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Metaphor and Organizations
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Metaphor and Organizations

Edited by:

December 1996 | 272 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
The use of metaphors underpins the expectations, behavior, and strategies that govern all aspects of organizational life, including the theory and study of organizations. Metaphor and Organizations collects critical essays from renowned scholars in the field that analyze the role of metaphor. It not only extends existing debates concerning metaphor and the analysis of organizations but also generates new concepts and theories. The contributors provide an understanding of how metaphors work and familiarize the reader with key areas of debate concerning their use. They consider the role of metaphor in creating new theories of organization and in reinterpreting existing theories as well as go beyond the theoretical context to examine the metaphor in light of organizational experience. In this volume the metaphor reveals itself as a potentially powerful tool with which to manage the organization, affecting attitudes and behavior, and relevant in real organizational situations. In addition, the book offers an agenda for the use of metaphors in organization research and suggests new directions that this research might take. Metaphor and Organizations brings together a rich collection of authoritative views on the use of metaphors in organizations and organization studies. It will be of particular interest to all students and academics in management/organizational theory, behavior, and development as well as industrial/organizational psychology.

David Grant and Cliff Oswick
Introduction
Getting the Measure of Metaphors

 
 
PART ONE: METAPHORS OF ORGANIZATION: SCOPE AND APPLICATION
Iain L Mangham
Some Consequences of Taking Gareth Morgan Seriously
Geoffrey MacKechnie and Gemma Donnelly-Cox
Metaphor in the Development of Organization Theory
Gerrit Broekstra
The Triune-Brain Metaphor
The Evolution of the Living Organization

 
Stewart R Clegg and John T Gray
Metaphors in Organizational Research
Of Embedded Embryos, Paradigms and Powerful People

 
 
PART TWO: METAPHORS OF ORGANIZING: LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE
Richard Dunford and Ian Palmer
Metaphors in Popular Management Discourse
The Case of Corporate Restructuring

 
Dawn E Inns and Philip J Jones
Metaphor in Organization Theory
Following in the Footsteps of the Poet?

 
Robert Chia
Metaphors and Metaphorization in Organizational Analysis
Thinking beyond the Thinkable

 
 
PART THREE: METAPHORS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS: IMPACT AND OUTCOMES
Robert J Marshak
Metaphors, Metaphoric Fields and Organizational Change
Timothy Clark and Graeme Salaman
Telling Tales
Management Consultancy as the Art of Story Telling

 
Erik D[o with a line thru]oving
In the Image of Man
Organizational Action, Competence and Learning

 
Heather H[um]opfl and Julie Maddrell
Can You Resist a Dream? Evangelical Metaphors and the Appropriation of Emotion
 
PART FOUR: METAPHOR AND ORGANIZATIONS: ISSUES AND DIRECTIONS
Cliff Oswick and David Grant
The Organization of Metaphors and the Metaphors of Organization
Where Are We and Where Do We Go from Here?

 
Gareth Morgan
An Afterword
Is There Anything More to Be Said about Metaphor?

 

`This anthology presents some current ideas and controversies on the uses of metaphors in organizational studies and offers a valuable overview of the field. It is composed of eleven papers, framed by a lucid introduction and a concluding summary and suggestions for future research by the editors' - Work, Employment and Society