Explain The Four Metaphors Of An Organization

A private sector is usually composed of organisations which are privately owned and not part of a government; whereas a public sector is composed of organisations that are owned by the government and voluntary sectors are composed of individuals of who seek help in charitable activities. Private sectors include corporations such as partnerships and charities, like the voluntary sectors, and the public sectors include corporations such as federal, provincial, state or municipal governments. An example of a private sector is a retail store or credit unions, and example of a public sector is an educational or

Following Bolman and Deal’s organizational structure and human resource frames, the third frame could arguably be the most impacting on an organizations employee’s sight and reference regarding their organization’s culture. Symbolic framing views organizations as theaters (Bolman & Deal, 2008; 2015), where its employees are acting out their duties and responsibilities grounded in the organization’s myths, values, ceremonies and rituals (Bolman & Deal, 2008; Henderson, 2015). In this regard, organizations are often judged more on their performance in a theatrical sense, than the product outcomes themselves, as the performance creates alignment in its employees (Smith, 2012). In the structural frame, we understood that organizations obtain efficiency through proper alignment in departmental and communication lines, identifying excess in order to streamlining processes. The human resource frame encouraged us to conceptualize that organizations achieve success by focusing on who is in the right or wrong position and acknowledging the needs of the employees, certifying that both employee and organizational needs should be met to promote organizational success. The symbolic frame challenges us to view the organization from a different perspective, looking deeper into the organization’s culture as the answer for alignment and unity toward a common goal. Symbolic framing aims to capture the hearts and minds of all those involved in the organization, as symbols are often the

• 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.

Organizations are social entities that are driven by goals that are designed intentionally, and coordinated activity systems and they are linked to the external environment. It means that the organization should have a way of linking the internal and external environments. Organizations are made of people and the relationship between the people is essential. There is a deliberate move by organization management to come up with structures that ensure coordination of

The symbolic frame focuses on symbols and meanings. Understanding the symbolic frame of an organization can help shape a culture that gives purpose and meaning to work. There is a definite relationship between organizational culture and successful project management. For example, the IMS project at company XYZ failed mainly due to low risk tolerance due to time constraint, weak unit integration within the team and inadequate support for any work related conflict.

          An organization, in its simplest form, is comprised of people brought together to achieve a common goal whether it be solving a problem, selling a product or providing a service. The existence of the organization is wholly dependent on the collective body of individuals involved and it is these individuals that are the driving force behind the success or failure of a company. The relationships that connect the people within the organization dictate how the culture is developed and perceived.

However, they tend to have a focus on certain organizational aspects making the modern organization system be a blend of the three major perspectives. Based on organizational science that was formulated in the early 20th century there has been an emergence of rational, open and natural system theorists that explain the functioning of the organizations.

“The employees were complaining for months and somehow the situation escalated to become hostile” Said the assistant Joe Haley. An organization as an entity, a whole, resembles a precise piece of machinery, because there are so many components need to function at the same time in order to make the machine work. As long as one part begins to malfunction, it will eventually influence other parts and create a vicious Domino effect, which damages the entire system quickly if not repaired

In chapter four Miller talked about how organizations use two different metaphors, the systems metaphor and the cultural metaphor. Organizations can be a system metaphor in the sense that everything is connected with each other and to help actually make up the organization. Miller talked about how organizations are made up of three concepts, hierarchical ordering, interdependence and permeability. With hierarchical ordering a system is organized in a complex way that has big and small systems. For example with the retail company I work for our store alone is a small system that is a part of a bigger system which is the Aldo Brand with many different stores internationally. My store is independent because we would not be able to function without the resources we get from our corporate offices. Our company is permeable because it has to know our environment and release information to get the clientele we would like to see in our stores.

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

The four metaphors addressed on the article were fire, which represented ambition, snowball represented accountability, mask represented authenticity and finally movie represented self-reflection. This were ways that a leader could become more effective and analyses what is working both professionally and personally. Based on the 360-degree feedback the CEO’s received from their personal effectiveness, the company’s financial performance, approval from their customers and finally employee engagement. The metaphors in this article acted as a catalyst for change in their organizations (Fuda & Badham, 2011).

Study in organizational culture began in the early 1980s. Organizational culture is “work group culture” and involves organization’s personality. Organizational culture includes shared philosophies, ideologies, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitudes, norms and values (Fred Lunenburg, Allan Ornstein, 2012, p. 55). Most organizational cultures include observed behavioral regularities, norms, dominant values, philosophy, rules, and feelings. Organizational cultures includes certain input such as the energy imported by organizations from the environment in the form of information, people, and materials (Fred Lunenburg, Allan Ornstein, 2012, p. 55). This input energy must guide organizational behavior toward shared goals and process. Organizations produce an output because of the input into the

LO2 Demonstrate the interrelationship of the various functions within an organization and how they link to organizational structure.