Bolman Video

Lee Bolman Video Presentation

An Overview Of

"Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership"

Highlights from the Bolman and Deal 1997 text

This video presentation, by Dr. Bolman, was filmed in Dr. Ann Cobb's class here in the KU School of Nursing. Dr. Bolman holds the Marion Bloch Missouri Chair in Leadership at the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at UMKC, University of Missouri, Kansas City. Dr. Bolman offers an excellent overview of the text in this 73 minute video. Notice that you can fast forward and reverse the tape in case you want to divide your viewing session into shorter segments.

The four frames discussed in the video and text will be used as metaphor names of four WebBoard groups (see page 15 in the text):

Group 1: The Factory (Structural) Group - focus on social architecture

Group 2: The Family (Human Resource) Group - focus on empowerment

Group 3: The Jungle (Political) Group - focus on advocacy

Group 4: The Carnival (Symbolic) Group - focus on inspiration

You'll learn more about which group you are in later by E-mail. In the meantime, please complete the following questionnaire before you view the video and submit it to me by pressing the submit button after you've answered all of the questions.

Name: Email:

1. Compare your own assumptions about organizations with assumptions from the various frames. Indicate "agree" or "disagree" for each response.

Set A

Agree	Disagree	Assumptions from Frames
		1. Organizations exist primarily to accomplish established goals.
		2. For any organization, a structural form can be designed and implemented to fit its particular set of circumstances.
		3. Organizations work most effectively when environmental turbulence and personal preferences are constrained by norms of rationality (people focus on getting the job done rather than whatever pleases them).
		4. Specialization permits higher levels of individual expertise and performance.
		5. Coordination and control are essential to effectiveness.
		6. Organization problems typically originate from inappropriate structures or inadequate systems and can be resolved through restructuring or developing new systems.

Set B

Agree	Disagree	Assumptions from Frames
		1. Organizations exist to preserve human needs (rather than the reverse).
		2. Organizations and people need each other (organizatins need ideas, energy, and talent; people need careers, salaries, and work opportunities).
		3. When the fit between the individual and the organization is poor, one or both will suffer: individuals will be exploited, or will see to exploit the organizations or both.
		4. A good fit between individual and organization benefits both: humans find meaningful and satisfying work, and organizations get the human talent and energy that they need.

Set C

Agree	Disagree	Assumptions from Frames
		1. Organizations are coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups.
		2. There are enduring differences among individuals and groups in their values, preferences, beliefs, information, and perceptions of reality.
		3. Most of the important decisions in organizations involve the allocation of scarce resources: they are decisions about who gets what.
		4. Because of scarce resources and enduring differences, conflict is central to organizational dynamics, and power is the most important resource.
		5. Organizational goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among members of different coalitions.

Set D

Agree	Disagree	Assumptions from Frames
		1. What is most important about any event is not what happened, but what it means.
		2. Events and meanings are loosely coupled: the same events can have very different meanings for different people because of differences in the schema that they use to interpret their experience.
		3. Many of the most significant events and processes in organizations are ambiguous or uncertain-it is often difficult or impossible to know what happenend, why it happend, or what will happen next.
		4. The greater the ambiguity and uncertainty, the harder it is to use rational approaches to analysis, problem solving, and decision making.
		5. Faced with uncertainty and ambiguity, human beings create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, and provide direction.
		6. Many organization events and processes are important more for what they express than for what they produce: they are secular myths, rituals, ceremonies, and sagas that help people find meaning and order in their experience.

Bolman & Deal (1997)

2. After reviewing your answers, identify if you fit more closely with one or two specific frames versus others.

	Set A
	Set B
	Set C
	Set D

Now, on with the show!

Below you have two options for viewing the video. If you have any difficulty, please notify the Help Desk at (913) 588-7995 or through WebAccess at helpdesk@kumc.edu.

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