How Organisations Really Work
Adapted from Gareth Morgan (1986)
Morgan, G (1986) Images of Organization. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA
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Organisational Metaphors
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Morgan (1986) suggests the way we think about
organisations will affect the way we plan and
organise change.
He identified 8 organisational metaphors to
describe ‘types’ of organisations.
Cameron (2006) focuses on 4 main ‘types’
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Organisations as Machines
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Procedures and standards are clearly defined and
it is expected that they will be adhered to
Key beliefs:
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Employees should have specific roles with clear
objectives and only have one line manager
Management control employees and employees are
disciplined
Assumptions about change:
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Change is agreed by those in positions of authority
There will be resistance and this needs to be managed
Change will work if well planned and well controlled
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Organisations as Political Systems
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Recognise the role of power play, competing
interests and conflict have in an organisation
Key beliefs:
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You can’t stay out of organisational politics
You must build support for your approach and
consider resources
You need to know who is powerful and who they are
close to
Assumptions about change:
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Change needs to be supported by a powerful person
The wider the support for change the better
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Organisations as Organisms
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Places emphasis on scanning the environment and
adapting to the knowledge
Key beliefs:
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Social needs of individuals and groups need to be met
Communication between difference parts of the
organisation is key
Assumptions about change:
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Individuals and groups must be aware of the need for
change in order for them to be able to adapt
Changes are only made in response to the external
environment
Participation is needed for change to work
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Organisations as Flux and Transformation
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We can never be fully in control of change
Key beliefs:
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Order naturally emerges out of chaos
Organisational life does not necessarily following the
rules of cause and effect i.e. If you change something it
affects something else.
Assumptions about change:
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Change cannot be managed, it emerges
Managers act as enablers, they enable the exchange of
views and manage significant differences
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Tasks
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Which metaphor most closely describes your
organisation?
What characteristics of your organisation match
with the metaphor you have chosen?
How well do you think your organisation responds
to change?
To read about the limitations of defining
organisations using these metaphors read
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/staffordshire/docDetail.ac
tion?docID=10062677&p00=making%20sense%20c
hange%20management
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