Five Organizational Frames

This purpose of this paper is to evaluate how individuals in an organization respond to a problem when they are using one of the five organizational frames: Rational, Human, Systems, Political, or Cultural. The organizational problem I will evaluate is how can an organization retain talented employees. I have worked for a few primarily government organizations where we have lost extremely talented employees to other companies. This issue has left me asking what could I have done if in a leadership position to retain these employees. Throughout this paper, I will be presenting how five different leaders using five different organizational frames handle the potential loss of talented employees to other companies.

Rational The rational organizational frame when used by an organizational leader “focuses on roles, relationships, and formal ways of coordinating diverse efforts into common directions” (Carey, 1999, p. 81). A leader who is using the rational frame and losing talented employees will look at the structure of the organization and if need how to improve the structure to address the loss of the employees. Additionally, the leader will ensure that any restructuring will not interfere with the predetermined goals of the organization. In addition, leaders who use the

81). A leader who is using the human frame and losing talented employees will concentrate on the impact losing the employee will have on the organization. The leader will concentrate on what organizational issues have caused the employee to leave to ensure that other employees’ needs are met by the organization. In addition, the leader may concentrate so heavily on the loss of the employee at the detriment of the organization as a