Bolman and deal reframing organizations

Kim Woods Only

Bolman and Deal (2013) describes cluelessness as “becoming so cocooned in his/her own world view that they couldn’t see other option”. When a manager has no clue what is going on in the work place even though they think they are in the know, and they feel like they have the best options for solving issues. They continue to do things their own way even when they continue to fail. Cluelessness can be found all around us. One of the most devastating examples is Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, the levees failed in New Orleans in which the city was left under water and tens of thousands of people were left in horrifically desperate circumstances (Bolman & Deal , 2013). Those in charge were slow to respond; television reporters had more information than top officials and seemed to be blind to the situation going on around them. Cluelessness can be avoided by learning numerous viewpoints, also known as frames. These viewpoints or frames have multiple functions. Bolman and Deal (2013) outline four frames that can be used to combat cluelessness: structural approach frame; human resource frame; political view frame; and the symbolic frame. The structural approach concentrates on architecture of organizations, to include rules, roles, policies and goals. The human resource frame is used to understand people, their strengths, weaknesses, desires, fears and motivations. The political frame focuses on organizational resources, interest and juggles priorities for power and advantages over others. Finally, the symbolic frame is based on meaning and faith. Alone each of these frames provides a powerful tool to get information, together they make it possible to look at the same information from more than one point of view, alleviating confusion and allowing balance and clarity, new options to emerge and development of strategies that make positive change.

Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal , T. E. (2013). Reframing organization: Artistry, choice and leadership (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-bass.

Post #2

Bolman and Deal (2013) states that cluelessness is "becoming so cocooned in one's own world view that he/she couldn't see other options". When people assume positions of management in organizations and they think they know all that is going on when in actuality they do not know what it's going on, this prevent them from seeing better choices. Although their actions are not effective they continue to execute those actions because that is what they know. They have the believe that as long as they continue to try harder they will succeed. Cluelessness extends beyond just organizations, it exist in politics even in the military. There has been a few instances of cluelessness amongst military leaders in recent times, these leaders think and believe that all is well in their units and continue to exhibit certain tendencies that affect the morale of their troops. They place their personnel interest beyond everybody else's and because they were getting results in the short term they assume that all was rosy in the unit but the long term effects turned out to be very devastating. If these leaders were in touch with subordinate leaders, they would have realized that the situation is not all rosy as they believed and would have made better choices.

Cluelessness is a fact of life, even for very smart people. Sometimes the information they need is fuzzy or hard to get. Other times they get bad information from advisors or ignore or misinterpret the information they receive (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Reframing is a concept to minimize cluelessness and size things up. This concept requires one to think about situations in more than one way, by so doing one develops alternative strategies and diagnosis. Bolman and Deal (2013) introduces four distinct frames; structural, human resources, political, and symbolic. Each of these frames is logical and powerful in its own right, when they are put together, they help us decipher the full array of significant clues, seeing a bigger picture than we normally will.

Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal , T. E. (2013). Reframing organization: Artistry, choice and leadership (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-bass.

Post #3

According to Bolman and Deal (2013), even smart managers are often clueless. What is being clueless, why does it occur, and what can be done to minimize or prevent cluelessness? Support your response with specific examples.

Cluelessness is not knowing what is going on, but you think you do, and you don’t see better choices because you are so cocooned in your own views, this is according to Bolman and Deal. It occurs because we can be too quick to respond to situations without having all the information to make an informed decision or the information that we have is false and incorrect. Or simply because the decisions we made in the past were successful and therefore they must work again. As managers and leaders it is imperative that you see the big picture you have to see the problem as it applies to the organization not just the situation. For example, what worked for one problem might not work for another problem. When we succeed at something it is rewarding and it’s that feeling that we want to duplicate sometimes so much that we ignore the rest of the information available to us thus leading us astray when making decisions even when we have the best of intentions.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations artistry, choice and leadership. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass