METAPHOR OR REIFICATION: ARE RADICAL HUMANISTS REALLY LIBERTARIAN ANARCHISTS?

TLDR

Metaphors can illuminate or distort social reality, and Gareth Morgan has recently advocated broader metaphorical use in management theory, a stance linked to liberal dogmatism and neglect of the social processes that shape metaphors. The paper contends that Morgan’s push for widespread metaphorical use is overly indiscriminate. Drawing on cybernetic, psychological, biological, systemic, mechanical, and neurological metaphorical traditions, the authors argue that metaphor use in organization studies is socially partisan and that Morgan’s proposals will heighten this partisanship. The authors find that Morgan’s relativist epistemology invites a proliferation of metaphorical ideology.

Abstract

Metaphors may enlighten our theoretical understanding of affairs, and they may be used to mystify and distort our view of social reality. In a recent series of papers, Gareth Morgan has proposed increasing metaphorical usage, to enrich management and organizational theory. This paper argues that Morgan's advocacy of metaphorical usage is too indiscriminate. By favouring a relativist (rather than a rationalist) theory of knowledge, he invites a proliferation of metaphorical ideology. Morgan's preference for an unbridled metaphorical usage is attributed, in part, to what Edgely (1984) describes as‘liberal dogmatism’, and also to his neglect of the social processes that generate and disseminate metaphors. The paper uses a variety of previous metaphorical contributions to management thought ‐ cybernetic, psychological, biological, systemic, mechanical, neurological ‐ to argue that, in general, metaphorical usage in organization studies has always been socially partisan, and that Gareth Morgan's proposals will intensify a mode of partisanship that is clearly at variance with his sympathies expressed elsewhere.