The Frame of Reference

Abstract

Let us begin with the following proposition formulated in the preceding chapter: it is all the more difficult to change an organization when the actors in the organization – leaders as well as employees – have a poor understanding of how it functions. For the leaders, as is often observed, this puts a damper on their ability to make decisions over which they feel, however confusedly, that they have no control. This is what managerial rhetoric calls prudence. Similarly, this leads them to various protection strategies (bluntly called the ‘cover your ass syndrome’ in America) which determined sociologists have been studying for some time now.