Describe Two of the Organisational Metaphors Studied and Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of Each.

There are a lot of reasons for the rank structure and the chain of command. Every reason that I am going to explain in this essay is very important. I am going to separate them into two paragraphs. The first paragraph will be about the importance of the rank structure and why the rank structure is in place. The second paragraph will be about the importance of the chain of command and why the chain of command is set into place.

• The Symbolic Framework draws on social and cultural anthropology. The organization is thought to be akin to tribes or theater; they are cultures that operate based on ceremonies, rituals, rules, myths, policies, stories, heroes and managerial authority (Bolman and Deal 1991, p. 16). Everyone in the organization is an actor who is basically playing a prescribed role (Bolman and Deal 1991, p. 16).

This paper discussed both Bolman and Deal’s four frames of organizations and Morgan’s metaphors to make sense of Apple Inc by applying interrelationships of frames with metaphors. Under the lens of both theories, Apple's structural framework in relation to the political system metaphor while the human resource frame used with the machine metaphor to indicate the practical shortcoming being encountered in the company on a day-to-day basis. In addition to perceiving problems in the company, possible solutions and recommendations also presented.

Behavioral Management Theory is the understanding and response of employee needs to enforce motivation. This theory guides management in a better understanding of the human aspect. It involves management to treat employees as important resources in the workforce. The goal is to raise productivity and to do this by motivating employees. Motivating employees can involve incentives like employee bonuses, promotions, and the collection and redeeming of points for rewards. As the management takes interest in employees, it makes them feel like an important part of the puzzle, and in turn motivates employees to work harder. Like in most cases, if the employees are satisfied and working conditions are good, productivity raises automatically. A theorist by the name of Mayo Hawthorne devised an experiment that allowed a group of telephone line workers to be separated and observed in a private room. The controlled group of employees increased greatly in productivity. This brought the human relations movement that involved management spending time, showing interest, and rewarding employees to increase productivity. Employees felt management was

Elton Mayo- is considered the pioneer of the human relations approach to improve levels of productivity and satisfaction. This approach was first highlighted by the improvements known as Hawthrone Experiments. The Hawthorne studies centered on how workers reacted to actions of management, how variations in physical working conditions affected output, and how social interactions among workers affected job performance (Milakovich and Gordon, 2013). A number of experiments were conducted on the workers to find out the impact of different situations on their efficiency. Mayo advocated for the understanding of personnel problems in the context of growth of science and technology. He wanted the management to understand the problems of workers and make efforts to compensation them. As such, the Mayo’s research established the human relations school of organization theory, which stressed the social and

Chain of command can be defined as a line of authority that extends from the top level of the organization to its lowest level. Chain of demand clearly defines that who is accountable to whom and what tasks are to be performed by all the employees. In addition to that, it also clarifies that who should be contacted when any critical situation or problem occurs. Managers usually use the chain of command while assigning jobs to the employees as it helps the employees in understanding who should they report to and who should they contact in case of a problem. There are three basic components of the chain of command (Mahida). The components are listed below:

Elton Mayo is best known for the Hawthorne effect. Mayo was well educated, studying at several different universities including engineering at the University of Glasgow. Mayo faced a lot of rejection during his career but his work greatly influenced our working environments today. He believed that industries were destroying communal harmony and that production would increase if the workers were better taken care of. He is quoted as saying that workers must rise above “indignation and frustration which the…new industrial society forced on workers” (Hoopes 130). These new managerial styles in addition to a capitalist leaning society created an unfriendly environment for the majority of workers. Despite his attempts, his theories and ideas often fell

The relationship between different organisational functions and how they link to organisational objectives and structure.

Morgan used the metaphor organizations as culture to frame the complex relationships that exist within organizations. Examining organizations through metaphor allows one to imagine concepts and ideas through their own experiences. According to Morgan the power of metaphors is their ability to challenge innovative reasoning. Metaphors combine language and thought to develop new non-literal meanings, when applied they shape and enhance our reality. According to Morgan there has been extensive research regarding the metaphor of organizations as culture. Culture became a hot topic following the introduction of Westernization management styles into the Japanese commercial markets (p. 120). Morgan says that “organization itself is a cultural phenomenon” (p. 120). Culture is a system of knowledge, ideology, values, laws and day to day rituals. By considering organizations as culture, we can focus on the concepts related to the values, beliefs, knowledge, and ethos of the organization. As such we can use this metaphor to understand leadership and organizational behavior through the language and symbols that are most meaningful to us personally. Employees who wish to remain in their organization do best if they understand the components of the culture where they are employed.

Metaphors help simplify complex concepts by integrating an already know term to a new term, therefore making it more comprehensible to the readers. In his book, Images of Organization, Gareth Morgan (2006) simply applied metaphors in bringing to our understanding the different perspectives and faces of organizations (Bottero, K, 2013) This paper would pinpoint and attempt to examine the major metaphoric postulations of Gareth Morgan’s Images of Organization. As Morgan would say, the entire management and organizational theories essentially emanate from implicit mind frames or metaphors that attempt to convince humans to see, know and visualize situations in

George Elton Mayo is credited with founding the human relations movement. Mayo conducted an experiment in the 1920’s and 1930’s know as the Hawthorne study. Two of the main aspects of the study centered around illumination in the work place and varying levels of break time and work hours (Wickström, 2000). The illumination study consisted of four different experiments over the course of three years. In each experiement, there was a control group and a study group. In the varying studies, the researchers experimented with varying levels of light and varying sequences of increasing and decreasing the level of light (“Hawthorne effect”). Throughout the experiments, researchers would often find patterns of increased productivity, leading them to believe that they had

The studies failed to prove any positive correlations between workplace conditions and productivity. The results of the studies demonstrated that innate forces of human behavior may have a greater influence on organizations than do mechanistic incentive systems. The legacy of the Hawthorne studies and other organizational research efforts of that period began to emphasize the importance of individual and group interaction, humanistic management skills, and social relationships in the workplace.

It is unclear, however, how such distinction is actually achieved. Using the example of organization science in Germany and France, this paper demonstrates the significance of cultural factors in the country-specific characteristics of metaphors of organization science. The basic premise here is that dominant metaphors of organization guiding scientists and practitioners can be differentiated by intercultural comparison. Through such comparison, the emphasis of organizational research and the patterns of organizational structures differ accordingly. In an empirical study, Gibson and Zellmer-Bruhn (2001) have shown how images of teamwork differ through international comparison, and that the cultural dimensions of ‘power distance’ and ‘individualism’ (Hofstede, 1980) have a major bearing on the emergence of differing preferences for metaphors. For instance, the competition metaphor for teamwork is seen to dominate in individualistic cultures. This paper evaluates available studies on organizational theory and practice in Germany and France with the aim of isolating the respective dominant images of organization and to identify

This discussion will first look at the organization as an organism. Then, discuss the implications of open systems and the importance of the environment. Finally, evaluate the strengths and limitations of the organismic metaphor.

The chain of command is an important structure in the military. First it allows problem to be handled at the lowest level possible in the command. If a military personnel has a problem he would go to his NCO first before going to their SCNOs or Commander; this way he isn’t stepping on people’s feet and everyone is aware of the situation so they can get it fixed. You also have to think of it in a war situation. If there was no chain of command then everyone would think they are in charge. If an NCO tells a private to go do this, then the private knows to just go do it. If there was no chain of command then the private would probably try and tell the NCO off and then he will probably end up getting shot by the enemy. You work your way