Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS 1

Shakira Moreta

Organizational Analysis Paper

Salem State University

ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS 2

Organizations such as higher education institutions use organizational frames as

strategies to improve their organization. Frames serve as a mental model (Bolman & Deal,

2013). Frames provide a set of ideas and assumptions for those within the organizations to

understand a specific area in the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). The purpose of mental

maps is to make it easier to apply what is learned or known to a specific situation in order to

improve the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Frames are often referred to as windows,

maps, tools, lenses and perspectives (Bolman & Deal, 2013). When referred to as a window,

frames are how the organization is viewed, whereas when referred to as a tool, frames are used to

decide which direction the organization should go in (Bolman & Deal, 2013). One must

understand what is being applied to the situation as well as understand how to apply it (Bolman

& Deal, 2013). There are four organizational frames professionals typically use as strategies in

order to improve their organization. The four organizational frames are the structural frame,

human resource frame, political frame and symbolic frame. Each frame provides ideas and

assumptions that can be applied to help an organization understand how to address the dilemma

(Bolman & Deal, 2013). The structural frame focuses on the roles, goals, policies, technology

and environment of the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). The human resource frame focuses

on the needs of people, their skills and relationships within the organization (Bolman & Deal,

2013). The political frame focuses on power, conflict, competition and politics (Bolman & Deal,

2013). The symbolic frame focuses on culture, meaning, metaphor, rituals and ceremonies,

stories and heroes (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Each frame allows you to see the organization from

different lenses (Bolman & Deal, 2013).

There are a few misconceptions about trying to explain organizational dilemmas. Having

someone to blame is the most common. Blaming people makes it easier for an organization to
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punish those who are responsible (Bolman & Deal, 2013). However, blaming people rather than

trying to understand the root of the problem only makes it more likely for the problem to reoccur

(Bolman & Deal, 2013). When finding an individual to blame becomes difficult, the second most

common misconception is to blame bureaucracy (Bolman & Deal, 2013). In order for

organizations to achieve their goals or mission, their goals and policies must be clear (Bolman &

Deal, 2013). Rather than blaming an individual or the organization, it is important for the

organization to understand the connection between what caused the problem and the problem

itself (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Understanding why certain issues occur could help managers,

directors and others within the organization, create a strategic plan to address the root of the

problem (Bolman & Deal, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to analyze an organizational

dilemma at Premier University using the structural and human resource. Through the same

lenses, a possible resolution for the organizational dilemma at Premier University will be

discussed.

Premier University (PU) is a flagship university located in a small village in the south.

Approximately 14,000 students are enrolled at PU, 11,000 of the students being undergraduate

students and 3,000 graduate students. More than half of the student population is made up of

students who live on campus. Premier University has 14 residence halls within three residential

areas. Each of residential areas has its own dining commons. Within the first month of the

residence halls opening for the new school year, the residence hall staff members have faced

various alcohol related incidents. Some of the students that have been transported to the hospital

have had life-threatening blood alcohol levels. The Residence Life office has kept record of

alcohol related incidents, which show that the amount of these incidents has increased over the

past three years. The school newspaper has been writing stories about the incidents related to
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drinking on campus. Some of the stories imply that because there aren’t things for students to do

on campus, drinking is the only option. Nearby urban areas are starting to hear about these

incidents and negative stories are starting to reach social media sites such as Facebook and

Twitter.

Every other week a meeting is held in order to address the issues on campus. James

Porter, the Director of Residence Life is one of the people who attend this meeting. James has

worked at PU for 15 years. He began working at PU right after receiving his Master’s degree in

College Student Personnel. Prior to his promotion to director of Residence Life, James served as

residence hall director, area coordinator and associate director of Residence Life. James is

committed to social justice and dedication to students and is highly collaborative. The Dean of

Students William Stanford also attends these meetings. Dean Stanford has worked at Premier for

28 years. He began his career at Premier as the Director of Student Activities. Although he is has

a wholehearted and friendly leadership style that made him well liked by students, faculty and

staff, Dean Stanford did not tolerate nonsense. The Director of the Student Health and Wellness

Center Paul Timmons meets bi-weekly with James and Dean Stanford. Dr. Timmons has only

worked at Premier University for three years, however he has experience as an academic leader

who uses a community health perspective. It was decided that at the next meeting the increase in

alcohol related incidents be discussed. For this upcoming meeting James, William and Paul

decided to invite Michael Adams the Alcohol-Drug Education Services coordinator. Dr. Adams

has a doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology and specialized in substance abuse. Dr.

Timmons and Dean Stanford were particularly interested in a webinar Michael participated in

regarding using fines in order to address alcohol related issues.

