This new edition of Reframing Organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership, reintroduces the authors’ approach to ‘big picture’ management. This textbook encourages leaders to re-examine the organisational operations through the use of various frames or windows, namely structural, human resource, political and symbolic.
Bolman and Deal argue that these different windows can bring a clearer focus to organisational life, and allow managers to make sounder judgments, gather information and accomplish goals.
The structural frame examines the social context of work, while the human resource frame views an organisation like a large extended family.
The political frame recognises that the workplace can be competitive and rather unattractive at times, while the symbolic frame aims to build on cultural and social anthropology by viewing organisations as theatres or tribes.
By stepping back and looking at a bigger organisational picture, Reframing Organizations proposes that leaders can shift their perspective and better understand problems and potential solutions by thinking flexibly beyond the stereotypes.