Running head: CLARK CASE STUDY’S 1

Clark Case Study on Morgan Metaphor

Cynthia J. Clark

AMU

09/5/2017
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Clark Case Study on Morgan Metaphor

When searching for articles for the case studies, two articles gain my attention. Article 1:

The emotional dimensions of metaphors of change, and Using metaphors to teach organizations

theory. The purpose I had chosen these two articles was because all business uses some type of

Morgan’s metaphor. Education is one of the organizations that teach their students in the

metaphors and other details in the world. We will go over the details and the results of these

businesses by analyzing the emotions and how they are taught in organizational theory.

Problems and Critical issues ranked

The cases study with the dimensions of metaphors of change, its purpose was to use

different metaphors to have insight on how the emotional outlook would be in the organizational

change and how easy would it be caught in the conventional language. With this study, they tried

to analyze the emotional feel of different organizations including education to see how it could

be implemented in the organizations. The problems are how to bridge the gap in the metaphors

with the staff in different settings. Example: Morgan (2006) refers to “organization as flux and

transformation.” Bartunek and Mock, 1987 uses first, second and third order change is an

overarching metaphor.

According to Tabor, metaphors are used teach systems thinking and to clarify concepts of

organizational theory. In an organizational, it is hard for an individual to access their personal

feelings and express them, especially with their own ideas. With this study, they had students do

various exercises with metaphors to have an understanding of them. The outcome of this exercise

was that the metaphors were not all that effective to every student. According to the findings

from a research in 1996, to have a metaphor to be effective it must bear an appropriate

resemblance to properties of the entity it is intended to describe. (Tabor, 2007)

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Proposed solutions

Through the emotional dimensions of the metaphors of change, the proposed solutions

would be to explore more of the emotional feeling that is embedded in the metaphors. This is

not just by actors or students. This would be a great lesson for the managers to help create

effective messages and to help their staff understand the responses and the changes.

Through the metaphors to teach organization theory, determines that if the metaphors are

to be effective they should help create images and vivid, concise and easy to understand. The

companies that use the metaphors sure suggest a resemblance to the new context in which they

are applied. This could evoke a strong, familiar, visual image. (Tabr,2007)

Recommendations and Communicated Solutions

After reading through these studies, the recommendation for the is for the companies not

to pressure change on the managers to perform closely related to emotion. Managers are the key

to communicating not matter what company they work at. According to Smollan, “There was

just so much detail in managing the process we knew we couldn’t drop the call.” Another

similarly “It was the pressure, we had so many balls in the air and were juggling the priorities

and switching instantly from on to the next.” The company needs to help communicate how

specific they want their missions completed. Tabor had replied that the communication via

metaphors is accurate to the extent that the received message is appropriate and functional. If the

managers learn how to communicate, then things will be a little easier.

Takeaways/Benefits

My take away is that no matter who uses the Morgan metaphors is in our everyone

environment. If the managers’ staff has an open mind the metaphor views an organization as a
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goal -oriented entity of differentiated components. The benefits are we can communicate for

instance in organizational theory that we are knowledgeable and it is not artificial.

Conclusion

It is understood that I needed to analyze one company, but in my eyes, all companies go

through rough times when it comes to metaphors. Education and organizational theory in

teaching are one of these organizations that use these metaphors. When emotion comes into play

then it controversy adds miscommunication and struggles. The benefits of the metaphors are to

be able to communicate with the staff more stable. Of If companies do exercises like the studies,

they could find the emotional state of their staff.

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References

Smollan, R. K. (2014). The emotional dimensions of metaphors of change. Journal of Managerial

Psychology, 29(7), 794-807. doi:10.1108/JMP-04-2012-0107

Taber, T. D. (2007). Using metaphors to teach organization theory. Journal of Management

Education, 31(4), 541-554. doi:10.1177/1052562906289663