Supporting a Merger of Entrepreneurship Curricula: Combining Organizational Frames and Theory of Change

The field of entrepreneurship education is growing in both size and complexity within colleges and universities, leading to needed organization level adjustments. This applied case study (not a teaching case) follows a merger of two educational entities focused on entrepreneurship at Michigan State University (MSU). In a pattern consistent with difficulties experienced by other academic programs, MSU’s programs evolved independently and led to duplicated efforts and confusion for students and staff members. Entrepreneurship program leaders were tasked with merging two units and aligning efforts to improve pedagogical and organizational quality. Scholar practitioner consultants supported a merger process by using organizational frames to analyze previous practices and theory-of-change (ToC) tools to synthesize new designs for a merged unit. Participation in efforts provided an opportunity for personnel in two organizations to co-create and redesign their own program while developing a shared organizational purpose and process. Follow-up surveys and cluster analysis showed that this approach was able to facilitate convergence in mental models of the program and the merger process was met with a high level of approval. Case findings demonstrated that organizational frames and ToC tools have the potential to effectively address challenges in structural, human resource, and pedagogical layers of mergers.

Patterns of accountability: an organizational approach to community engagement in museums.

This paper considers the divergent and often contradictory registers of ‘community engagement’ in contemporary UK museum practice. The paper draws on an organizational study of a large local authority museum service and focuses on how community engagement is constructed across a range of museum professionals who use it for different purposes and outcomes. I argue that different departments make sense of community engagement through four patterns of accountability, each with complimentary and divergent logics reflecting a wider range of museum functions, demands and pressures. The tensions that arise are discussed. In the final part, the notion of ‘relational accountability’ (Moncrieffe 2011) is introduced to re-settle these divergent logics in order to argue for community engagement work that is grounded in a relational practice. The paper contributes to further theoretical and practical engagement with the work of participation in museums by bringing forward an organizational view to highlight the ways in which museum practice is mediated within organizational frames.

Aligning the Tuning Forks: Using the Intersections of Organizational Frames and Systems Disciplines: Facilitating Effective Collaboration between Schools Needing Improvement and Regional Improvement Agencies

The purpose of this article is to align the needs and wants of schools in need of improvement and state, federal, and regional agencies charged with assisting them in their reform efforts by using spreadsheet thinking through two lenses, Bolman and Deal's four organizational paradigms and Peter Senge's five disciplines of a learning organization. Taken together, in a force-fitting Tuning Forks model approach, where analysts use the intersection of each framework insofar as they act on each other, enables school improvement collaborators to align new action perspectives. This article is divided into three sections: The first part presents the context to the issues associated with collaboration between Regional Educational Improvement Agencies (REA) and Schools in Need of Improvement (SU). The second section provides descriptions of the two analytical dimensions. These are then synthesized into cross impact charts that demonstrate potential issues either driving or obstructing their collaborative efforts. A third section provides guidelines to minimize obstructions and promotes collaborative alignment between schools in need of reform and regional agencies charged with assisting their efforts.

Breaking the frame: frame disputes of war and peace

Frames guide the way in which organizations and individuals interpret their surrounding contexts and shape avenues for thought, action, and behavior. This paper tests the individual-level effects of experiencing ‘frame disputes’: the state of holding individual-level frames that are at odds with dominant organizational frames. We hypothesize that on the individual level a frame dispute will be associated with negative effects on outcomes important for an organization’s functioning. The hypothesis is tested using a survey of a battalion of Italian soldiers. Our results demonstrate that, on average, soldiers who experienced frame disputes in that they perceived their mission differently from the dominant organizational frame displayed significantly lower levels of perceived cohesion, performance, and legitimacy. Frame disputes are likely to be widespread phenomena among organizations and social movements, and understanding their effects has theoretical, empirical, and policy relevance beyond the military case under study.

Preserving dignity in end-of-life nursing home care: Some ethical challenges

A central task in palliative care is meeting the needs of frail, dying patients in nursing homes. The aim of this study was to investigate how healthcare workers are influenced by and deal with ethical challenges in end-of-life care in nursing homes. The study was inspired by clinical application research. Researchers and clinical staff, as co-researchers, collaborated to shed light on clinical situations and create a basis for new practice. The analysis resulted in the main theme, ‘Dignity in end-of-life nursing home care’, and the sub-categories ‘Challenges regarding life-prolonging treatment’ and ‘Uncertainty regarding clarification conversations’. Our findings indicate that nursing homes do not provide necessary organizational frames for the team approach that characterizes good palliation, and therefore struggle to give dignified care. Ethical challenges experienced by healthcare workers are closely connected to inadequate organizational frames.

Understanding the Limits of Technology’s Impact on Police Effectiveness

Technology has become a major source of expenditure and innovation in law enforcement and is assumed to hold great potential for enhancing police work. But does technology achieve these expectations? The current state of research on technology in policing is unclear about the links between technologies and outcomes such as work efficiencies, effectiveness in crime control, or improved police–community relationships. In this article, we present findings from a mixed-methods, multiagency study that examines factors that may mediate the connection between technology adoption and outcome effectiveness in policing. We find that police view technology through technological and organizational frames determined by traditional and reactive policing approaches. These frames may limit technology’s potential in the current reform era and cause unintended consequences.

A Curricular reform viewed through Bolman and Deal’s organizational frames

Professions exist to serve the needs of society, communities and, in the case of the dental profession, patients. Academic dental institutions strive to help meet these needs by educating and developing future practitioners, educators, researchers, and citizen leaders who serve the community and shape the changing environment in which they practice and provide care. The American Dental Association Commission on Change and Innovation affirms, “If dental educators are to meet these purposes, change and innovation in dental education must be responsive to evolving societal needs, practice patterns, scientific developments, and economic conditions”(Haden, et al., 2006). Guiding any institution through such authentic reform requires a number of strategies. Lee Bolman and Terrance Deal suggest four organizational constructs, or frames, through which to view a complex organization: Structural, Human Resource, Political and Symbolic (Bolman and Deal, 1997).“Like maps, frames are both windows on a territory and tools for navigation” (Bolman and Deal, 1997). This reflective case study examines a major curricular reform initiative in a North American school of dentistry through Bolman and Deal’s organizational frames.