Reflection Journal #1 1
Reflection Journal #1
From the reading, Images of Organization Chapters 1 & 2
Reflection Journal #1
Chapters 1 & 2 In the first two chapters of Images of Organization, the author, Gareth Morgan defines the theory of metaphor and how it is applied to organization. He challenges the reader to examine metaphor as a tool that is used to understand and recognize organization (Morgan, 1998, p. 5). He also cautions against perceptual distortions and bias of metaphor. In chapter two, Morgan presents organization as a machine, illustrating the theories of Frederick the Great of Prussia, Max Weber, and Frederick Taylor. Chapter one introduces that the underlying thesis of this book is “all
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If everyone does their job according to the process, the organization, or tool, acts as a machine by delivering those predetermined results. Just like in the lion metaphor, the machine metaphor is biased. It ignores the fact that human beings make up the machine. As human components of this machine, we have feelings, opinions, imagination, and initiative that may or may not be part of our role within the machine. It did not come as a surprise to me to learn that much of what was originally learned and adapted about mechanistic organization was derived from the military. Frederick the Great of Prussia, who ruled from 1740 to 1786, was inspired by mechanical toys, such a mechanical men. He reformed his army into a machine with the inspiration of these automated toys and thereby reduced his soldiers to automatons. Much of what we understand of the military was developed through his early reformations: “military order and rank, specialization of jobs, command language, standardized and use of equipment, differentiation between command functions, fear of authority, and systematic training” (Morgan, 1998, p. 22). Through Frederick’s mechanistic army, his machine-like processes were adopted by both factory and office settings. However, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that these ideas were composed as a theory of organization and management. Max Weber is considered to be one of the first organization theorists. He theorized “the
When people talk to each other, they make widespread use of metaphor. In talk, metaphor is a shifting, dynamic phenomenon that spreads, connects, and disconnects with other thoughts and other speakers, starts and restarts, flows through talk developing, extending, and changing. Metaphor in talk both shapes the ongoing talk and is shaped by it. The creativity of metaphor in talk appears less in the novelty of connected domains and more in the use of metaphor to shape a discourse event and the adaptation of metaphor in the flow of talk. People use metaphor to think with, to explain themselves to others, to organize their talk, and their choice of metaphor often reveals- not only their conceptualizations- but also, and perhaps
He contended that they were characterized by social conflict and he additionally presented the “thought of the working class which he saw as comprising of those occupations bunches with capabilities and aptitudes that furnished them with business points of interest. In Weber's perspective, advanced society, particularly the Western world, is developing progressively think. As the reader will see, Weber viewed organization as a definitive case of justification. Consequently, Weber can be seen as being centrally concerned with the rationalization of society all in all and, all the more particularly, its
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.
Lakoff and Johnson state, “[w]e have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” (3). They are saying that metaphors are used all the time and not just when people talk, but when they think and in what they do. This is exactly true because after learning about metaphors, and getting a better understanding of them, I have realized how much I, and others, apply them to everyday life without even realizing it, or trying to. Using a metaphor to describe Haas and Flower’s reading concepts will therefore make for a better grasp of what the concepts mean.
Max Weber is a german sociologist that created a set of characteristics of rational social organizations and bureaucracy as a way to analyze and measure organizations. The organization that will be applied to these sets of characteristics will be the Target company. First, will be the five characteristics of bureaucracy and how it appears through the Target company.
By the conclusion of his paper, a reader can realize that their view of what is human and what makes a machine have blurred or even switched places. Carr’s writing explains where humans are through data, how the effects are taking place from the individual to the global world, and finally the haunting illustration of where humanity is more cruel and unfeeling than the machines. In a world with less and less deeper reading, the threat we pose to the future becomes more
In Tony Fry’s book, A New Design History, he wrote about what the war resulted in, in the aspect of machine and strategy design. Fry addresses 5 machines; The Macedonian phalanx, the stirrup, Mechanical vision, the tank road and pre-loaded logistics (Fry, 1999, pp. 39-45).
Organizational metaphors help researchers to shape concepts of behaviors, management, and structure in a simple and easy for the perception image. Organizational theorists broadly utilize this tool to classify different types of companies in the contemporary world and to reflect their evolution throughout the history of organizational development. The metaphors of machine and organism have been used most frequently to facilitate understanding and communication about the complex phenomenon of organization (Smircich, p. 340).
Basic modern military organization at the company level and above was invented between 1789 and 1815
There are many Management Theorists who have devised ways in which a business can achieve success efficiently. The two management theorists that I am going to talk about are Fredrick Winslow Taylor and Max Weber, and I will also compare and contrast their contributions to the field of management. There are 4 main classical theories in management which are: 1. Scientific Management 2. Bureaucracy 3. Administrative Management 4. Human Relations. The two that I will be focusing on for this assignment are Scientific Management and Bureaucracy. Frederick Taylor (March 20th, 1856-March 21st, 1915) was an American Engineer. He sought to improve industrial efficiency in the workplace. The birth of Scientific Method is attributed to Taylor and his main
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
essential for their success. Skilled managers or leaders have the ability to read situations from different perspectives in order to understand and manage an organization. This art of reading and understanding organizational life are based on different theories of metaphors that enable management and organization to improve productivity. Organizational life is explored in the form of different metaphors and these metaphors would further explain how management can see, understand and manage organizations in a more effective way. This essay is based upon the deep understanding of the ways that organizations employ management practices and critically reflect this practice. Through this essay I draw on my own experience with a managerial problem in the past in order to relate them with different metaphors. That would further provide an overview of the different theories of organization and management that are based on implicit metaphors. Metaphors can be used to find new ways of seeing, understanding and framing situations within an organization. Furthermore, different metaphors may then further assist management to develop new insights and perspectives and assist in learning and building strengths of different points of view. In addition, this essay also assists in better understanding of three different metaphors concepts and their theories through analysing a managerial problem within an organization. The metaphors that are critically used to analyse the problem are
In order to fully understand Valve’s organization and the problems inside the company, a diagnostic reading is necessary. This will be done by viewing the organization from each of Morgan’s eight metaphors in an objective manner, and identifying which parts of the organizational structure are relevant to each metaphor.
Mechanistic structures are designed to induce people to behave in predictable, accountable ways. Decision-making authority is centralized, subordinates are closely supervised, and information flows mainly in a vertical direction down a clearly defined hierarchy. In a mechanistic structure the tasks associated with a role are also clearly defined. There is usually a one-to-one correspondence between a person and a task (figure 1 depicts this). Each person is individually specialized and knows exactly what he or she is responsible for, and behavior inappropriate to the role is discouraged or prohibited.
Mechanistic – A mechanistic organisation is an idea grew by English scholars Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker in their work titled "the management of innovation" (1961). As indicated by them, qualities of a mechanistic organisation mix a high level of learned many-sided quality, solution and concentration.