Orgaisation as Machine Metaphor
INDIVIDUAL PAPER 1: Applying the Machine Metaphor
Metaphors are often used in order to analyse organisations and theories of management by helping us to see and understand in a distinctive yet partial way (Morgan, 2006). The use of metaphors allows us to understand something by comparing it to an experience to which we are familiar. Akin & Palmer (2000 p 69) further explain the effectiveness of metaphors saying they “are integral to our language. It is through metaphors that we communicate.”
When using metaphors Morgan (2006) explains although they can create valuable insights we need to be aware that they can produce one-sided insight, create distortions, be incomplete, biased and possibly misleading.
During times of organizational change, metaphors can be particularly useful as stated by Akin & Palmer (2000 p 67) “A wide variety of metaphors have been applied to organizations, and the use of metaphors for diagnosis and intervention has become common for many organizational change agents”. Grey (2009 p 97) also confirms the use of metaphor during change but with a more cynical tone by writing “organization theory typically looks from, or through, a number of metaphors which have the effect of legitimizing the fetish of change”
A metaphor commonly used is for organizational analysis is organisation as machine, which Grey (2009) explains is the most longstanding of metaphors. Although the mechanistic society is evident in the earliest forms of organisation, the invention of machines along with the industrial revolution was when organisations really became mechanized due to organisations needing to adapt to the needs of machines. (Morgan 2006)
Most organizations that are designed to operate like machines are called bureaucracies and to some degree most organizations behave like machines in at least some areas of the business explained Morgan (2006). Behaving as a bureaucracy is not always ideal as Warwick (1974) explains bureaucracy is a concept
Metaphors are often used in order to analyse organisations and theories of management by helping us to see and understand in a distinctive yet partial way (Morgan, 2006). The use of metaphors allows us to understand something by comparing it to an experience to which we are familiar. Akin & Palmer (2000 p 69) further explain the effectiveness of metaphors saying they “are integral to our language. It is through metaphors that we communicate.”
When using metaphors Morgan (2006) explains although they can create valuable insights we need to be aware that they can produce one-sided insight, create distortions, be incomplete, biased and possibly misleading.
During times of organizational change, metaphors can be particularly useful as stated by Akin & Palmer (2000 p 67) “A wide variety of metaphors have been applied to organizations, and the use of metaphors for diagnosis and intervention has become common for many organizational change agents”. Grey (2009 p 97) also confirms the use of metaphor during change but with a more cynical tone by writing “organization theory typically looks from, or through, a number of metaphors which have the effect of legitimizing the fetish of change”
A metaphor commonly used is for organizational analysis is organisation as machine, which Grey (2009) explains is the most longstanding of metaphors. Although the mechanistic society is evident in the earliest forms of organisation, the invention of machines along with the industrial revolution was when organisations really became mechanized due to organisations needing to adapt to the needs of machines. (Morgan 2006)
Most organizations that are designed to operate like machines are called bureaucracies and to some degree most organizations behave like machines in at least some areas of the business explained Morgan (2006). Behaving as a bureaucracy is not always ideal as Warwick (1974) explains bureaucracy is a concept