Organizations read through eight metaphors
Morgan shows we can see organizations as machines, organisms, brains, cultures, political systems, psychic prisons, flux and instruments of domination. Each is a distinct interpretive frame.
Images of Organization
6 ideas
Machine metaphor and its limits
Viewing the firm as a machine yields efficiency, standardization and clarity. It breaks down in changing environments that demand adaptation and initiative.
Organization as organism
Seeing firms as living systems highlights environment-fit, open-system exchange and species-like organizational forms. It grounds contingency theory.
Organization as brain
The learning-organization lens frames firms as information-processing, self-organizing systems. It emphasizes double-loop learning and redundancy.
Every metaphor reveals and conceals
Each image illuminates some features while hiding others. Skilled managers hold several metaphors at once rather than committing to one.
Diagnosis precedes prescription
Morgan's method is to read a situation through multiple metaphors to generate insight before choosing action. Reading well is the analytic skill.