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A couple of days prior to the meeting, James asked Olivia Felds to attend on his behalf

because there was another meeting he had to attend. Olivia has worked as a Residence Life

Coordinator at Premier University for the past two years. After earning her Master’s degree in

Students Affairs in Higher Education and prior to working at PU, Olivia worked at a large public

institution as a complex director. Because of her leadership style and her commitment to social

issues, Olivia has earned the respect of her colleagues and students at PU. As the Residence Life

Coordinator, Olivia reports to James. James believed Olivia’s past experience working with a

community based alcohol intervention program and her expertise related to judicial sanctioning,

that she was the right person to represent him at the meeting. Olivia is well informed of the

research and practices related to alcohol intervention. In order to prepare for the meeting, Olivia

created a list of possible strategies for intervention that they could implement at Premier

University.

Olivia arrived to the meeting where Dean Stanford and Dr. Timmons were already

waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. As they waited for Michael, Dean Stanford asked

Olivia about her transition to Premier. She expressed that the past two years at Premier were

enjoyable, therefore she felt good about this year. When Michael finally arrived, they began to

discuss the increase in alcohol related issues on campus. Dr. Stanford asks Michael to explain

what he learned from the webinar about the fines. After providing a brief presentation on what

the webinar covered, he began to advocate for the use of fines in the residence halls at Premier. It

was proposed that the fines be given as immediate sanctions when residence hall staff members

encounter students who violate the alcohol policies. Resident assistants would issue tickets and

the students would have to pay the fine on the ticket.

ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS 6

Olivia questioned if issuing the fines would be an appropriate role for resident assistants.

She also mentioned that the research and practices she is familiar with show variable results

when it comes to the effectiveness of using fines for alcohol related issues. Dean Stanford

expressed that he has worked in this field for a long time and he’d like to implement this

approach regardless of what research has said. Olivia then brought up studies that discuss other

approaches that address alcohol related issues in residence halls in college. Dean Stanford

responded by telling Olivia to continue to write down any information discussed about the fines

and make sure that she reported it to James Porter. Dr. Timmons and Michael didn’t seem to hear

what Dean Stanford had told Olivia. For the remainder of the meeting Olivia felt as if Dr.

Stanford delegated her to be the note taker for the meeting and she shouldn’t bring up any of her

ideas.

After the meeting Olivia returned to her office and began to prepare a memo with the

notes she took at the meeting for James. As she’s typing the memo Olivia begins to question why

she was overlooked at the meeting. She wondered if it was because the men knew each other

well personally and professionally, or if it was because she was younger and didn’t have as much

experience as they did, or if it had to do with her being a woman. The more Olivia thought about

what happened at the meeting the more upset she got. Olivia believed her 5 years of residence

life experience had proven her credibility as a professional. Olivia emailed the summary memo

to James and then went to his office to drop off a hard copy of the summary. On the hard copy

she attached a note stating that she’d like to meet with James in order to talk to him about the

meeting. James happened to have been in his office when Olivia went to drop off the memo and

asked her about how the meeting went. She let James know that she summarized what was

discussed in the meeting on the memo and that she felt as if her contribution was not welcome.
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James told Olivia that the group just knows each other really well and that is probably why she

felt the way that she did. He then asked her to continue representing him at the meetings because

he was assigned to another project. Although Olivia preferred not to continue attending the

biweekly meetings because she believed they preferred James’ direct contribution. Because of

her fear of a student dying from alcohol poisoning, Olivia refrained from bringing up her

questions about why her ideas were dismissed. She wanted to address the increase of alcohol

related issues on campus as soon as possible instead of bringing up a personal issue. In regard to

attending the biweekly meetings, she asked James if she could have some time to think it over.

He asked if they could discuss it the following day during their weekly meeting. James also

mentioned that he wanted to talk about her ideas about how to address the increase and severity

of the alcohol related incidents on their campus. Although Olivia has many things to do for the

rest of the day, she knows that she has to figure out what she plans to tell James on the following

day in regard to representing him at the meetings.

The Structural Frame

As previously mentioned, the structural frame was designed in order to focus on the

structure of the organization. The structural frame is made up of six assumptions, which are that

the purpose of organizations is to achieve their goals and mission; organizations divide labor in

order to enhance their performance, management makes sure that individual and group efforts

come together, rationality overcomes personal agendas and unnecessary pressure, the structure of

the organization should fit the goals and environment of the organization and lastly, lack of

structure can cause problems within the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). The structural

frame sets expectations for internal players, which are executives, managers and employees, and

external constituents, which are customers, competitors and clients (Bolman & Deal, 2013).
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Looking at the structural frame through a “window,” it can be assumed that there is no room for

creativity because of the hierarchy structure. However as a tool, the structural frame allows

people from multiple departments to present different ideas in order to come up with a solution

for institutional dilemmas.

