Organizational reframing: strategies and implementation approaches

Organizational Reframing Program

Four Frames of Organizational Reframing

Structural:-

Human Resource: -

Political:-

Symbolic:-

Structural Contingency Theory

Structural Contingency Theory in Human Resource Management:-

Social Network Analysis

Impact of reframing plan and ethical issue's

Impact on the department being reframed:-

Impact of reframing on other departments:-

Ethical Aspects:-

The study shows an organizational plan of a department. The aim of the study is to emphasize on how the theory of organizational life is applicable with the help of utilization of the action research process.

Reframing means to redirect or change the way of thinking and look at things with a complete different mindset. In simple terms reframing is change of plans or basic details of an idea. Looking at events from a complete different mindset helps you to avoid individual biases. It also emphasizes the importance of adjustments and flexibility in the organization. The process of reframing suggests finding out the basic details that needs to be changed. The process increases the probability of solving problems, while enabling people to be flexible in their own thinking. The process involves ongoing individual and organizational learning. Reframing provides the other way to solve the problem, more often people are stuck with the traditional way of solving the problem and doesn't think out of the box, reframing helps them do that.

Reframing organization is considered to be critical in the success of an individual and organization. Organization reframing solves the problem of dealing with the orthodox way of thinking and it lets the organization move away from the traditional age old methods of performing work. It offers a strategy and a game plan that manages the increasing diversity in the organizations. In order to improve an organization you need to understand it completely which will help you find loopholes in the organization. These loopholes should be filled by being flexible and reframing the organization.

The basic problem that occurs is the world keeps changing and the organization has to adjust itself according to these changes. Internal or external changes create a problem for the organization or sometimes even an opportunity, the organization needs to tackle the problem or grab the opportunity by adjusting itself to the upcoming changes. This adjustment is been done by reframing the organization. One of the most common external change examples would be of technological change and internal change example would be when the organization grows and needs a structural change.

The department selected to be reframed in human resource department and the statement of problem is to change the orthodox way of managing employee which can result in low morale and low productivity. To be flexible and adapt to the changing situation from time to time you need fresh mind and new ways to manage people so that the morale should be high and the end result should be more efficient labor force. Human resource department is the most important department as it decides who should work for the organization and what makes the employee happy is it salary and compensation or mere recognition, for this understanding the human resource department must be fully equipped and skilled enough to recognize these small details.

Four Frames of Organizational Reframing

The theory of organizational reframing helps the management to assess its operations thoroughly. To analyze its operation there are four commonly accepted frames of business that are structural, human resources, political and symbolic. These various frames help identify the ineffectiveness or any gaps that has to be filled and are ignored up till now.

To reframe an organization you first need to diagnose the real problem and the management must have the diagnosed picture. To diagnose the real problem the manager need to see and understand each and every perspective. What is happening on the human resource part? What is happening politically? What is going on at the symbolic front? And what is happening structurally? All these questions need to be an answered and discussed in detail so that the real problem is been defined not the symptoms of it. Many managers get caught up in the mistake of defining a symptom of the problem and solving it rather than finding out the root cause problem. This problem occurs in the result of avoiding detailed research process which the managers do in order to save time and energy but later it cost them.

Structural

In this frame the individual recognition of employees is avoided and they are separated into different business groups. Individual employees are made part of separate departments such as sales or marketing team. Goals are assigned to the department and individual contribute in teams to achieve the larger goal, instead of having individual objectives they have team and department objective which they tend to achieve and contribute to the success of the organization. The goals of the department must be in accordance with the larger business goal and the department outperform only when its goal exceeds individual goals. All the operational problems that occur can be solved through restructuring.

Human Resource

In this the social view of the business is been taken into account. Employees are considered as a family with each member having its own weakness, strengths and needs. These needs weakness and strength must be identified and the strategy must be mold according to it. Employees are always more productive whenever they have a satisfied feeling of accomplishing their task and their morale is up.

