Socio Informatics 262:
Images of Organisations
The 8 Metaphors:
- Machines
- Organisms
- Brains
- Culture
- Political Systems
- Psychic Prisons
- Flux and Transformation
Organization as Machine
• This is the most simplistic metaphor and is the foundation of Taylorism.
• Any geometrically structuralism approach also falls into this category,
words/phrases like top down, bottom-up, centralized,
decentralized and so forth, Narrow view?
• The entire mainstream Michael-Porter view of business is within this
metaphor.
Organization as Organism
• This is a slightly richer metaphor and suggests such ideas as
“organizational DNA,” birth, maturity and death, etc.
• Key words: Life, Living organism, feelings, emotions, growing, phases
Organization as Brain
• This may sound like a subset of the Organism metaphor (and there is
some overlap), but there is a subtle and important shift in
emphasis from “life processes” to learning.
• Organization as brain is the source of information-theoretic ways of
understanding collectives (“who knows what,” how information
spreads and informs systems and processes).
• The System Dynamics people?
Organization as Culture
• Culturalists tend to be extremists!
• Everything must be done in the name of culture!
,Organization as Political System
• Most of the Gervais Principle series falls within the boundaries of this
metaphor
Organization as Psychic Prison
• Morgan uses is the Plato’s cave symbol
Organization as System of Change and Flux
• Think of a dynamically stable whirlpool or eddy in a flowing stream,
and you get this one.
• It highlights some of the same aspects of organizations as the
Organism metaphor, but in different ways.
• For example, notions of stability, dissipation, entropy, and other
physics ideas are used.
• This is where things like GTD, lean start-ups and agile programming fit.
• The idea of creative destruction also fits in here.
Organisations as Machines:
Classical Management Theory:
- Classical Theorists: Henri Fayol, Mooney and Lyndall Urwick all interested in
problems of practical management and sought to codify their experience of
successful organisation for people to follow
- Essence: Management is a process of planning, organisation, command,
coordination, and control
- Set the basis for modern management techniques such as:
- Management by Objectives (MBO), Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems
(PPBS) etc
- General principles of CMT:
- Unity of command- an employee receives orders from only one superior
- Scalar chain- line of authority from superior to subordinate, runs top to bottom of
organisation, results from unity-of-command principle should be used as a
channel for communicating and decision making
- Span of control- number of people reporting to one superior mustn’t be too
large to create issues of communication and coordination
, - Staff and line- staff personnel provide valuable advisory services- be careful not
to violate line fo authority
- Initiative- to be encouraged at all levels of organisation
- Division of work- management should aim to achieve degree of specialisation
designed to achieve goal of the organisation in an efficient manner
- Authority and responsibility- attention should be paid to the right to give orders
and to exact obedience , appropriate balance between authority and
responsibility
- Centralisation (of authority)- always present in some degree, must vary to
optimise use of facilities of personnel
- Discipline- obedience, application, energy, behaviour, and outward markets of
respect in accordance with agree rules and customs
- Subordination of individual interest to general interest- through firmness,
example, fair agreements, and constant supervision
- Equity- based on kindness and justice, to encourage people in their duties and
fair remuneration, encourages morale and doesn’t lead to overpayment
- Stability of tenure of personnel- facilitate development of abilities
- Esprit de corps- facilitate harmony as a basis of strength
- These principles used to turn armies into “military machines”
Scientific Management Theory:
- Frederick Taylor pioneered Scientific Management
- Principles of SM:
- Shift all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the
manager- managers should do all the thinking relating to the planning and
designing of work, workers task is the implementation
- Use scientific methods to determine the most efficient way of doing work- design
the workers task accordingly, specifying the exact way the work is to be done
- Select the best person to do the job
- Train the worker to do the job efficiently
- Monitor worker performance to ensure that appropriate work procedures are
followed and results achieved
- Know known as Human Resource Management
- Employees can be motivated according to their needs
- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Images of Organisations
The 8 Metaphors:
- Machines
- Organisms
- Brains
- Culture
- Political Systems
- Psychic Prisons
- Flux and Transformation
Organization as Machine
• This is the most simplistic metaphor and is the foundation of Taylorism.
