Organizational Environment – Bolman and Deal’s Four Frame Theory

Case Review Form

ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
Summer 2021
Assignment #: Company:
Your Name:
Date:
The task here is to use Frame Theory (Bolman & Deal) to diagnose the situation, recommend actions for the individual manager, and diagnose problems in the company. You want to respond to all the bold sections below.

1. What is the scenario (what is going on?).

Analyze the situation from each of the four frames.

1. Structural Frame
2. Human Resources
3. Political Frame
4. Symbolic Frame.
2. What options are available to the individual manager in the case? Consider these from each of the four frames
1. Structural Frame
2. Human Resources
3. Political Frame
4. Symbolic Frame.

3. From the perspective of the whole organization:

What are some of the diagnostic clues that things are not optimal or signs of organizational dysfunction?
Some examples of dysfunction can be: Lack of trust; Too much or too little conflict; high turnover rate; increased complaints.

What is the balance among the four frames? This can be seen as the Problem. If one or two frames are being paid a lot of attention to and the others neglected, that can be problematic.
Note: Simply emphasizing one frame over another by a particular company is not necessarily bad. However, if the imbalance results in some sort of trouble signs (Bad PR, Loss of $$; Loss of Good Will; Key employees leaving, lower stock value, etc.) then that is a different matter. The company exhibiting serious trouble signs would be in the Unhealthy category.

5. Your recommendations:

6. What course of action should the key person in the case follow, given the present situation?
7. Imagine yourself a management consultant giving advice to the firm as a whole: what should they have done? What should they do now?

Please pay equal attention to both the above questions. In the first part, the individual has to deal with the current situation – what should he/she do?
In the second, you can address questions related to what should change in the organization as a whole.

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