Since its first publication over twenty years ago, Images of Organization has become a classic in the canon of management literature. The book is based on a very simple premise—that all theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that stretch our imagination in a way that can create powerful insights, but at the risk of distortion. Gareth Morgan provides a rich and comprehensive resource for exploring the complexity of modern organizations internationally, translating leading-edge theory into leading-edge practice.
Gareth Morgan is well known for his creative contributions to management. He is the author of seven books, including Images of Organization, Creative Organization Theory, Imaginization and Riding the Waves of Change. He acts as consultant and seminar leader to numerous organizations throughout Europe and North America, and is Distinguished Research Professor at York University in Toronto. He has sat on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management, and Organization Studies; and is a Life Fellow of the International Academy of Management. Born in Wales, he now lives in Toronto with his wife, Karen and their children Evan and Heather.
Table of Contents
Preface Part I. An Overview Introduction Part II. Some Images of Organization 2. Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines Machines, Mechanical Thinking, and the Rise of Bureaucratic Organization The Origins of Mechanistic Organization Classical Management Theory: Designing bureaucratic organizations Scientific Management Strengths and Limitations of the Machine Metaphor 3. Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms Discovering Organizational Needs Recognizing the Importance of Environment: Organizations as Open Systems Contingency Theory: Adapting Organization to Environment The Variety of the Species Contingency Theory: Promoting Organizational Health and Development Natural Selection: The Population-Ecology View of Organizations Organizational Ecology: The Creation of Shared Futures Strengths and Limitations of the Organismic Metaphor 4. Learning and Self-Organization: Organizations as Brains Images of the Brain Organizations as Information Processing Brains Creating Learning Organizations Cybernetics, Learning, and Learning to Learn Can Organizations Learn to Learn? Guidelines for "Learning Organizations " Organizations as Holographic Brains Principles of Holographic Design Strengths and Limitations of the Brain Metaphors 5. Creating Social Realty: Organizations as Cultures Culture and Organization Organization as a Cultural Phenomenon Organization and Cultural Context Corporate Cultures and Subcultures Creating Organizational Reality Culture: Rule Following or Enactment? Organization: The enactment of a Shared Reality Strengths and Limitations of the Cultural Metaphor 6. Interests, Conflict, and Power: Organizations as Political Systems Organizations as Systems of Government Organizations as Systems of Political Activity Analyzing Interests Understanding Conflict Exploring Power Managing Pluralist Organizations Strengths and Limitations of the Political Metaphor 7. Exploring Plato's Cave: Organizations as Psychic Prisons The Trap of Favored Ways of Thinking Organization and the Unconscious Organization and Repressed Sexuality Organization and the Patriarchal Family Organization, Death, and Immortality Organization and Anxiety Organization, Dolls, and Teddy Bears Organization, Shadow, and Archetype The Unconscious: A Creative and Destructive Force Strengths and Limitations of the Psychic Prison Metaphor 8. Unfolding Logics of Change: Organization as Flux and Transformation Autopoiesis: Rethinking Relations With the Environment Enactment as a Form of Narcissism: Organizations Interact With Projections of Themselves Identity and Closure: Egocentrism Versus Systemic Wisdom Shifting "Attractors ": The Logic of Chaos and Complexity Managing in the Midst of Complexity Loops, Not Lines: The Logic of Mutual Causality Contradiction and Crisis: The Logic of Dialectical Change Dialectical Analysis: How Opposing Forces Drive Change The Dialectics of Management Strengths and Limitations of the Flux and Transformation Metaphor 9. The Ugly Face: Organizations as Instruments of Domination Organization as Domination How Organizations Use and Exploit Their Employees Organization, Class, and Control Work Hazards, Occupational Disease, and Industrial Accidents Workaholism and Social and Mental Stress Organizational Politics and the Radicalized Organization Multinationals and the World Economy The Multinationals as World Powers Multinationals: A Record of Exploitation? Strengths and Limitations of the Domination Metaphor Part III. Implications For Practice 10. The Challenge of Metaphor Metaphors Create Ways of Seeing and Shaping Organizational Life Seeing, Thinking, and Acting in New Ways 11. Reading and Shaping Organizational Life The Multicom Case Interpreting Multicom Developing and Detailed Reading and "Storyline " Multicom From Another View "Reading" and Emergent Intelligence 12. Postscript Bibliographic Notes Introduction The Machine Metaphor The Organismic Metaphor The Brain Metaphor The Culture Metaphor The Political Metaphor The Psychic Prison Metaphor The Flux and Transformation Metaphor The Domination Metaphor The Challenge of Metaphor Reading and Shaping Organizational Life Postscript Bibliography
