And Leadership - Reframing Organizations

This book is an excellent source for research. It is well written and easy to understand. I purchased the book from the store as a text for my Masters program. It was about $12 less than other sites. The book doesn't disappoint. Highly recommended for fans of leadership and organizational change. One of the best leadership books I have ever read.

A beginning MBA type of text. It covers internal politics, organizational dynamics, leadership, and a brief touch on ethics. This is a good text for those just beginning their study of organizations and management.

The book has thick of highlights, translation notes, and opinion notes on chapters I need. Too much distracted to read. Disfunctional item!! The quality is under expectation for the price! It values fifteen dollars maximum!!! After returned, I just got a lot better quality for $7.99.

The book has thick of highlights, translation notes, and opinion notes on chapters I need. Too much distracted to read. Disfunctional item!! The quality is under expectation for the price! It values fifteen dollars maximum!!! After returned, I just got a lot better quality for $7.99.

The 4-frames of business are so phenomenally clear in this book. It has been fine-tuned over the last 30-years with relevant stories of success and failure to help the reader look at an organization from different angles to find the most effective strategy for solving a problem or advancing. If you are looking to move beyond the status-quot, this is not a silly book of quick-fixes but a quality textbook for students and practitioners alike. My professor recommended this reading along with Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay.

Often when a book focuses on two distinct audiences (in this case, managers and students - future leaders as the authors say) it fails to satisfy either. Not the case with this classic, as it does a good job of providing a large body of theory and it makes the reading interesting and useful for a practitioner. The four organizational viewing frames - Structural, Human Resources, Political, & Symbolic - help the process of making a textbook readable, but the straightforward writing style, story examples, and real-life illustrations keep it alive, and maybe even keep the student reader awake.

Constantly reminding the reader of the need to `reframe' - look at the situation from a different window frame or pane - may be a useful way to understand a particular problem, but (and there is one but, besides the +430 pages of reading) because the book covers everything from structure to ethics you may not find it as useful to solve the particular problem you identify. The book is recommended for anyone interested in learning about organizations and how and why they function or dysfunction, as the case may be. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection

The fact that Reframing Organizations is often used as a university textbook should be a subtle warning that this is not a quick-read or how-to book. However, it is THE overview of the broad practice of organizational theory. Bolman and Deal utilize models based on four different views of the organization to show how to analyse and comprehend the dynamics of organizational structure and function. As a software engineer I found this "multi-model view to understanding" similar to how we model software systems from a variety of perspectives.

While comprehensive, the book is yet readable and accessible to the layperson, and quickly gives the reader a broad understanding of organizational dynamics and structures viewed through the lenses of the four "frames." This book won't give you quick practical fixes for your organizational problems - but it will give you a broad base of understanding for thinking about the problems you face in organizational life and understanding why your organization functions (or dysfunctions!) the way it does.

Without a doubt, this book is the authoritative source for applications of psychological motivations and group behavior analyses to how an organization views and reacts to change attempts. It also analyzes different change initiative styles and presents guidelines on how to see them through the eyes of each of the different frames.

The low rating on this book is because it's more useful as a reference than an immediate how-to guide or problem-diagnosis. To apply it, read cover to cover, perform an in-depth observation of your organization and your own skills, and then come up with a plan. So, like I said, it's comprehensive, but neither reads smoothly nor is it immediately applicable for most people.

I just started management school and this is the first book I had to read. I must say that if nothing else, this book was enlightening! I really liked the way the author broke down any given corporate scenario in 4 different viewpoints.

Personally, I really liked the HR Frame, followed by Political Frame. Those two were the ones I really thought helped me at my work place. The Structural frame, I thought was kind of boring.....nothing to really look forward to. The Symbolic frame really talks about corporate culture; something half the corporate world never thinks about any more!

Wont be bad if you have to read it for your MBA!

This book makes complex concepts easy to understand. The authors share interesting anecdotes to illustrate the concepts. The drama section seems a little cynical but I can't say the cynicism is without merit considering how many organizations put on a show in lieu of meaningful change and practices.

I bought this book for a masters course in 1996. In ten years, this is the book I return to more than any other. Indeed, it is perhaps the only book out of all the books in the management coursework I return to again and again. I have bought it for friends going into their first jobs where they have to think about leadership and team-building, power and the drama of the workplace. It has value for me in that it goes beyond the content per se and invites and entrains my mind to stay flexible, because it asks the reader to see "reality" through multiple perspectives which are well-researched, critiqued and articulated in this book. Congratulations and thank you to the authors.

This book provides a comprehensive concept for systemic analysis of comprehensive problems. I find it to be particularly valuable in looking at issues in the area of Public Administration. The examples are current and quite interesting. The material is interesting and captivating. It is an excellent stimulus for new thinking.

This book is still very timely, but I also highly recommend "Growing Great Employees" by Erika Andersen as an addition to this book. Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

This is an outstanding book for people who want to figure out what is really going on in the organizations in which they work. If you cannot make sense of things at work these days, read this book. It is an excellent book on organizational reality.
This book should also be required reading for all "managers." If you are trying to "run an organization," do yourself, and the people who work for you, a favor. Read this book!
Finally, college and university professors should consider this book for their organizational behavior courses.

I rarely buy a book three times, but this one has been so valuable in recognizing why people act and react in organizations, that I am getting the newest edition on kindle so it is always available at my fingertips.

Recommended reading for those managing businesses through turbulent time, or those of us who don't instinctively understand human behaviour.

R