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A frame of reference can be defined as ‘a system of assumptions and standards that sanction behaviour and give it meaning.’ It helps manager’s order experience and aid decision-making, allowing them to analysis complicated data and events quickly and effectively. However, in increasingly complex and dynamic organisational environments the use of a single frame of reference is becoming constraining. Managers must realise that superior decisions to organisational problems are likely to emerge as a result of recognising that any given situation can be viewed from a number of perspective’s or frames. Boleman and Deal describe four frames, and claim the advantages of using these are unbounded. Viewing the environment based on the structural, human resource, political and cultural frames allows mangers to develop multiple alternatives, adapt to complex and changing environments and overcome the limitations of using one single frame. Therefore, a manager’s frame of reference is not their most enabling asset, but rather their most disabling weakness.
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