Frames are the means by which managers make sense of
ambiguous information from their environments. Actors
each had cognitive frames about the direction the market
was taking and about what kinds of solutions would be
appropriate. Where frames about a strategic choice were
not congruent, actors engaged in highly political
framing practices to make their frames resonate and to
mobilize action in their favor. Those actors who most
skillfully engaged in these practices shaped the frame
that prevailed in the organization. This framing
perspective suggests that frames are not only
instrumental tools for the ex post justification of
actions taken through power, but rather are an ex ante
part of the political process that produces decisions.
Uncertainty opens up the possibility for new actors to
gain power, and contesting frames is a way of changing
the power structures in the organization. A principal
contribution of the framing contests model is to locate
a middle ground between cognitive and political models
of strategy making, one in which frames are both
constraints and resources and outcomes can be shaped by
purposeful action and interaction to make meaning.
pdf 2008