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Conceptual Analysis and Specification of Morgan’s Metaphors Using the Cast Method

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Conceptual analysis and specification of Morgan’s metaphors using the CAST method
Taken from: Gazendam, Henk W.M. (1993). Variety Controls Variety: On the Use of Organization Theories in Information Management. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff. 400 pp. ISBN 90-01-32950-0.

4.2. An overview of Morgan's metaphors Morgan (1986) distinguishes eight metaphors for organizations: machine, organism, brain, culture, political system, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and instrument of domination. Each metaphor highlights other aspects of organizational life (see Figure 4.1.). For further analysis, the metaphors can be grouped into three groups: the machine group, the organism group, and the mind group. The machine group only contains the machine metaphor (Paragraph 4.3.). The organism group focuses on the dynamic relationship of organization and environment and contains the organism metaphor and the flux and transformation metaphor (Paragraph 4.4.). The mind group (Paragraph 4.5.) contains two subgroups. The first mind subgroup concentrates on the relationship between the minds of persons and the organization as a social construct; it contains the brain metaphor, the culture metaphor, and the psychic prison metaphor. The second mind subgroup focuses on coordination mechanisms and power plays, and encompasses the political system metaphor and the instrument of domination metaphor.

metaphor machine

highlights efficiency, quality, and timeliness of production processes in a machine made up of interlocking parts attributes, structures, and development of organizations coping with their environments; evolutionary patterns in the interorganizational ecology the logic of change of organizations that dynamically and proactive adapt to an ecological environment effectiveness of information processing, problem solving and learning based on cognitive characteristics of

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