MGMT 313 ReframingSmoke Jumpers(4 Pages | 1756 Â Words)Â Â Â The Symbolic frame focuses on how humans make sense of the ambiguous world around them. Symbols take on many forms in an organization including, stories, ritual, language, and values. Whereas the political frame proposes that inte...
mgmt 313 reframingsmoke jumpers4 pages | 1756 ÂnbspwordsÂnbspÂnbspÂnbspthe symbolic frame focuses on how humans make sense of the ambiguous world around them symbols take on many forms in a
The Symbolic frame focuses on how humans make sense of the ambiguous world
around them. Symbols take on many forms in an organization including, stories, ritual,
language, and values. Whereas the political frame proposes that interdependence,
divergent interests, scarcity, and power relations inevitably create political activity (Lee
G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal, 2008). In the case of the Smoke Jumpers, the mishandling
of scarce resources, separation of collations, and their organizational culture lead to the
disaster of Mann Gulch in August of 1949. Little to no unity existed among members of
this organization which caused them to be doomed from the beginning. To fire-jump
everything needs to be in unity in order for average men to commit their lives for the job.
Power struggles and cultural norms impeded group cohesion causing sub-groups and
ambiguity along the way. By using both the political and symbolic frames from Bowman
and Deal’s Reframing Organizations we can begin to get a sense of what went wrong,
and help suggest possible solutions.
Organizations are coalitions of assorted individuals and interest groups. The smoke-
jumpers were a small coalition made up of mostly young inexperienced men, whose
primary interest was to make as much money as they could. Although there were a
couple experienced members among the group, the foreman Dodge, and the second in
command Hellman among them. Dodge, an ex fire-jumper instructor, held most of the
power in the coalition including, authority, positional, intellectual and experience. He
would often reframe from using these to the benefit of the group. He was one of the most
experienced jumpers in the outfit being there for more than 9 years. Yet he never
seemed to be too interested in spreading his knowledge to his young, and inexperienced
crew. He seemed to lack personal power within his team. This kind of power is only
achieved through crew bonding and being a socially adept. This power might be one of
the most important ones when leading a coalition into a life and death situation. One of
the surviving crew members said of Dodge “It was one of the best characteristics he was
known for, Dodge believed on the principle of thinking to himself because thinking out
loud only got him into trouble.”(Maclean, 1993). When they saw him light the escape fire
they must have been thinking he was crazy, because he never communicated to them
exactly what he was doing. This was a technique never seen before and if you do not
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