The Political Frame Perspective for Berlitz - Case Study Example

The Political Frame Paper Berlitz: A Language Organization Juan Fabian Integrating General Studies Joanne Land-Kazlauskas The political frame perspective for Berlitz, a global language learning organization, involves viewing the company as it allocates scarce resources and that it does so within coalitions holding differing interests. Bolman & Deal (2008) tell us that politics, power and conflict are at the center of every organization and cannot be avoided. To avoid the use of power and conflict is to do so at the organizational members’ detriment. By using the political frame perspective and its five core assumptions one can consider their own beliefs, values, and interests from a more dispassionate view, thus learning to put power and politics into its’ proper place as a valuable managerial resource. Rather than allowing the use of power to be destructive, the manager can learn to use power and politics as a skill to be developed within organizational arenas. The first assumption of the political frame perspective states that organizations are a compilation of competing interests and groups (coalitions) with conflict and tension inherent in conducting day-to-day business (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Because of limited resources it becomes necessary for the organizational members to vie for the rights to those resources. There is no escaping the politics of the organization environment. For example, if a Danish center director and a regional marketing director are negotiating with a corporate client that needs French and English training within a month for four executives who are travelling internationally, but a competing center in Italy with the same regional marketing manager also has a need for the same resources for a different client, how would the company make the decision as to which client gets the resources first? Who would take priority? If the regional director is Danish, would it be the Danish center director? From what can be found on the website, those decisions would follow the regional headquarters procedure, because the cultures found under that regional headquarters (in this case Denmark and Italy are both under Europe) are qualified to consider all interests equally (Berlitz, 2010) . Organizations form into coalitions that attempt to influence one another by pooling resources and power of the various members (Bolman & Deal, 2008; McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). The Berlitz Worldwide Regional Directors can use a variety of influence methods to get what they want from one another. Influence tactics include: deferring to authority; assertiveness; information control; coalition formation; upward appeal; ingratiation and impression management; persuasion; and exchange (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). There are factors to consider when utilizing an influence tactic such as upward, downward, or lateral influence, the influencer’s power base, and personal and cultural values. These factors are the reasons why Berlitz is a particularly challenging organization to communicate within. There are a number of aspects to be considered that can be extremely diverse that can affect the power base, reactions, body language, response time, level of defensiveness to requests. Again, factoring all of these things takes time and in the fast-paced world we live in, the leader may not have the luxury of the time to work the issue as some might say and resort to “hard tactics” rather than “soft tactics” (p. 356). As a global organization each leader will have to consider the culture they are operating within and the culture of the coalition they are attempting to deal with or experience an exchange. The second assumption within the political frame perspective is that the coalition members cannot ever shake their differences. No matter how much training, coaching, and peace keeping skills a leader/manager/diplomat may receive, that coalition member will continue to have persistent differences in attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, feelings, and activities (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). Berlitz, as a worldwide organization, even with diversity training, management training, proper procedures for each regional area, and one of the best management teams in the world, will continue to suffer from conflict and unrest within the organizational members. Minimizing conflict and dysfunction as a result of the conflict are part of what the expectation of the leader/manager are within the organization. Berlitz leaders do what they can to reduce differentiation by acknowledging that it exists and will continue to do so, avoiding unnecessary defensiveness and unwanted delays as team members argue unnecessarily. The leader may need to step in and make decisions for the cross-logistical teams that exist to keep a project moving forward. The third assumption of the political frame perspective discussed in Bolman & Deal (2008) has to do with how decisions are made in regards to allocating scarce resources. Critical decisions to operations involve not only who gets what, but from whom they get it. In many cases, the power comes from the hierarchy of chain of command. The political frame perspective teaches that the manager needs to be part politician and set an agenda for what they want and go after it (p. 214). Different individuals in the company have access (power) to different types of budget dollars and resources. With a worldwide company it is as important to know what resources you need, where they are, how to get them, and who you need to know to get things accomplished. In the case of Berlitz, that will take scheduling conference calls across various time zones and the team leader losing some sleep to accomplish the communication demands that are needed to coordinate getting these resources at the right place at the right time (need citation). When the resources are scarce, such as a particular instructor skilled in teaching a certain language for a particular client at a specific time frame, Berlitz International, Inc. or the regional office may need to get involved, but the stated preference is that the center directors work out what is best for the clients involved. The fourth and critical assumption of the political frame is that the limited resources and inherent differences in personalities, groups, wants, and needs makes conflict the core of day-to-day activities and explains why power is so important to us (Bolman & Deal, 2008). As much as many managers try to avoid conflict, the skilled manager will learn to deal effectively with conflict, expect it, and even relish it. As a worldwide organization, Berlitz Languages, Inc. believes issues that can be labeled by some as internal and/or political, once investigated, will be seen