Gareth Morgan
Images of Organizations

Organizations as Machines

The central thesis of Gareth Morgan’s book ‘Images of Organizations’ is that all developed theories of organization are based on implicit metaphors.
By this, the author tries to give a deeper insight into the nature and design of organizations, as they have tremendously changed and further developed over time.
In the following, I will demonstrate how the metaphor ‘Organizations as Machines’ can be used to highlight certain aspects of organizations and to generate deep understandings of the nature of organization as well as organizational life referring to this distinct, very sophisticated metaphor.

Viewing an organization as a machine shapes our perceptions, expectations and actions in profound ways. We take for granted our ability to design and operate machines to do exactly what we want them to do. We expect consistent performance, each part executing its function without variation.
Planning in a mechanistic organization can be seen as the creation or construction of a detailed blueprint, everything exercised to efficiency and maximization with predictable outcome, standardized and designed as precisely as possible to diminish any possible endangerments. When seeing an organization as a machine, the plan would obviously be the focus. Despite, it is not important who created the plan or who participated in drafting it, but the quality of the plan is of capital importance. It is the basis, the foundation of all future activities.
The planning process can also be seen as writing operating instructions, how to do something, in which order, when and with whom.
The plan itself is the purpose of the organization, there is nothing besides the plan and everything has to be done in order to fulfill or to achieve the fixed goals, so the organization can ‘run like clockwork’ or like a ‘well-oiled