7/26/21

Why is she speaking to us?

• Maybe…

• President, AIIAS Graduate

School and Seminary, Silang
• Certificate: Institute for
Educational Management,
Harvard University
• Milton Murray Fellow in
Philanthropy,
Higher Education Leadership
Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller track
Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies

Why is she speaking to us?

• Maybe…

• Born and grew up in Asia

(18 years)
• Collected perspectives
from both the U.S. and
Asia
• Loves pancit, lumpia and
buko pandan
Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller

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Why is she speaking to us?

• Maybe…

• Has hired people

• Has done evaluations of
employees
• Knows how to have difficult
conversations with employees
• Has fired people
• One more super-secret
HR-related quality to be
Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller revealed later

My core beliefs
related to HR

1. We must never lose sight of the whole person

underneath the shadow of the system.
2. The elements of organizational structure, process
and the worth of the individual employee will
always exist in some level of tension.
3. People inherently want to be a fit for their job, and
they want to be able to do their job well.

My core beliefs
related to HR

4. People whose basic needs (shelter, food, safety) are

not cared for cannot work well.
5. People who feel unsafe, uncared-for, unheard or un-
empowered to bring about change for the better,
will undermine the objectives and healthy culture
of the organization.
6. An organization is only as strong as what we are
willing to tolerate, unaddressed, in the weakest
employee.

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Reframing Organizations
Bohlman & Deal
Case Study #1
Some Organizational Questions
How do you know if
you are seeing the
real picture of your
organization?
Why do some
leaders or
managers seem so
unaware of certain
things they should
see or know?
7/26/21
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Why do people see
things so differently,
leading to discomfort
and disagreement?
What are the barriers
to the organization
moving forward? To
employees being
motivated and
satisfied in their work?
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Some truths about

organizations

Complex Surprising

Deceptive Ambiguous

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Common Mistakes in
Organizational Diagnosis

Blame Blame
people bureaucracy

Thirst for
power
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Factories Families

Jungles Temples

The Four-Frame Model 12

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Structural Human
Frame Resource
(factories) Frame
(families)

Political Symbolic
Frame Frame
(jungles) (temples)

The Four-Frame Model 13

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Critic: “That doesn’t look anything like a sunset”

Paul Cezanne: “Then you don’t see sunsets the way I do.”
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Human
Structural
Resource
Frame
Frame

“A frame is a
set of ideas or Political Symbolic

assumptions Frame Frame

you carry in
your head” The Four-Frame Model

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The Structural Frame: Factories:

“Structural

Assumptions Frame”

• Goals and objectives drive everything

• Everyone has their job and place
• Coordination and control keep everyone together
• Policies override personal wishes or external
pressures
• Structures must fit an organization’s circumstances
• Problems and performance gaps can be corrected
through analysis and restructuring

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The Structural Frame

Factories:
“Structural
Frame”

• Emphasizes goals, roles, formal

relationships
• Organizational charts
• Responsibilities assigned to participants (“divisional
labor”)
• Rules, policies, procedures, hierarchies used to
organize activities into a unified strategy
• What creates problems: when structure is poorly
aligned with current circumstances

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An example

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The Human Resource Frame

Families:
“Human
Resource
Frame”

• Emphasizes the organization’s human side

• Organization as extended family/tribe,
made up of individuals with needs, feelings, prejudices,
skills and limitations
• People have a great capacity to learn
• People have a great capacity to defend old attitudes and
beliefs.
• Key challenge: to tailor organizations to individuals
• What creates problems: fitting the person to the job,
and when employee doesn’t feel good about their work

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The Human Resource Frame: Families:

“Human
Assumptions Resource
Frame”

• Organizations exist to serve human needs

• People and organizations need each other.
• Organizations need ideas, energy, talent
• People need careers, salaries, opportunities
• When the fit between a person and the system are
poor, both suffer.
• A good fit benefits both.

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An example

PowerPlugs Templates for PowerPoint Preview 21

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The Political Frame:

Assumptions Jungles:
“Political
Frame”
• Organizations are coalitions of diverse
people and interest groups.
• There are enduring differences among coalition members in
values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of
reality.
• Most important decisions involve allocating scarce resources.
• Scarce resources and enduring differences make conflict
central in organizational dynamics and highlight power as the
most important asset.
• Goals and decisions arise from bargaining and negotiation

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The Political Frame

Jungles:
“Political
• Local interests compete for power and Frame”

scarce resources
• Conflict is rampant due to differences in needs,
perspectives, lifestyles
• Bargaining, negotiation, coercion and compromise are a
normal part of everyday life, and bring solutions
• Coalitions form around special interests, change as
issues come and go
• What creates problems: power is concentrated in the
wrong places, or is so broadly dispersed that nothing
gets done

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An example

Image source: https://pmtips.net/article/the-art-of-negotiation-in-project-management

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The Symbolic Frame

Assumptions
Temples:
“Symbolic
Frame”

• What is most important is not what

happens, but what it means.
• When there is widespread uncertainty and ambiguity,
people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase
predictability, find direction, and anchor hope and faith.
• Meaning is found in cultural stories, heroes, rituals,
ceremonies, and stories that help people find purpose.
• Culture in an organization is the glue that unites people
around shared values and beliefs.

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The Symbolic Frame

Temples:
“Symbolic
Frame”
• Organizations are cultures that make
more progress through rituals, ceremonies, stories,
heroes, and myths, than by rules, policies and
managerial authority.
• Organizations are like theater: actors play their roles and
audiences form impressions from what is seen onstage.
• Certain things, spaces, times and rituals are sacred
• What creates problems: heroes mess up their parts,
symbols lose their meaning, ceremonies and rituals lose
their importance to the people.

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Examples

Individual rights &

Freedom for Filipinos

Image: Vector graphics

Image source: redbubble.com

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Structural Human
Frame Resource g
n d in
c t u re (factories) Frame e rsta
A rc h
ite Und h s,
(families) s t r e n gt tio n s,
e
o f th izatio n , th e s, e m o
of
O rga
n fo ib le n d fe a rs
and sa
ru s
le need
e o p le
and th e p
ro le s s
c ie
p o li

Political Symbolic
Frame Frame es of d
io n Va lu an
p etit (jungles) (temples) n in g
Com m e a ritu a l
c a rc e fa ith
,
e a rt
fo r s rce s, th e h
u and
re s o fo r
g le s e
o f th izatio n
st r u g a n d n
er
p o w ta g e o rga
n
a d va

The Four-Frame Model 28

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“Successful
people reframe
until they
understand the
situation at The Four-Frame Model
hand.”
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Case Study #1

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“It can be enormously

liberating to realize
there is always more
than one way to
respond to any
problem or dilemma.”
The Four-Frame Model
--Bohlman & Deal

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“The leader as artist

relies on images as
well as memos,
poetry as well as
policy, reflection as
well as command,
and reframing as well The Four-Frame Model
as refitting.”
--Bohlman & Deal 32

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The research shows

that “the ability to
use multiple frames is
associated with
greater effectiveness
for managers and
leaders.” The Four-Frame Model
--Bohlman & Deal

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Case Study #2

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How can you reframe

your personal and
organizational Structural
Human
Resource
situation in the Frame
Frame

“new normal”
to be an “artist”
in finding solutions Political Symbolic
you’ve not seen Frame Frame

before?

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For more in-depth understanding:

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The Four-Frame Model

Bohlman and Deal, in “Reframing Organizations”
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