as involving coalition agreements, roles and responsibilities, conflict resolutions, negotiations, culture and communication issues (Berlitz, 2010; McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). That is when a point of conflict is identified the local center will have the cultural knowledge to understand not only what is being said, but what is not said. The fifth assumption of the political frame perspective is that the managerial decisions reached will be as a result of discussions by organizational individuals with varying interests (Bolman & Deal, 2008). The political frame perspective involves variations in power and the manager understanding how different groups with different values or traditions are formed. In the case of Berlitz, a political influence map (Appendix A) has been constructed. It bears a resemblance to the global organizational chart that outlines the Berlitz Regional Worldwide Headquarters (Appendix B). Berlitz is headquartered in the U.S., but following the communications and the financials, leads back to Asia, Japan, and Benesse Holdings, Inc.. Political influence is dominated by financial power and available resources. The country and company that holds the financial power in this case is Japan and Benesse. The Berlitz regional areas have been ranked in order of power and financial results worldwide. If scant resources were being allocated, the resources would be allocated in this order (Benesse International, Inc., 2011). Research shows that 87% of the $13.6 billion dollars in revenue for Benesse comes from holdings other than Language Learning Centers. The U.S. has a power-base as it holds high numbers of individuals who speak native-English that are highly sought after in other areas of the world. Interestingly enough, the power influence map has swapped the top of the hierarchy with the organizational chart. U.S. and Japan have switched spots in the Political Influence chart versus the Organizational chart. The Japanese need the U.S. to teach their people English as that is the International language - the language of power and influence. But they don’t need them to run the company of Benesse. Berlitz is a wholly-owned subsidiary. In conclusion, effective Berlitz managers have to recognize the political reality, the Japanese will have a lot of influence on the structure and politics of what happens at Berlitz and become skilled in dealing with the various coalitions that exist. There will be a wide variety of groups and the sooner the manager can get comfortable working with each group, promote his/her own agenda and learn the other sides’ agenda, the better for both the manager and the group. The organization inherently is short on resources, so conflicts will always exist. The leader needs to recognize where the constituencies exist and develop strong relationships through networking. These relationship networks help to manage conflict as productively as possible (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). References Benesse Holdings, Inc. (2010 – 2011). Benesse Corporate Profile. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from http://www.benesse-hd.co.jp/en/about/benesse-hd.pdf Berlitz Languages, Inc. (2010). Berlitz Global Gateway. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from http://www.berlitz.com/ Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (4th ed.). CA: Jossey-Bass. McShane, S. L. & Von Glinow, M. A. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Emerging Realities for the Workplace Revolution (3rd ed.). NY: McGraw Hill Appendix A – Proposed Global - Political Influence Map Appendix B – Proposed Berlitz Worldwide Organizational Chart (visually condensed for purposes of this paper) To be submitted with Political Frame Paper for Berlitz Language Organization Using feedback After reviewing my last submission, the instructor’s comments and the rubric score, I approached this assignment by first making corrections to the draft per specific feedback comments. I also reviewed the APA manual to ensure details were not being overlooked in the final draft such as the longer quotations not being indented. Some of the things I did to incorporate the provided feedback prior to writing this submission included correcting the spelling of the teachers name (sorry!), limiting the number of quotes used, and ensuring that if a quote was used it was attributed to the source. This is done by reviewing the final draft repeatedly for these concerns and making revisions accordingly. I also went back to the frame that this paper is about and continued to reference the frame throughout the writing assignment as to stay true to that frame’s assumptions and concepts. Writing process and final submission In my first draft, I created an outline including the key points from the assignment, the sources I would need and the corrections that would be needed from the initial feedback. Some of things I did to incorporate provided feedback while working on my paper included referencing back to the papers that had been given with feedback prior to final edits and referencing back to the text repeatedly before posting an additional comment. The things I did best in this essay include staying true to the political frame and the frame assumptions. The aspect of the paper that was most difficult for me was staying true to this particular papers’ frame and the frame assumptions. Reflecting on the other two papers and the comments received, I can see how it is easy to stray with the concepts between the two perspectives, and now the third and soon to be a fourth. It takes a focus to stay concentrated on just that frame that the writer is within. The feedback from the instructor was invaluable. If given more time, I would go back and revise the first two papers. I am a perfectionist and the feedback was spot on. I appreciate the constructive criticism and it will only help me to improve. I look forward to incorporating the thoughts provided in the writings into the final. When I review my paper against the course rubric, I would give this paper an overall score of outstanding. This was the first paper that I believe was totally focused on this frame and this frame alone and met the page requirements, APA format, etc.. This was an interesting challenge for only needing 4 pages. Other things you may want to keep in mind as you read this essay are that I learned power (politics) are inherent in every organization. It can’t be helped because of the limited resources. This saddened me somewhat while I was writing because in some ways I thought politics was a sign that something was wrong with the organization. This lesson has taught me that you cannot escape the politics. They are there and they have to be accepted and embraced and each one of us needs to learn to work within the political framework of the organization in which we deal every day. Read More

