This document discusses the political frame for analyzing organizations. It covers four key topics:
1. The political frame views organizations as coalitions among competing interest groups that must negotiate for scarce resources. Power and conflict are central aspects.
2. There are various sources of power in the political frame, including formal authority, control over resources and information, and informal networks and alliances.
3. Developing a political map involves identifying key influencers, communication channels, opportunities for mobilization, and anticipating others' strategies.
4. Building coalitions is important for achieving goals, which may require developing relationships with opponents through communication and negotiation.
4. Looking at organizations through four
frames & metaphors
1. Structure Frame—the factory with
leadership as social architecture
2. Human Resource Frame—the family
with leadership of empowerment
3. Political Frame—the jungle with
leadership of advocacy
4. Symbolic Frame—the theatre with
leadership of inspiration
5. Central concepts and challenges
1. Structure—rules, roles, policies and
attune to structure, task, technology,
environment
2. Human—needs, skills, relationships and
align organizational and human needs
3. Political—power, conflict, competition,
politics with an agenda and power base
4. Symbolic—culture, meaning, ritual and
create faith, meaning, beauty
6. Properties of Organizations
• Organizations are complex—they are
populated by people.
• Organizations are surprising—expectations
often differ from results.
• Organizations are deceptive—they
camouflage surprises.
• Organizations are ambiguous—complex +
deceptive + unpredictable = ambiguous.
7. Political Frame
The political frame has often been described by the
word jungle. It focuses on a variety of issues such as:
• The enduring differences between groups and
individuals,
• The allocation of scarce resources,
• Conflict,
• The balance and uses of power,
• Bargaining and negotiating
• The coalitions that form within organizations.
JUNGLE
8. Five Propositions of the Political
Frame
1. Organizations are coalitions of various
individuals and interest groups.
2. There are enduring differences among the
interest groups.
3. Most important decisions involve the
allocations of scarce resources.
4. Goals and decisions emerge from negotiating,
bargaining, and jockeying for position.
9. Well-springs of Power in the
Political Frame
• Position power—
authority
• Information and
expertise
• Control of rewards
• Coercive power—
ability to block,
punish, interfere
• Alliances and
networks
• Access and control of
agendas
• Framing the control
of meaning and
symbols--unobtrusive
• Personal power—
charisma
10. Four Steps in Developing a
Political Map
1. Determine the channels of informal
communications
2. Identify principal agents of political
influence
3. Analyze possibilities of internal and
external mobilization
4. Anticipate the strategies that others will
employ
11. Networking and Building
Coalitions
1. Identify relevant relationships
2. Assess who might resist, why, and how
strongly
3. Develop, wherever possible,
relationships with opponents to facilitate
communication, education, and
negotiation
4. When Step 3 fails, select and implement
more subtle or more forceful methods
12. Thoughts on the Political Frame
• Organizations are arenas.
•Managers are politicians.
• Top-down/bottom-up require
different political actions.
• Organizations are political agents.
• Organizations are political
ecosystems.
14. Politics - Definition
•The term politics is derived from
the Greek words 'polis,' meaning
the city.
• 'Politics’, therefore meant to an
ancient Greek, the science of the
city-state or pertaining to the
state and the government.
15. •In ancient Greece, the science,
which dealt with the state and
government or with the political
activities of the community, was
called 'politics’
16. • Today politics refers to the art of
government, the art of directing or
guiding the policy of the government
towards a particular goal.
• In recent times, politics as the theory
of the state or of the government is
almost fading away. Instead, the
concept of power has become central
to the study of politics.
17. Politics
• Politics encompasses the activities
involved in getting and using power in
public life, and being able to influence
decisions that affect a country or a
society.
• It includes matters concerned with
getting or using power within a
particular group or organization.
18. • Politics describes a system of political
affairs. Politics is therefore an act
whereby someone uses his/her power or
authority to influence the decision of
others to his/her advantage.
• Authority in this context means the power or right
a person has to give orders to people.
• Influence on the other hand is the power that
somebody has to make people behave the way
he/she wants them to behave.
19. •Another element of politics is
interest.
•Politics is a kind of game play that
involves activities which people
enter into to pursue groups,
personal or selfish interest(s).
20. 20
• Positive Politics
• Having practical wisdom
• Being prudent, shrewd, & diplomatic
• Being expedient as a plan of action
• Process of gaining support
• Negative Politics
• Factional scheming for power & status
• Being crafty or unscrupulous
21. 21
• Politics is the study of influence and
the influential
• Influence is measured on the basis
of the number of shares one or a
group has in the preferred values or
attributes
• The more values or attributes shared,
the greater the influence
22. 22
Political Influence
• Measured in terms of who gets the most of what
there is to get, that is the ‘elite’:
• Access to people, places, things, opportunities,
• Attention from others
• Deference to ideas, positions, places
• Security, safety, protection from harm or
hardship
• Greater financial reward
• Rational Meritocracy
• Being ‘elite’ is contextual
23. 23
Plain Old Influence
• The ‘elite’ get the most
based on the number of
shared values or
attributes they possess:
• Wealth
• Physical Attractiveness
• Skill & knowledge
• Personality
• History
• Background or experience
• Attitude
Which gets them access to:
People
Information
Resources
24. Political Socialization
• Political values, beliefs and patterns of
behavior are acquired by the citizens of a
given society through political socialization.
