WHAT+SHE+WANTS

Type in the content of your page here **2. Situation Analysis:** In your teams, please prepare a study of an organizational situation. It’s usually best to focus the study around a particular situation so you can report a ‘good story’, like a docudrama. The choice of the situation to analyze is **//a critical//** team decision; it needs to be one that permits rigorous and imaginative analysis. Therefore, you must submit a brief description of the situation you want to analyze by **January 25** **th** **, 2010**.

**Please note that your situation analysis will not be graded if you have not submitted the initial description.**

Organizational analysis involves a process of thinking about the situation, constructing and reconstructing it in different ways that seem consistent with //its// nature, so that you can say something that can provide a basis for intelligent action. If the analysis has been done well, the courses of action for managing or changing the situation should become apparent. The study requires you to do the following:

(1) identify and describe an interesting and rich organizational situation, (2) apply the frames and concepts we are studying to help make sense of the situation and discuss how and why they do so (3) provide contextually appropriate courses of action for better managing the situation.

The site can be formal (e.g., a corporation or a public agency) or informal (e.g., a hospital waiting room). Usually, you need to negotiate an agreement with the organization but such an agreement may not be possible if you’re studying a public arena. Mutual understanding and confidentiality are vital if you’re studying ‘backstage’ in an organization or when you’re interviewing. If you need a letter to gain access or support, I’ll be glad to write one.


 * Section 1** should present a rich descriptive account of the nature of the situation. It should provide sufficiently detailed information for me to understand not only the situation, but also the nature of the organization //and// its context.


 * Section 2** should present a series of sections applying the frames from the //Text//.


 * Section 3** is to produce a rigorous analysis of the situation and to present your recommendations. You are to select and explain which //frame(s)// is/are most effective and convincing for analyzing the particular situation and recommend courses of action for managing or changing the situation.

In an appendix, please describe and justify your methodology. The study, excluding appendices, should be about 6250 words. See Chapter 20 of the //Text// for an example of (re)framing, i.e., Robert F. Kennedy High School.

Section 1 will be evaluated for the thoroughness and care with which you describe the situation and the complexity of the situation itself. Sections 2 and 3 will be evaluated for your demonstrated understanding of relevant theories and the quality of your discussion linking theory to data.