Image of Social architecture Empowerment Advocacy Inspiration

Leadership
Basic Leadership Attune structure Align Develop agenda Create faith,
Challenge to task, organisational and and power base beauty, meaning
technology, human needs
environment

Organisational Excellence Caring Justice Faith

Ethic
Leadership Authorship Love Power Significance
Contribution

Choosing a Frame
Question Frame if answer is Yes Frame if answer is No
Are individual Human Resource, Symbolic Structural, Political
commitment and
motivation essential to
success?
Is the technical quality Structural Human Resource,
of the decision Political, Symbolic
important?
Are there high levels of Political, Symbolic Structural, Human
ambiguity and Resource
uncertainty?
Are conflict and scarce Political, Symbolic Structural, Human
resources significant? Resource
Are you working from Political Structural, Human
the bottom up? Resource, Symbolic

Reframing Organisational Process

Structural Human Resources Political Symbolic
Strategic Planning Strategies to set Gatherings to promote Arenas to air conflicts and Ritual to signal responsibility,
objectives and participation realign power produce symbols, negotiate
coordinate resources meanings
Decision Making Rational sequence to Open process to Opportunity to gain or exercise Ritual to confirm values and
produce right decision produce commitment power provide opportunities for
bonding
Reorganizing Realign roles and Maintain balance Redistribute power and form Maintain image of
responsibilities to fit between human needs new coalitions accountability and
tasks and environment and formal roles responsiveness; negotiate new
social order
Evaluating Way to distribute Process for helping Opportunity to exercise power Occasion to play roles in
rewards or penalties and individuals grow and shared ritual
control performance improve
Approaching Conflict Maintain organisational Develop relationships Develop power by bargaining, Develop shared values and use
goals by having by having individuals forcing, or manipulating others conflict to negotiate meaning
authorities resolve confront conflict to win
conflict
Goal Setting Keep organisation Keep people involved Provide opportunity for Develop symbols and shared
headed in right direction and communication individuals and groups to make values
open interests known
Communication Transmit facts and Exchange information, Influence or manipulate others Tell stores
information needs, and feelings
Meetings Formal occasions for Informal occasions for Competitive occasions to win Sacred occasions to celebrate
making decisions involvement, sharing points and transform the culture
feelings
Motivation Economic incentives Growth and self- Coercion, manipulation, and Symbols and celebrations
actualisation seduction

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Reframing Leadership

Structural Human Political Symbolic

Resources
Effective Leader Analyst, Catalyst, Advocate, Prophet, poet
architect servant negotiator
Effective Analysis, design Support, Advocacy, coalition Inspiration, framing
Leadership empowerment building experience
Process
Ineffective Petty tyrant Weakling, Con artist, thug Fanatic, fool
Leader pushover
Ineffective Management by Abdication Manipulation, fraud Mirage, smoke &
Leadership detail and fiat mirrors
Process

Reframing Change

Structural Human Resource Political Symbolic

Barriers to Change Loss of clarity and Anxiety, Disempowerment, Loss of meaning
stability, uncertainty, conflict between and purpose,
confusion, chaos feelings of winners and losers clinging to the past
incompetence,
neediness
Essential Communicating, Training to Creating arenas Creating transition
Strategies realigning and develop new skills, where issues can rituals – mourning
renegotiating participation and be renegotiated the past,
formal patterns involvement, and new coalitions celebrating the
and policies psychological formed future
support

Four-Frame Model
• How do you see the four
frames in your
organisation/institution?
• What is the problem, and
what is the situation in
which it is embedded?
• Which frames are in play?
• Which frame(s) is most
likely to lead to the desired
change?
• How can the concepts,
metaphors, and values of
that frame be used to
reframe the situation to
resolve the problem?

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The Power of Reframing

 Smart people do dumb things when they
misread things, or use the wrong frame
 We need to use multiple lenses if we are to
understand complex problems
 Organizational life is complicated,
ambiguous, and unpredictable
 Organizations need leadership AND
management
 Organizational theory has implications for
practice

Reference
BOLMAN, Lee G. and DEAL, Terrence E. (2008).
Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. San Francisco, Calif, Jossey-Bass.

Some Further Reading:

• Hunt, J. (2003) Chapter 1: The Anatomy of

Organisational Change in the Twenty-first
Century. In Wiesner, R. & Millett, B. (Eds.),
Human Resource Management: Challenges and
Future Directions, John Wiley, Queensland.

• Semler, R. (1989) ‘Managing Without

Managers’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 67, Iss.
5 (September-October): 76-84.

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