In the case at Premier University would be the Director of Residence Life James Porter,

Dean Stanford, Dr. Timmons, Dr. Adams and Olivia. The external constituents in this case

would be the students. The structural form can improve or restrict what the organization is able

to accomplish (Bolman & Deal, 2013). In an environment such as Premier University, the

structure is in hierarchy form and shaped by rules (Bolman & Deal, 2013). For example Dean

Stanford, James and Dr. Timmons report to the Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Adams

reports to Dr. Timmons and Olivia reports to James.

Creating groups in order to address certain situations and make sure that the goals are

being met is one structural strategy (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Premier University created a group

to meet biweekly to discuss issues on campus. This group was created based on knowledge and

skill. In order to address student needs, the group was made up of the dean of students and the

directors of residence life and the health and wellness center specifically to address student needs

on campus. When the university realized the increase in alcohol related incidents on campus, the

group decided to invite the coordinator from he alcohol-drug education services in order to

address this specific issue. Dr. Adams has experience specifically in alcohol intervention and has

been part of a webinar that also addresses the issue. The group realized that his knowledge and

skills could be helpful. When James the director of Residence Life realized he could not attend

the meetings he decided sending Olivia in his place would be helpful because of her knowledge

and direct experience in working with community based alcohol prevention programs. Because
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James has been assigned to address another conflict, he believes that Olivia is the best person to

continue attending the biweekly meetings for issues on campus.

Through vertical and lateral coordination organizations assign what each individual or

group will be doing in order to achieve their goal (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Those who are of

higher level status use vertical coordination uses authority, rules and policies and planning and

control systems to manage and control the work assigned to subordinates (Bolman & Deal,

2013). Authority figures are those who are considered executive, managers and supervisors

(Bolman & Deal, 2013). They’re responsible for making sure the work being done is related to

the goals and objectives by making decisions regarding conflict resolution, evaluation of

performance and distributing rewards (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Using his authority, Dean

Stanford when he told Olivia that all she should be doing is writing down the information about

the fines that was discussed at the meeting. He proceeded to tell her that she reports the

information to James who is the other authoritative figure. Dean Stanford also used his authority

when he decided that he wanted to pursue with implementing fines as immediate punishment

when students violate the schools alcohol policies, rather than listen to the ideas Olivia wanted to

present in order address the increase in this issue on campus.

Meetings, task forces, coordinating roles, matrix structures and networks are forms of

lateral coordination (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Organizations such as higher education institutions

have meetings regularly in order to address issues their institutions are facing as well as to

discuss what can be done to better their institution. Task forces are created when situations

become more complicated within the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). They require

collaboration from different departments in order to develop a new product or service (Bolman &

Deal, 2013). The campus issues group at Premier University is an example of a task force. This
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specific task force was created in order to address general issues on campus, but recently their

main focus has been the increase of alcohol related incidents on campus and how to prevent

them. The group is currently leaning towards giving students immediate fines when they violate

the university’s alcohol policies.

The Human Resource Frame

The human resource frame focuses on the relationship between an organization and the

people who are a part of the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013). It was believed that

employee’s only rights were their paycheck and they were simply made to work and do as they

were told (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Those who created the human resource frame people’s skills,

attitudes, energy and commitment were crucial factors for the success of an organization

(Bolman & Deal, 2013). There are four assumptions that make up the human resource frame.

One assumption is that the purpose of organizations is to serve the needs of the people that work

for the organization rather than the people serving the organization (Bolman & Deal, 2013).

Another assumption is that organizations need people just as much as people need organizations

(Bolman & Deal, 2013). People need organizations because they need careers, income and

opportunities and organizations need the ideas, talent and energy that people provide (Bolman &

Deal, 2013). The third assumption is that the organization will suffer if the relationship between

the organization and the people is poor (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Lastly, a good fit benefits both

the organization and the people that work for the organization because people will find

satisfaction and meaning within their work (Bolman & Deal, 2013).

One of the basic human resource strategies is to hire the right people (Bolman & Deal,

2013). The idea of the “right fit” is important when thinking about how organizations find people

to work for them and how to make sure that they want to stay in the organization (Bolman &
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Deal, 2013). Fit is important when considering how well an organization addresses an

individual’s needs for valuable work, how well the organization allows their employees to

demonstrate their skills and sense of self and how well the job satisfies their employees financial

needs (Bolman & Deal, 2013).

Organizations invest in their employees by providing them with learning opportunities.

Some organizations provide mentors for their employees or allow their employees to try new

things as much as possible (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Olivia was provided a learning opportunity

when James asked her to take his place at the meeting. Although Olivia had experience working

with alcohol prevention programs, attending the meeting allowed her to present what she know

about the subject as well as learn about new strategies that may be presented at the meeting.