• Any geometrically structuralism approach also falls into this category,
words/phrases like top down, bottom-up, centralized,
decentralized and so forth, Narrow view?
• The entire mainstream Michael-Porter view of business is within this
metaphor.
Organization as Organism
• This is a slightly richer metaphor and suggests such ideas as
“organizational DNA,” birth, maturity and death, etc.
• Key words: Life, Living organism, feelings, emotions, growing, phases
Organization as Brain
• This may sound like a subset of the Organism metaphor (and there is
some overlap), but there is a subtle and important shift in
emphasis from “life processes” to learning.
• Organization as brain is the source of information-theoretic ways of
understanding collectives (“who knows what,” how information
spreads and informs systems and processes).
• The System Dynamics people?
Organization as Culture
• Culturalists tend to be extremists!
• Everything must be done in the name of culture!
,Organization as Political System
• Most of the Gervais Principle series falls within the boundaries of this
metaphor
Organization as Psychic Prison
• Morgan uses is the Plato’s cave symbol
Organization as System of Change and Flux
• Think of a dynamically stable whirlpool or eddy in a flowing stream,
and you get this one.
• It highlights some of the same aspects of organizations as the
Organism metaphor, but in different ways.
• For example, notions of stability, dissipation, entropy, and other
physics ideas are used.
• This is where things like GTD, lean start-ups and agile programming fit.
• The idea of creative destruction also fits in here.
Organisations as Machines:
Classical Management Theory:
- Classical Theorists: Henri Fayol, Mooney and Lyndall Urwick all interested in
problems of practical management and sought to codify their experience of
successful organisation for people to follow
- Essence: Management is a process of planning, organisation, command,
coordination, and control
- Set the basis for modern management techniques such as:
- Management by Objectives (MBO), Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems
(PPBS) etc
- General principles of CMT:
- Unity of command- an employee receives orders from only one superior
- Scalar chain- line of authority from superior to subordinate, runs top to bottom of
organisation, results from unity-of-command principle should be used as a
channel for communicating and decision making
- Span of control- number of people reporting to one superior mustn’t be too
large to create issues of communication and coordination
, - Staff and line- staff personnel provide valuable advisory services- be careful not
to violate line fo authority
- Initiative- to be encouraged at all levels of organisation
- Division of work- management should aim to achieve degree of specialisation
designed to achieve goal of the organisation in an efficient manner
- Authority and responsibility- attention should be paid to the right to give orders
and to exact obedience , appropriate balance between authority and
responsibility
- Centralisation (of authority)- always present in some degree, must vary to
optimise use of facilities of personnel
- Discipline- obedience, application, energy, behaviour, and outward markets of
respect in accordance with agree rules and customs
- Subordination of individual interest to general interest- through firmness,
example, fair agreements, and constant supervision
- Equity- based on kindness and justice, to encourage people in their duties and
fair remuneration, encourages morale and doesn’t lead to overpayment
- Stability of tenure of personnel- facilitate development of abilities
- Esprit de corps- facilitate harmony as a basis of strength
- These principles used to turn armies into “military machines”
Scientific Management Theory:
- Frederick Taylor pioneered Scientific Management
- Principles of SM:
- Shift all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the
manager- managers should do all the thinking relating to the planning and
designing of work, workers task is the implementation
- Use scientific methods to determine the most efficient way of doing work- design
the workers task accordingly, specifying the exact way the work is to be done
- Select the best person to do the job
- Train the worker to do the job efficiently
- Monitor worker performance to ensure that appropriate work procedures are
followed and results achieved
- Know known as Human Resource Management
- Employees can be motivated according to their needs
- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
