Reframing Organizations, 7th Edition

Chapter 14Organization as Theater

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” So wrote Shakespeare some four hundred years ago, capturing an enduring truth we sometimes neglect in our love affair with facts and logic. Much of human behavior aims at getting things accomplished. The assumption of linear causality often works when outcomes are tangible and a link between means and ends is clear. A factory, we often surmise, rises or falls on what it produces. But the logic falters when outcomes are less tangible and the connection between actions and outcomes is more elusive.

 

Think about a church or temple. Shall we rely on weekly offerings, income statements, and congregation size to gauge success? How do we capture ...