Along with being provided a learning opportunity, Olivia was empowered when she was invited

to the meeting. Within the human resource frame empowering employees means the employees

are informed and encouraged to participate (Bolman & Deal, 2013). An employee’s motivation

is important for an organization. An individual’s performance in the workplace is influenced by

their ability and motivation (Bolman & Deal, 2013). Olivia demonstrated her motivation to do

well by preparing a list of possible strategies that could be implemented at Premier in order to

prevent more alcohol related incidents.

Empowering employees is a way of improving the organization through the human

resource frame. One way to empower employees would be to provide them with information and

support (Bolman & Deal, 2013). There’s an idea called “open-book management” when trying to

empower your employees. Open-book management shows employees that those who are

considered management or someone of higher status trust them (Bolman & Deal, 2013). It also

influences employees to contribute and provides them with an idea of what they need in order to
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do better in regard to their work (Bolman & Deal, 2013). James Porter demonstrated that he

trusted Olivia when he had asked her to attend the meeting in his place. He was confident that

her past experience working with an alcohol intervention program would be helpful for this

meeting.

Possible Resolutions

Instead of dismissing Olivia’s ideas, it might have been helpful for Dean Stanford to

listen to what Olivia could have proposed, being that she has field work experience with a

community alcohol intervention program. This would allow everyone to be a part of the process

and more ideas on how to address the issue could be brought to the group. The group should also

continue to build partnerships with different offices on campus, however they should also

network with other people or groups. Using their previous experiences or current status, each

member of the group could network with various programs or groups that focus on alcohol

related issues or substance abuse in general.

If Olivia decides to continue attending the biweekly meetings for campus issues, Olivia

will be more likely to want to contribute if Dean Stanford, Dr. Timmons and Dr. Adams

demonstrated that they trusted her as well. During the last meeting she refrained from making

any more suggestions because Dean Stanford had told her to simply take notes.

Many organizations make it a point to promote diversity in their organization. Based on

the alcohol related incidents meetings, Premier University needs to work on promoting diversity

within the staff on their campus. Olivia was the only woman at the meeting. When Olivia went

back to her office to type the information memo for James, she began to question if being the

only woman at the meeting was the reason why her attempt to contribute to the meeting was
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dismissed. Being the only woman at a meeting can be discouraging and can cause women to feel

uncomfortable to want to participate in the work place.

Regarding the alcohol related issues on campus; group interventions can be another

possible intervention strategy to implement on campus. If the group decides to issue fines

immediately after students violate the alcohol policies, group interventions could also be a

requirement. Being that Dr. Timmons is the Director of the student Health and Wellness Center

and Dr. Adams if the Alcohol-Drug Education Services Coordinator, they can be in charge of

conducting the group intervention meetings. They can present on the dangers of alcohol and

other drugs and have the student complete a questionnaire based on the presentation. Using the

structural lens, the groups could network with prevention programs within the community in

order to come up with various intervention possibilities. It is possible that fining may be

effective, Olivia has mentioned that it does not guarantee long-term results. By allowing Olivia

to demonstrate the skills she learned in her past experiences, Olivia may be able to coordinate

with the community based program she worked with while earning her masters degree and

possibly create a similar program on campus. Olivia could also ask the director of the program

she worked with to get involved on the college campus and reach out to the students.

In one of Premiers newspapers a students stated that the increase in alcohol consumption

on campus should not be a surprise to the faculty/staff on campus because there is nothing else

for them to do on campus. As a group that meets to discuss campus issues, it is necessary that

student activities be discussed. A separate task force can be created to specifically focus on

student activities on campus, or someone from student involvement should be added to the

group. The human resources frame focuses on the well being of the employees of the

organization as well as the well being of its constituents (Bolman & Deal, 2013). James Porter,
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Dean Stanford and Olivia have a great reputation with the students. Students should be

considered while discussing possible activities on campus. Just as the organization should

understand their employees work interests, Premier University should understand what their

students would like to see on campus as well. Giving them the opportunity to get involved, not

only will give them a sense of empowerment but the students will also understand that the

organization is working for them as well.

How organizations work can be viewed from different perspectives. When working in a

group to improve the organization or solving a problem, organizational frames can serve as a

guide to assist with the decision making process. Some frames may work better for certain areas

in the organization, however it is possible that multiple organizational frames can be applied to

improve the organization. Although the structural and human resource frames were applied to

present resolutions to the dilemma at Premier University, it is possible that implementing

strategies using the political and symbolic frame could help the campus issues group resolve the

increase in alcohol related incidents. Premier University could use frames in order to improve the

relationships between the organization and it’s employees as well as its students. Going forward,

the institution needs to focus on the well being of their students and work together to find

multiple ways to improve life on campus rather than looking for an immediate solution.
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References

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership

(5th edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.