Transcript Chapter 19 - Lee Bolman

Reframing Organizations, 3rd ed.
Chapter 19
Reframing Ethics and Spirit
Reframing Ethics and Spirit
 Soul and Spirit in Organizations
 The Factory: Excellence and Authorship
 The Family: Caring and Love
 The Jungle: Justice and Power
 The Temple: Faith and Significance
Soul and Spirit in Organizations
 Organizational soul: bedrock sense of identity, clarity
about core ideology and values

Core ideology emphasizing “more than profits” key to
highly successful firms (Collins and Porras, 1994)
 Enron
 Rapid shift from pipelines to deal-making produced
enormous growth -- for a while
 In the process, Enron lost a sense of core identity and
values (“lots of smart people, but no wise people”)
 Merck
 Core purpose: not profit but “preserve and improve
human life”
 Developed and gave away river blindness drug
Table 19.1:
Reframing Ethics
Metaphor
Organizational
Ethic
Leadership
Contribution
Factory
Excellence
Authorship
Extended family
Caring
Love
Jungle
Justice
Power
Temple
`Faith
Significance
Conclusion
 Organizational ethics ultimately need to be
rooted in soul
 Modern organizations suffer a crisis of
meaning and moral authority
 Leaders need to hold and model values like
excellence, caring, justice, faith