• Political socialization is a long
developmental process through which the
citizens acquire the beliefs, feelings and
information that help them comprehend,
evaluate and relate to the political world
around them.
25. Agents of political socialization
• The agents of political socialization
include
• the family,
• peer groups,
• school,
• social clubs,
• political parties,
• mass media
26. Agents of political socialization
The Family
• The family is the nucleus of the society and it is
the first point of contact between the new born-citizens
and the political system.
• It is the family that teaches the child his political
system, mother’s tongue, initial religious beliefs
and some societal norms.
• As he grows, he starts to learn from his parents
the symbols of the community, the political
parties and political figures favored by his
parents and those they dislike.
27. The Family
• The place of the family as an agent of political
socialization is so diffused and pervasive that
one can know the political leaning or
preference of a particular family by listening
to their children.
• Some critics of the family as an agent of
political socialization see it as an agent of
introduction rather than educating the
children.
• At this early stage of growth, the child is more
or less a duplicate of the parents political
orientation.
28. Agents of political socialization
The School
• The place of the school as an agent of
political socialization can not be over-emphasized
as it is a critical socializing
structure in the modern state.
29. Agents of political socialization
The School
• The school has within its curriculum subjects like
history, geography, and social studies etc. which
teach the students the different aspect of social life
and by this a comprehensive cultural transmission
takes place.
• Having been exposed to the various areas and
knowledge of the political system the student can
now subject to critical evaluation the values he has
been taught in the family.
30. Agents of political socialization
The School
• The teacher stands a very good
chance to indoctrinate the student
but yet the student may still emerge
independent of the preferences of his
teachers since the child is now
growing in maturity and also his
exposition to numerous literatures.
31. Agents of political socialization
The School
• A typical classroom is made up of
children from different religious,
social and family background.
• They enter into all forms of
relationships and these inter
relationship may either strengthen or
weaken their previously held political
perception.
32. Agents of political socialization
Civic Clubs
• People collaborate in order to realize
their various interests because it is
easier that way. Therefore they form or
join clubs, associations, unions, religious
groups etc.
• All these groups of different forms and
coloration exist in all political systems
and they perform socializing functions
knowingly or unknowingly.
33. Agents of political socialization
Civic Clubs
• For example, many parents insist on
sending their children to their religious
denomination schools so that they can
be taught their religious tenets.
• The Catholic Church for instance
preaches against abortion, divorce and
other moral vices. It advocates good
moral virtues which are necessary for
the survival of the political system.
34. Agents of political socialization
Mass Media
•This is a powerful tool of
political socialization.
•With powerful and
sophisticated electronic
gadgets at its disposal, its
power of informing and
educating the people is very
efficient and effective.
35. Agents of political socialization
Mass Media
• The media gives the day by day happenings in
the nation and with globalization what is also
happening all over the world.
• The people are in contact with their leaders,
the issues facing the nation, as well as the
different positions on the issues.
• In contemporary politics, political parties
float mass media outfits to enable
government and opposition transmit their
messages to the people.
36. Agents of political socialization
Political Parties
• The political party is also an important agent of
political socialization because it influences a
large number of the people to be involved in the
political life of the state.
• With its manifestos, the party educates the
people and makes them to be aware of the
range of choices available to them. Within and
through the political party, the people are
instilled with expectations, hope and love for the
political system.
37. Interest/ Pressure Groups
• The persistence or survival of any
political system depends on the
information or supports it gets from
the citizenry.
• This support is provided by some
people with common interest or
ideology in the system that forms
themselves into groups.
38. Interest/ Pressure Groups
• The groups are formed to advance
specific demands and may, disappear
as soon as their demands are
achieved. An interest group is an
organized body of individuals that
consciously come together to agitate,
defend or articulate some kind of
interests common to them in the
system.
39. Interest/ Pressure Groups
•For example, some people come
together in government, military,
school, business, or even in
religious organizations to agitate
for or against whenever they feel
their existence or interest is being
threatened or not adequately
catered for.
40. Interest Articulation
•Agitations expressed by
interest groups are not of
much use if they are not
articulated or transformed into
concrete policy alternatives
suitable for rational decision
making.
41. Interest Articulation
• Interest articulation is the method
or process by which pressure
groups press their demands.
•Such pressures are normally
geared towards influencing public
policies in their own favor or in
direction that would benefit
them.
42. Interest Articulation
• Allowing articulation of opinion or interest
in any political system shows how
democratic the system is. When
individuals or groups are permitted to air
the views or opinions, however bad, the
necessary vent is given to potently prevent
or discourage clandestine activities.
• Conversely, bottle-up feelings that are not
expressed in groups could lead to
dissatisfaction and consequently to the
eruption of violence in the society.
43. Politics of Educational Management
• Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and
professor of law at Yale University said,
• “Politics is who gets what, when, and how.”
• Who is able to get what from the education
system?
• Who is able to get what from education policy
leaders?
• When are different groups able to get
particular policies passed?
• How are they able to have influence?