Putting Framing in Perspective: A Review of Framing and Frame Analysis across the Management and Organizational Literature

There are few constructs that are as ubiquitous across traditions of management and organizational research, and indeed the social sciences more generally, as that of frame or framing. The widespread popularity and use of the concept has led to rich streams of research, ranging from work in managerial cognition and decision-making to strategic and organizational change, and social movements and institutions. At the same time, the popularity of framing across these literatures has perhaps also come at a price. Indeed, it has meant that these streams of research have essentially developed along separate paths, despite the prospect and promise of a greater connection between them. In this paper, our general aim is to consolidate and advance the current body of research on framing in the management and organizational literature. We do this by providing an extensive review of the key research traditions on framing across this literature, noting the salient contributions to date and highlighting potential areas for further theoretical development and research. Building on this review, we also elaborate on connections across traditions of research; we hope these will serve as pointers to instigate further research on framing processes across different levels of analysis.