Bolman and Deal

In the 1980s, Terry Deal and Lee Bolman developed a survey instrument, Leadership Orientations, to measure individuals' orientations toward leading through each of the four frames (structural, human resource, political and symbolic).

The four frames address the major theoretical perspectives—structural, human resource, political, and symbolic—that characterize organization and management thinking and propose direct links across these distinct traditions for good professional practice. In that sense, the authors provide a comprehensive framework for understanding organizational theory and behavior, as well as a good historical overview of the field.

The authors’ research has shown that managers and students often have strong predispositions or preferences for only one or two perspectives. In laying out the central dimensions and underlying assumptions of each frame, the authors provide portraits of how typical structural, human resource, political, and symbolic thinkers see their world.

The four frames even provide clues to the kind of “language” each speaks—does she, for example, speak in terms of goals, purposes, and interfaces with the environment, while he speaks in terms of needs, feelings, and individual potential? Determining one’s own frame and comparing it with someone else’s provide a way of better understanding and communicating about individual and cultural differences.

The fine print

You are not required to take the questionnaire. It is just something fun and interesting that I (Chris) thought would be interesting to do and discuss at our retreat as a different way to view our managerial and leadership styles.

Once you're done I will tally up your score (can't figure out how to do it in QuestionPro yet) and send it to you and we can discuss at the VP Retreat. You should also be able to print out your responses at the end of the survey for your own reference (it's a beta version, so should being the key word).