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Publications
Publications
  • 2024
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Transforming the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Outcome and Process Framing

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:62
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Abstract

This twelve-year qualitative study examines how Director Robert Mueller and his senior team profoundly transformed the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Drawing on 138 interviews within the FBI and Mueller’s testimonies to Congress, we trace how the FBI shifted from being a law enforcement agency, focused on solving crimes after they occurred, to being an intelligence agency, centered on preventing attacks before they occurred. Our data uncover the critical role that cognitive framing played in the transformation: three times senior leaders reframed the FBI in ways that reflected and guided the agency’s internal changes and that accounted for and shaped the reactions of internal and external stakeholders. By comparing these three reframings, we uncover a novel theoretical distinction between two different types of framing. Outcome framing focuses on explaining “what” an organization does and centers on the organization as optimized towards achieving specific results, while process framing focuses on “how” an organization undertakes its work and centers on the organization as optimized towards deploying particular processes. We explore how outcome framing and process framing serve as different but complementary elements of leading strategic organizational change.

Keywords

Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Government and Politics; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Citation

Raffaelli, Ryan, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati, and Jan Rivkin. "Transforming the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Outcome and Process Framing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-084. (Revise and Resubmit.)

About The Authors

Ryan L. Raffaelli

Organizational Behavior
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Tiona W. Zuzul

Strategy
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Ranjay Gulati

Organizational Behavior
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Jan W. Rivkin

Strategy
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More from the Authors

    • June 2025
    • Strategic Management Journal

    Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

    By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin
    • May 2025
    • Faculty Research

    BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems?

    By: Jan Rivkin
    • May 2025 (Revised May 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    Daiichi Sankyo: Steering a Global Organization

    By: Tiona Zuzul, Amy C. Edmondson and Cat Huang
More from the Authors
  • Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin
  • BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems? By: Jan Rivkin
  • Daiichi Sankyo: Steering a Global Organization By: Tiona Zuzul, Amy C. Edmondson and Cat Huang
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