Political

All decisions in this frame are the result of negotiations. In this the employees have separate interest and desires and they are competing for the limited power and resources. Organization itself is a collection of individuals or groups that have separate interest. Power is considered to be the most valuable but limited so the political frame makes the work place a jungle in which resources are limited and everybody has to compete.

Symbolic

This frame looks at the organization as a tribe in which most of the decision and action come from the traditions. Myths and other ceremonies drive the employee's culture in this frame of business. It is completely opposite to an organization that is driven by rules and policies.

Structural Contingency Theory

Structural contingency theory when implemented enables the organization to adjust to the environment. The theory suggests that the company must always have a plan which can be called plan B. The plan B. should be ready and implemented whenever the organization requires a change of setup. The structural contingency theory makes sure that the structure of the organization is adaptable and it also makes sure that the organization moves in direction with the corporate objective. Structural contingency theory states that the organization as an individual adapts to their environment, this adaptation is a necessary requirement for efficiency that is, to be efficient the organization needs to keep itself flexible and able to adapt and innovate according to their environment. This necessity requirement of adapting to the environment then results in a strategy which is in accordance to the current environment, this means that the strategy that is to be implemented is now in accordance with the environment.

The structural contingency theory identifies a contingency factor and then it dictates that which organization structure must be followed in order to be efficient at every level of contingency factor. The best real life example of this would be of product diversification that if the level of contingency of product diversification increases so on the other side to remain efficient decentralization process should also increase and a multi-divisional setup of the organization would be require. If the product diversification decreases and there is low amount of product diversification so then to be efficient and produce high results the decentralization in the organization should also decrease. The implementation is simple that low diversification of product can help the organization achieve low cost by simple producing more and achieving economies of scale, where as in high product diversification complexities arrive as each market has to been seen differently so more decentralize organization suits more in this setup because a rapid response is required in high product diversification.

The structural contingency also holds that the organization adapts only to avoid being in misfit and the organization has to adapt according to the situation if it wants to remain efficient and give high level performance. The change brought in is mostly productive only if it is based on extensive research not on mere patterns, the organization must first identify what structure changes are needed. The structural change is only done with an objective to perform better than the current situation. The contingency factor changes from time to time and it puts an organization in different situations from fit to misfits. The structural change is the secondary change that follows the changes in contingency factor and the structural change has to follow. When there are any changes in contingency factors such as technological change, market change or increase/decrease in diversification so it creates disequilibrium and this is sorted out by structural change which has to follow in order to restore equilibrium. It is like a cycle that an organization is in fit then the contingency factor changes and the organization goes into misfit this should be followed by the adaptation process so that the organization goes into fit again.

Structural Contingency Theory in Human Resource Management

The structural contingency theory deals with every individual in the organization the whole combine workforce and that's what human resource is concerned with the whole workforce of the organization. The human resource department is responsible for keeping the morale of each and every individual high so their performance graphs should also move upwards. This department is responsible for sorting out the disputes between other departments and keeping a healthy environment in the organization, it also has a job to make sure that productivity chart is moving on the right track and the organization and its people individually are working efficiently and contributing to the greater good. Human resource department always has an eye on the relationship between other departments. The basic job of the human resource department is to hire people and they need to make sure that they hire the right people. Right people for the right job is a necessity now days as the competition is increasing in every aspect of life and the organization and its individual needs to be on their toes with their best performance in order to succeed. Solving conflicts, addressing low productivity, dealing complaints and putting right people for the right job are the duties performed by the human resource management. Performing these duties involves implementing a structural contingency theory. The reframing of this department should be done; the area of concern is an orthodox management style that must be changed and young people with latest human resource management tactics. These young people comes with an ambition and they have a desire to succeed in that case they put their 100% to maintain organization discipline. The human resource management department is the one that has been most ignored and the amount of investment to improve this department is near to nothing. This department should be given the most importance as this department is the door of the organization it decides who deserves a place inside or who deserves to stay out and good people will only be selected if the department has an eye for selecting good productive potential employees. Ignoring this department can result in selection of inefficient people who can waste both time and energy; it can also result in different conflicts in the organization and ruin the environment of the organization if the department is not skilled enough to keep a healthy environment.

