Reframing Organizations, Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal argue that many organizations today fail due to a lack of imagination. Most managers are ineffective because they are locked in a "psychic prison." Rather than analyzing new organizational challenges through innovative techniques, many managers simply fall back on the same old strategies. Bolman and Deal believe that most managers are limited by a worldview that examines an organization's problems through a single lens. As a result, they fail to employ "different and more powerful tools" to meet these new challenges. Most organizations are thus "overmanaged but underled." Because of the lack of leadership, many organizations are losing "any sense of spirit or purpose."

To meet these new challenges and to ensure that organizations continue to retain their vision, Bolman and Deal suggest "reframing" organizational problems. Rather than the same single lens, they propose several frames that managers and leaders could use, to better analyze organizational problems and to come up with multiple approaches and original solutions.

The first part of the book thus deals with frames, which the authors define as "windows on the world and lenses which bring the world into focus." Because organizations are complex and difficult to understand, framing provides managers with a way to evaluate an organization's needs. Framing also helps managers analyze their organization's structure and make decisions regarding the best course of action. Bolman and Deal then introduce the four frames to examine organizational behavior - structural, human resource, political and symbolic.

To illustrate their ideas, Bolman and Deal use an interesting case of the Korean Airlines plane that was shot down after...

These examples are initially surprising, especially for the reader expecting a book on business management. However, Bolman and Deal successfully integrate these examples into the thesis of their book - that new forms of "framing" are needed to meet the new challenges of today's increasingly complex organizations.
Bolman and Deal devote Part Two of their book to the structural frame. The authors examine the various perspectives that allow managers to maintain an efficient office hierarchy and division of labor. The three chapters in this section discuss how managers can best establish goals, delegate tasks through an efficient division of labor and anticipate the problems that can arise when an organization's structure fails to meet its needs.

Though their classification of organizational design (differentiation vs. integration, loose vs. tight controls) is nothing new, Bolman and Deal present a powerful analysis of the advantages of the move to more flexible, team-based organizations. The authors even allude to the role of women managers in this change when they write about how "male-driven images" are being supplanted by the more integrated hierarchies often favored by female executives.

The third part deals with the human resources frame, which concerns the interaction between the organization and its individual employees. Rather than forcing people to tailor their lives to the organization, Bolman and Deal look at how new management strategies strive to accommodate their employees' needs.

This human resources frame, in particular,…