The Professional Capstone: Leadership Reflections of Reframing Organizations

Admittedly, reflecting upon a Junior High Concert Band as an organization and reframing it based upon the work of Bolman & Deal was troubling at best.  Considering that this music program thrives in a classical educational philosophical environment despite requiring mandatory band participation from every student, one might question the need to apply these frames at all.  Applying the frames suggests that there is an underlying inherant philosophy that is fundamentally corrupting the organization and needs to be viewed through another lens to be diagnosed.

"...Managers do things right, Leaders do the right thing" - Bolman & Deal

Classical Education in a 100 year old Historic School

In the interest of full disclosure, if "Reframing Organizations" had not been required reading for my Master's Degree, I remain doubtful that I would have ever read it.  I do not mean to question the validity of its ideas or to suggest that you should not read it for yourself, I just feel as though devoting my energy towards music education reading would have been more beneficial for my students.  I also like to believe that the education world should be kept separate from the business world even though, deep down, we all know they are inseparably connected.

Leadership Orientations Questionnaire

My first step was to complete the Bolman & Deal survey based on the ideas of Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership (San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991, 1997, 2003) I discovered that I am a symbolic leader and, much to my surprise, a political leader! My final score was: 

Structural Leader: 11 Human Resources: 18 Political: 12 Symbolic: 19

As stated earlier, I struggle with connecting the business world and education world strictly on a personal, philosophical level.  I recognize and acknowledge that as long as we are in a capitalistic society and relevance in public education must be maintained, connecting the two is an obvious decision.  So despite my personal convictions, failure to incorporate these frames will be at the determinant of my students.  I decided to view my music education classes through the lens of a symbolic leader.

A Symbolic Application

The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin

I was not surprised at the initial outcome of being a symbolic leader.  The practice of being a Concert Band Conductor is purely symbolic in and of itself.  Conducting music is simply creating something that wasn't there before in the soundscape.  Holman and Deal state: "...The symbolic frame focuses on how humans make sense of the chaotic, ambiguous world in which they live.  Meaning beliefs, and are are its central concern.  Meaning it is not given to is; we have to create it" (Bolman & Deal, p. 248).  I feel as though I could make a compelling argument that the symbolic frame could be viewed as the musical frame in regards to how humans make sense of the chaotic, ambiguous world in which they live but perhaps Dr. Daniel Levitins' "The World in Six Songs" is much more succinct than my own ramblings!

The symbolic frame professes and distills ideas from diverse sources into five suppositions:

• What is most important is not what happens but what it means. 
• Activity and meaning are loosely coupled; events and actions have multiple interpretations as people experience life differently. 
• Facing uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, find direction, and anchor hope and faith. 
• Events and processes are often more important for what is expressed than for what is produced. Their emblematic form weaves a tapestry of secular myths, heroes and heroines, rituals, ceremonies, and stories to help people find purpose and passion. 
• Culture forms the superglue that bonds an organization, unites people, and helps an enterprise accomplish desired ends.

While it is easy to see how these fives suppositions easily fit within the parameters of teaching music, It is an entirely different mindset to view music education through these suppositions and frame.  Most importantly is the last supposition.  Within most schools, the fine arts is the "superglue" that bonds the members of the school community together. And specifically in American schools that emphasize sports, and more specifically, Football, the music department absolutely helps "...an enterprise accomplish desired ends".  I found this specific aspect of the Symbolic Frame to be my "Oprah" moment.  I have tirelessly viewed the music program within the perspective of that specific band accomplishing its desired outcome but never looked at it from the macro perspective of how this band is helping the school accomplish its desired ends...

In the next blog I will discuss my new found macro perspective and the application of the political frame! And why I completely disagree with the statement "...Managers do things right, Leaders do the right thing"from Bolman & Deal

To be continued...