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Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership
book

Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

by Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal
August 2008
Intermediate to advanced
544 pages
14h 5m
English
Jossey-Bass
Content preview from Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

Part Five. The Symbolic Frame

What images or associations come to mind when you think about each of these terms?

  • American flag

  • Nazi

  • General Motors

  • Princess Diana

  • Abu Ghraib

  • Declaration of Independence

  • Al Quaeda

  • McDonald's

  • Pearl Harbor

  • Paris

It is likely that you had emotional, even visceral, reactions to many of these familiar words. Each refers to a specific person, group, place, or event, but each has also acquired symbolic resonance. Symbols carry powerful intellectual and emotional messages; they speak to both the mind and the heart.

The symbolic frame focuses on how humans make sense of the chaotic, ambiguous world in which they live. Meaning, belief, and faith are its central concerns. Meaning is not given to us; we have to create it. There are, for ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787987992