You will pick an organization (NBA) National Basketball Association and write about it in terms of the four
frames (you will write about all four frames). What is its structure? Human source? Political? Symbolic?
Use the information you collect and answers to the Org Analysis Questions
Org Analysis Questions
1.What are the stated goals of the organization? Who determined them?
- Do people in the organization agree about what the important goals are?
- How are activities coordinated
- How are decisions typically made? Who is responsible, and how are others involved?
- What roles have been established? How complex is the role structure? What is the organizational chart
like?
- How diverse are the social and educational backgrounds and skills of the people in the organization?
What are their social styles? What is the range in ages?
- How do people feel about their work? What seems to motivate them? Do people look healthy and happy?
Do they appear to enjoy their work?
- What are the existing levels of turnover, absenteeism, sabotage, goldbricking, and employee
grievances?
- What kinds of small work groups or informal cliques seem to exist? How were they formed? How do
people treat each other in these smaller settings?
- Who are the recognized people of power? How centralized does the power and strategic order seem
to be? Does the power apply across issues, or is it restricted to specific issues or areas?
- What issues produce conflict? How are powerful people mobilized? How do they exercise their power?
How are conflicts resolved?
- How do people of power relate to people who are relatively powerless, and vice versa? Is there
evidence of inappropriate use of power?
- Is there much bargaining or negotiation around events, or are issues decided in back rooms?
- What are the organization’s core values? How are they displayed? Do they seem to make sense? How
widely known and shared are the values? Do they have meaning for people? Do they appear to arouse
sentiment? How have they changed over time?
- Is there a visionary hero or heroine at the helm? In the recent or distant past? What is he or she like?
Does he or she represent and embody the core values? Inspire emotion in people? Is his or her picture
displayed on the wall? Is he or she portrayed in well-known stories?
- How would you describe the location of the organization?
- How is the safety of employees affected by the physical setting, equipment, and so forth?
- How stable is the environment? How often do major changes or demographic shifts occur? How
predictable are the changes?
- How do the various parts of the organization (human resource, political, structural, symbolic) relate to
the environment?
- What resources does the organization provide to the environment? How dependent is the environment
on the organization? How tangible are the resources the organization provides?
Sample Solution
