The Symbolic Frame
A novel approach to organizational behavior, Bolman & Deal’s (2013) model includes the structural, the human resources, the political, and the symbolic frames. The symbolic frame refers to the organization’s use of signs, symbols, and stories to create a brand identity and organizational culture, as well as justify its behaviors. Symbols create and propagate meaning, and encapsulate an organization’s written codes of ethics and values.

Therefore, symbols become one of the most powerful means by which to create and control organizational culture. Bolman & Deal (2013) explain the five assumptions underlying the symbolic frame. The first involves the salience of meaning. What matters most to an organization is not what happens, but what it means on a deeper symbolic level—how actions or facts are interpreted in light of the overarching stories, myths, or symbols that guide the organization and its members.

Second, the symbolic frame allows for nuance. Especially in a large, heterogeneous company, individual members will perceive events according to their personal interpretation of the symbols. The symbols nevertheless create a sense of unity amid the diversity within the organization.

Third, symbols have an especially tangible value during times of change or crisis. Symbols can help members of the organization find guidance, resolve conflict and confusion, increase the locus of control or sense of certainty, or to find meaning, hope, or value in any situation.

Fourth, organizational processes and singular events become part of the ongoing narrative or story. Rituals, ceremonies, and archetypal heroes provide members with a sense of deep meaning that motivates their engagement and performance over time.

Finally, culture is created through the effective implementation of symbols and stories. Culture becomes the all-important glue binding together the disparate members of a team, department, or corporation. Buying into shared values and beliefs enables the resolution of conflict in ways that promote organizational success.

The symbolic frame is a method of assessing organizations as if they were any other type of society—using the tools of sociology and anthropology and forgetting for a moment the ulterior motives of the organization’s leaders. Without the underlying myths and symbols, an organization cannot hope to solicit intrinsic motivation among employees or to engender brand loyalty across multiple generations of consumers. The symbolic frame applies well to organizations with huge visions, whose leaders become legendary heroes, and whose cultures become an identity and a way of life for its members almost to the point of being like a religion given the emphasis on values and beliefs guiding the behavior of individuals and small groups within its umbrella.

When an organization uses storytelling, it breathes life into its policies, rules, structures, and formal regulations. Likewise, stories legitimize positions of power and the roles filled within the organization. Stories and metaphors are not only “deeply rooted in the human experience” collectively, but also part and parcel of the structure of human consciousness and cognition (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 254). The symbolic frame shows how organizations create and implement long-range strategies for management, marketing, and more.

Framing Disney

Few organizations could possibly prove to be a better example of the symbolic frame than the Walt Disney Company. All major organizations demonstrate the power of storytelling and symbols through their branding, but for Disney, symbols and stories actually are the products and services the company provides. In fact, the mission of the Walt Disney Company is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling,” (“About the Walt Disney Company,” 2020). Storytelling and symbols are woven into the fabric of organizational culture, into its products, and into its mission, vision, and values. Moreover, Disney self-consciously promotes and capitalizes on the social, political, and psychological power of storytelling. Storytelling is the company’s medium and its message. Essentially, Disney uses symbols and stories to sell symbols and stories, reinventing those symbols and rewriting those stories anew to keep the brand relevant to people from disparate times, cultures, and places. The Walt Disney Company therefore provides...…folktales and legends of yore, encased in particular cultures or religious traditions. Just as storytelling traditionally functions as a means by which to impart identity construction and also norms, values, and ideals, the Walt Disney Company uses stories to solicit adoration from members and consumers.

All aspects of the symbolic frame inform organizational culture, structure, and leadership. For example, having a deified hero in the persona of Walt Disney enables a hierarchical structure and penchant for authoritarian leadership throughout the history of the Disney Company (Forbes & Watson, n.d.). Disney self-consciously and deliberately capitalizes on the power of symbolism to affect the way people perceive reality. The symbolic frame is used to influence behavior, engender brand loyalty, increase employee engagement, and create what can be considered a type of consumer religion.

Framing Disney

The Walt Disney Company can be assessed using all four of the frames presented by Bolman & Deal (2013): the symbolic, the structural, the political, and the human resources frames. With Disney, however, one frame is many times more apparent and many times stronger than all the others. That frame is the symbolic one, as the entire company is built around the manipulation of symbols, myths, and stories.

Disney’s use of the symbolic frame is all-encompassing, straddling multiple formats and strategies. Animated films is only one part of the Disney enterprise. As the company grew, it extended its tentacles into the fully immersive environment of theme parks, and with those, Disney was able to generate potentially limitless categories of consumer goods and merchandise branded with its characters.

All aspects of the Walt Disney Company, including its human resources management, its political culture, and its organizational structure, depend on the salience of the stories the company tells and sells. Disney manages to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy by leveraging archetypes, myths, and symbols. Its marketing strategies are aligned well with its strategic management objectives, ensuring that Disney will remain successful as a media, lifestyle, and entertainment conglomerate for many more generations.…