In the business model canvas of Zama Middle High School
Achieving the goals of an organization is dependent on the patterns, designs, and strategies employed. Understanding the structure of a business organization can best be depicted through the use of theoretical lenses. Morgan’s metaphors and Bolman and Deal’s framing aid in clarifying the application of patterns, designs, and strategies in a business model. According to Morgan, organizations can best be understood through the use of metaphors which he classifies into eight categories; organization as a machine, organism, brain, cultural system, political system, instruments of domination, and as flux and transformation (Morgan, 1980). On the other hand, Bolman and Deal’s frames of organization structure are categorized into four, these are; structural, political, human resource, and symbolic frames (Bolman & Deal, 1991).
In the business model canvas of Zama Middle High School, there is the use of patterns, designs, and strategies in attaining the ultimate goal of the school. Patterns in Zama Middle High School are observed through location finding, lesson scheduling, and the governing rules as observed in other departments of defense schools. The use of designs is evident in the management structure as clear roles and responsibilities of personnel are outlined. Strategy at Zama Middle High School is observed in the recruitment of learners as well as the political approach used in collaborating with the host community. Understanding the root of these patterns, designs, and strategies are best done through the use of Morgan’s metaphors of organism and machines as well the organization frames of political, structural, and human resources as explained by Bolman and Deal.
Morgan’s metaphor of the organization as an organism best fits the structure that Zama Middle High School use. Organization as an organism as explained by Gareth Morgan is evident when an organization is structured into consideration to the environment it operates and how well to survive in that environment. As a subsidiary of the Department of Defense Education Activity School (DoDEA), Zama Middle High School is situated in the foreign land of Japan. Therefore, to best operate in that environment, negotiations with concerned parties are paramount despite the schools being developed within military protectorate land. The community surrounding the military installation must be negotiated with and the laws of the land must be followed to ensure the operations of the schools satisfy all the concerned parties. The efforts of DoDEA in negotiating with the stakeholders in a foreign country to come up with a working relationship can best be, moreover, explained through the political frame advanced by Bolman and Deal. The political frame of an organization emphasizes the proceedings and efforts that organizations take to fit in a given political environment. Negotiating with the foreign land of Japan to acquire a co-existing relationship, Zama Middle High School exhibit the suiting scenario of how metaphors and frames are used to understand the structure of an organization.
Moreover, Zama Middle High School structure can be understood through the use of Morgan’s metaphor of the organization as a machine. Morgan, through this metaphor, clarifies that an organization should be seen as a machine in attempts to achieve effectiveness in the roles of everyone. Just as machines operate in an organized order to produce an outcome repeatedly so does an organization with the right leadership (Taber, 2007). The metaphor of machines by Morgan is best supplemented with the structural frame of Bolman and Deal. The structural frame incorporates the design adopted by an organization in coordinating activities. The structural frame includes the roles, technology used, and the goals that an organization has designed to achieve. Zama Middle High School has designed its organization based on a general vision and pattern to achieve set goals. The school has different departments with heads and subordinates with specific tasks who work together to enable the organization to move along just like a machine. For example, the role of assistant administrator is to ensure the smooth running of the school through ensuring a smooth supply chain, handling human resource conflicts, and to make necessary adjustments. Moreover, departments work strategically with each other to supplement the requirement of each given department. For instance, the finance department ensures a coordinated system to effectively ensure all other departments have the necessary finances as needed.
Organizations are created to serve us with what we cannot serve ourselves. Understanding the needs of the people targeted by an organization is key in developing the right organization to meet their needs. Zama Middle High School is one of 172 schools developed by DoDEA to solely meet the purpose of offering free education to eligible dependents rooting from military families or the surrounding community. One of the major purposes of establishing DoDEA, therefore, rooted in the difficulty that military personnel in affording their families and dependents quality education. Understanding such a need of the military personnel helps in structuring the strategy necessary to ensure universal access of education to the eligible dependents. Zama High School Business Model Canvas incorporates how learners are recruited and cover the recruitment for tuition-paying parents. Designing the rules to come up with who pays and who does not pay tuition fees can best be understood through the human resource frame. According to Bolman and Deal, an organization must understand that human resource is the most important and that humans have needs which they strive to satisfy. Acknowledging and providing help towards the needs exposed by human resources is evident in the model of Zama Middle High School through the department of defense providing educational services to its needy personnel. Through satisfying such a need for its personnel, the department of defense benefits by getting full focus from military personnel.
The long-serving years of Zama Middle High School are evidence that the organization has been operating effectively. The success is owed to the patterns, designs, and strategies that they employed in structuring the organization. Understanding the patterns, designs, and strategies that the Department of Defense used in establishing Zama Middle High School can be achieved through the use of metaphors and frames of organization structure. Morgan’s metaphors of the organization as organism and machine are observed throughout the designs that Zama Middle High School has been set up as. Moreover, Bolman and Deal’s four-frame model is key in understanding the patterns and strategies adopted by Zama Middle High School.
References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (1991). Leadership and management effectiveness: A multi‐frame, multi‐sector analysis. Human resource management, 30(4), 509-534.
Morgan, G. (1980). Paradigms, metaphors, and puzzle solving in organization theory. Administrative science quarterly, 605-622.
Taber, T. D. (2007). Using metaphors to teach organization theory. Journal of Management Education, 31(4), 541-554.