Social Network Analysis

Social network analysis (SNA) measures and map the relationship among different entities let it be relation among people, computer, organization and any other entity. The social network analysis does the mathematical analysis of relation between entities; the analysis is mostly based on assumptions and research. Social network analysis creates a whole network theory which consists of nodes and ties. The nodes represent the actor or performer in the given network whereas the ties represent the relationship among nodes that are the individuals in the network. The network analysis end result depicts a social network diagram where different nodes are connected through each other through ties and a whole relationship picture is been provided.

Social network analysis has the task of disclosing the pattern of people's interaction. Social network analysis is largely based on an intuitive notion that disclosed current patterns are an important part of the live of an individual who depicts the pattern. An individual life style is mostly determined by how he is tied in these patterns of relations and where he stands in the analysis picture consisting of nodes and ties. Organization and society's success or failure is also dependent on these patterns of relationship, the internal patterns are real indicators that an organization will be successful or not.

Two important points that must be noted in social network analysis is that it is organized and depicted in mathematical term and the second point is that an analysis in an ordered form of empirical data. High tech computers were introduced in 1970s and before that much work wasn't be done on the social network analysis but it was after the introduction of high tech computers that the social network study become famous and after that its growth has been immense. The social network analysis is been famous for organizational internal relations and organizational behavior.

Implementation of social network analysis is now common in many different organizations. Organizations now can be seen as a social group with different patterns of relations and interaction over a period of time. The social network analysis provide a theoretical framework to an organization, the framework leads the data collection and data analysis part of the social network analysis. The network analysis views the organization as an object system consisting of different people and group that are bounded by relations and different level of interaction. There can be single relation as well as multi-relation, the social network analysis deals with the detail structure and pattern of the relation and interaction that has been developed. The root cause and consequences of the pattern of relationship are also been identified by the network analysis.

Impact of reframing plan and ethical issue's

Reframing plan means that a new strategy is to be implemented in the department that needs to be reframed in an organization. The reframing plan has an impact not only on the department which is being reframed but it also affects other departments as well, apart from the normal impact that takes place there are a lot of ethical issues also which stems up and need to be taken into regard.

Impact on the department being reframed

The reframing process has a huge impact and changes the complete picture of the department being reframed. As the reframing plan needs a new strategy and to implement a new strategy certain steps need to be taken.

The first step involves the communication of the strategy and that strategy communication must be two way so that the feedback of the employees must also be taken. The communication of the strategy makes employees feel the part of the family in the organization as they get to know beforehand what changes are going to happen. This also benefit in a sense that employee keep themselves ready to be flexible and adjust in the new strategy.

The second step is of training because the department is having new strategy, new objectives, new rules and policies the whole picture of the department is going to be change so the employees are needed to be trained accordingly.

The third step is to hire new people with new set of skills because not all people in the organization is ready to adjust or flexible enough to adjust themselves in new situation so the department needs new and fresh faces who can perform the job and help the department achieve their new objective. The final and the forth step of implementing a new strategy is firing old people who are not flexible and cannot adjust themselves into the new strategy. The people reluctant to change face this situation.

Impact of reframing on other departments

The reframing the human resource department can have a positive impact on other department, as the human resource department is the one who decides the salary and compensation or other morale boosting tools so employees of every other department increase their performance because the new human resource department will take a fresh start and employees have a chance to build a new reputation. The reframing of human resource department means new pattern of relation between the departments will be decided and keeping in mind previous mistake the new pattern can bring in productivity and efficiency in the organization. The impact on other department by reframing human resource department can be a performance booster impact.