Analysing organisations through metaphor
In Images of Organization Gareth Morgan suggests that the way we understand organisations is shaped by the metaphors we use. Each metaphor reveals something important about the organisational dynamics. They provide insights that simultaneously reveal and conceal. Morgan explores eight metaphors: machines, organisms, brains, cultures, political systems, psychic prisons, change processes, domination instruments.
In the Organisation in the Mind, David Armstrong suggests we build a mental model of the organisation. Our experience of the system gets inside us, and shapes how we interact, perceive, and make sense of organisational happenings. It is where our metaphors emerge.
I recently used a two-frame analysis to explore in a case study the dynamics of a fast-growing startup. In my analysis, I suggested that the dominant frame was organisation as machine, with a supporting lens of organisation as culture. And then followed up with an alternative analysis of the same startup as a political system that is going through transformation, and which is not divorced from its environment. So what does that all mean?
Let me start with explaining these concepts using my case study. Mechanistic organisations consider themselves as a closed system machine, producing products that customers love on time. They adopt an output-oriented approach, and control the production line to optimise overall performance and output. Examining the startup in question, it was scaling very fast, and needed to standardise and bureaucratise its processes. The end of its production line was Engineering and its focus was on identifying delivery issues and how much "slack" was needed to fix them.
We can look at the same startup as culture — we turn our focus on all the behaviours and patterns of shared meaning that contribute to its organisational culture, for example its values, norms, rituals, behaviours, and language. In our startup, we have a myriad of competing values. For example, the speed of delivery. Some people in Engineering wanted fast delivery, while others wanted to do things right. Some wanted to jump straight into code, while others appreciated the time to consider the consequences of quick actions.
Alternatively, we can look at the same startup as a political system, where different sets of interests, conflicts, and power plays shape organisational activities. We can see those power plays in communication patterns (who has all the context), decision making (who is allowed to make decisions) or even what groups are valued or not.
However, as much as metaphors can be revealing, they can also obscure other aspects of the organisation, because they limit our viewing of the organisation to particular frames. The metaphors we choose can either constrain our thinking or open up new possibilities for leadership, design, and collaboration.
So our questions to you are: what metaphor best describes your organisation right now? Or do you have a different metaphor? And lastly, is it helping, or holding you back?