lllCreativity in Action!
Using Creativity in
Developing the
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Learning in Action!
A Cross-disciplinary Problem-Based
Learning Environment for Entrepreneurship
Organizational Metaphors
Test Version 1.0
(A Work in Progress)
R. Wilburn Clouse, PhD
Vanderbilt University
Organizational Metaphors
Storyline by xxxx Fabiola
Introduction
McGreen & Cage, Inc. is an advertising company that has been around since the 60’s.
Despite being a creativity-oriented organization, this company is used to very traditional
ways of doing things, with a bureaucratic and hierarchical structure. Lately, McGreen &
Case has been experiencing problems between two departments. Employees in the
production department - the creative force of the company- seem to experience pressure
from the sales department. These artists believe the sales department exaggerates in
enforcing deadlines for customers, and according to them, upper management does not
seem to know what is going on. The lack of support and communication problems make
employees experience “mental blocks” which prevent them from finishing ads, complete
campaigns and therefore please customers.
On the other hand, the sales department has to deal with the angry clientele, who demand
their projects in time. Lately, the company has lost several clients, and all because of the
“mental block” of the employees in production. Again, upper management does not seem
to respond to their complaints, they just seem to be...up there. The rest of the company,
dedicated to supporting activities such as sales, accounting, human resources and
management have no communication at all with one another, and this whole dilemma just
seems something that -for as long as their jobs are not affected- remains foreign.
As mentioned before, upper management has received complaints from both departments,
production and sales, but as opposed to what they think, management has not ignored
them. They have all arrived to the desk of Ms. McGreen, Human Resources Manager,
who has the responsibility to solve the difficulty. She knows that the company is very
traditional, but she is eager to try new ideas. Ms. McGreen is a recent Vanderbilt graduate
who took a creativity course with Dr. Clouse, therefore she knows that creativity has to be
a crucial part of the solution. From the complaints, she can see that the main problem is
the lack of communication between departments, and she wants to solve it creatively. She
has read about a couple of techniques to make people communicate more effectively, and
she is wondering if they will work in this traditional environment. The first technique she
wants to apply is the use of metaphors to represent organizations (Morgan, 1993). She
also wants to try relatively traditional creative techniques of problem solving, like
brainstorming and role-playing (Epstein, 1996). Ms. McGreen has a meeting planned
with representatives of the two conflicted departments, and if the first technique she plans
to apply works, she is going to use it to the whole organization.
This is Ms. McGreen's plan. The metaphor technique can be applied to the organizational
structure as a first step. To make a safe entrance, people can think individually what
metaphor is applicable to their organizational chart and make a list of the good and bad
characteristics. For instance, they can say their organizational chart is like a pyramid (a
very obvious response for a bureaucratic organization), because they have a strong, wide
base, and in the top there are only a few people. Then they present why they chose a
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particular metaphor and discuss with the rest of the group. Later on, they can apply
metaphors to different parts of the organization, with the final goal of finding the
appropriate metaphor for organizational communication. The final goal would be to
decide on a metaphor for the organizational communication that they would like to have,
and expand it to the organization as a whole. For example, they could say they want to be
like a spider plant, with flexible, decentralized modes of operation (Morgan, 1993). This
technique fosters creativity within the organization, helps people relief tension and set
their minds to problem solving, while having fun in a safe environment.
Leading Questions
1. What do you think of Ms. McGreen's idea?
2. Do you see any problems with this technique? Can you identify any problems
with the application of this technique to this specific work environment? Would
you do something differently?
3. Can you identify more techniques to foster creativity that could be applied to this
company?
4. Are there any other aspects of this company that we need to pay attention to?
Useful Resources to Solve This Case
Epstein, R. (1996) Creativity games for trainers. NY: McGraw-Hill
Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization: the art of creative management. CA: Sage
Publications
www.mindbloom.com/rules.html
www.businessalive.com
www.bemorecreative.com
www.ozemail.com.au/~caveman/creative
References
Epstein, R. (1996) Creativity games for trainers. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization: the art of creative management. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage Publications.
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