Organizational Frame Bending: Principles For Managing Reorientation,

Review of Article: "Organizational frame bending: Principles for managing reorientation," pp. 203-219

Case Analysis: "Marconi plc (A)," pp.184-203

Table of Contents- Article Review: "Organizational frame bending; Principles for managing reorientation"

Question: How do firms administer organizational change using frame bending and long-term organizational reorientation?

Major Themes:

Large-scale organizational change

Differentiating among various types of organizational change

The concept of frame bending

Support of Themes:

Types of change: Tuning, adaptation, reorientation, and re-creation

Principles of effective frame bending

Critical Evaluation:

The main focus of this article is large organizations dealing with managing large-scale planned change. The whole notion of planned organizational change is not new but over the years different attempts have been made to effectively deal with this problem. Planned organizational change is typically initiated by leaders of the organization and is closely related to issues dealing with the organization as a whole. Many external factors such as new technology, competition, and legal issues are some reasons for initiating planned organizational change. Organizational change has a profound effect and influence on the employees and customers of the organization.

This change process encompasses the whole organization and usually takes a number of years to produce results. It deals with the way an organization thinks about its business, feels about its employees and the way that the organization is managed. This article gives insight about large-scale organizational change and describes the basic concepts of change and how it is dealt with within the organization. It also describes the different types of organization change. Finally, the authors discuss the concept of frame bending and how it is used to generate planned organizational change.

An organization is a multipart system that with available resources and proper management produces an output. The two major parts of an organization are: strategy and organization. Strategy is the pattern of decisions that emerge over time about how resources will be deployed in response to environmental opportunities and threats. Organization is the means of turning the strategy into output. The four main components of organization are: work, people, formal structure and processes, and informal structure and processes. By organizing a strategy that links these four components together an organization can increase performance and become highly effective. Even though congruence is very important when dealing with planned organizational change, it can also be a downfall for a company because a company with high congruence could be resistant to change and reject new ideas.

When large-scale organizations want to alter themselves, they face a number of problems. The biggest dilemma is how to maintain congruence within the organization while still trying to bring upon change. Organizational leaders have to look at the political dynamics associated with the change, motivate constructive behavior in the face of anxiety created by the change, and actively mange the transition stage of the organizational change. This is harder for large-scale organizations than smaller organizations because they usually have to use multiple transitions to effectively implement complex changes within the organization. Out of the multiple transitions used, many end up not being completed because of uncertain future states. It is difficult to forecast future changes and some transitions may not fit the overall goal of the organizational change being put into effect. Organizational change takes a long time to implement and produce results; in some cases it can take anywhere from three to seven years.

There are different types of organizational change and they each affect change in a different way. When looking at the different types of change, two dimensions are considered. The fist is the scope of the change. This deals with either the subsystems of an organization or the organization as a whole. Changes that center focus on maintaining congruence are called incremental changes. One example of incremental change would be introducing reward systems to changing labor market conditions. Strategic changes are changes that involve the overall strategy of the organization. Strategic changes involve breaking the pattern of congruence and developing a whole new configuration for the organization. They include fundamental changes in the definition of the business, shifts of power, and alterations in culture. One example is when John Scully took over at Apple Computer for Steve Jobs. John Scully implemented a system wide strategic change for the organization by dealing with some of the issues discussed above. The second dimension of change deals with the external events surrounding the organization. Changes that are in response to an event are called reactive changes. Changes that are enforced in anticipation of external events are anticipatory changes.

Tuning is an incremental and anticipatory change because it is made in anticipation of future events. It seeks to increase efficiency but does not occur in response to any immediate problem. Adaptation is also an incremental change but it is a reactive change due to the fact that the organization is responding to external events, such as actions from a competitor, new technology, or changes in market needs. Reorientation is a strategic and anticipatory change. It is done by anticipating external events that may ultimately require change. These changes require fundamental redirection of the organization but also tend to emphasize the continuity of the past, such as the organizational values and beliefs. This type of change is considered frame bending because it emphasizes bringing about major change without breaking the original organizational frame. Paul O'Neil and Fred Federholf at ALCOA enforced reorientation in their organization by evolving and building onto ALCOA's past in order to better the organization and bring on change. The last type of change is re-creation. This is a reactive and strategic change that is brought upon by external events. This type of change is usually implemented when a threat exists in the organization. These changes require drastic attention and typically move away from the