There are factors to consider when utilizing an influence tactic such as upward, downward, or lateral influence, the influencer’s power base, and personal and cultural values. These factors are the reasons why Berlitz is a particularly challenging organization to communicate within. There are a number of aspects to be considered that can be extremely diverse that can affect the power base, reactions, body language, response time, level of defensiveness to requests. Again, factoring all of these things takes time and in the fast-paced world we live in, the leader may not have the luxury of the time to work the issue as some might say and resort to “hard tactics” rather than “soft tactics” (p. 356). As a global organization each leader will have to consider the culture they are operating within and the culture of the coalition they are attempting to deal with or experience an exchange.

The second assumption within the political frame perspective is that the coalition members cannot ever shake their differences. No matter how much training, coaching, and peace keeping skills a leader/manager/diplomat may receive, that coalition member will continue to have persistent differences in attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, feelings, and activities (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). Berlitz, as a worldwide organization, even with diversity training, management training, proper procedures for each regional area, and one of the best management teams in the world, will continue to suffer from conflict and unrest within the organizational members.

Minimizing conflict and dysfunction as a result of the conflict are part of what the expectation of the leader/manager are within the organization. Berlitz leaders do what they can to reduce differentiation by acknowledging that it exists and will continue to do so, avoiding unnecessary defensiveness and unwanted delays as team members argue unnecessarily. The leader may need to step in and make decisions for the cross-logistical teams that exist to keep a project moving forward. The third assumption of the political frame perspective discussed in Bolman & Deal (2008) has to do with how decisions are made in regards to allocating scarce resources.

Critical decisions to operations involve not only who gets what, but from whom they get it. In many cases, the power comes from the hierarchy of chain of command. The political frame perspective teaches that the manager needs to be part politician and set an agenda for what they want and go after it (p. 214). Different individuals in the company have access (power) to different types of budget dollars and resources. With a worldwide company it is as important to know what resources you need, where they are, how to get them, and who you need to know to get things accomplished.

In the case of Berlitz, that will take scheduling conference calls across various time zones and the team leader losing some sleep to accomplish the communication demands that are needed to coordinate getting these resources at the right place at the right time (need citation). When the resources are scarce, such as a particular instructor skilled in teaching a certain language for a particular client at a specific time frame, Berlitz International, Inc. or the regional office may need to get involved, but the stated preference is that the center directors work out what is best for the clients involved.

The fourth and critical assumption of the political frame is that the limited resources and inherent differences in personalities, groups, wants, and needs makes conflict the core of day-to-day activities and explains why power is so important to us (Bolman & Deal, 2008). As much as many managers try to avoid conflict, the skilled manager will learn to deal effectively with conflict, expect it, and even relish it. As a worldwide organization, Berlitz Languages, Inc. believes issues that can be labeled by some as internal and/or political, once investigated, will be seen as involving coalition agreements, roles and responsibilities, conflict resolutions, negotiations, culture and communication issues (Berlitz, 2010; McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).

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