Images of Organization

Gareth Morgan is well known for his creative contributions to management. He is the author of seven books, including Images of Organization, Creative Organization Theory, Imaginization and Riding the Waves of Change. He acts as consultant and seminar leader to numerous organizations throughout Europe and North America, and is Distinguished Research Professor at York University in Toronto. He has sat on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management, and Organization Studies; and is a Life Fellow of the International Academy of Management. Born in Wales, he now lives in Toronto with his wife, Karen and their children Evan and Heather.

• PrefacePart I. An OverviewIntroductionPart II. Some Images of Organization2. Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as MachinesMachines, Mechanical Thinking, and the Rise of Bureaucratic OrganizationThe Origins of Mechanistic OrganizationClassical Management Theory: Designing bureaucratic organizationsScientific ManagementStrengths and Limitations of the Machine Metaphor3. Nature Intervenes: Organizations as OrganismsDiscovering Organizational NeedsRecognizing the Importance of Environment: Organizations as Open SystemsContingency Theory: Adapting Organization to EnvironmentThe Variety of the SpeciesContingency Theory: Promoting Organizational Health and DevelopmentNatural Selection: The Population-Ecology View of OrganizationsOrganizational Ecology: The Creation of Shared FuturesStrengths and Limitations of the Organismic Metaphor4. Learning and Self-Organization: Organizations as BrainsImages of the BrainOrganizations as Information Processing BrainsCreating Learning OrganizationsCybernetics, Learning, and Learning to LearnCan Organizations Learn to Learn?Guidelines for "Learning Organizations"Organizations as Holographic BrainsPrinciples of Holographic DesignStrengths and Limitations of the Brain Metaphors5. Creating Social Realty: Organizations as CulturesCulture and OrganizationOrganization as a Cultural PhenomenonOrganization and Cultural ContextCorporate Cultures and SubculturesCreating Organizational RealityCulture: Rule Following or Enactment?Organization: The enactment of a Shared RealityStrengths and Limitations of the Cultural Metaphor6. Interests, Conflict, and Power: Organizations as Political SystemsOrganizations as Systems of GovernmentOrganizations as Systems of Political ActivityAnalyzing InterestsUnderstanding ConflictExploring PowerManaging Pluralist OrganizationsStrengths and Limitations of the Political Metaphor7. Exploring Plato′s Cave: Organizations as Psychic PrisonsThe Trap of Favored Ways of ThinkingOrganization and the UnconsciousOrganization and Repressed SexualityOrganization and the Patriarchal FamilyOrganization, Death, and ImmortalityOrganization and AnxietyOrganization, Dolls, and Teddy BearsOrganization, Shadow, and ArchetypeThe Unconscious: A Creative and Destructive ForceStrengths and Limitations of the Psychic Prison Metaphor8. Unfolding Logics of Change: Organization as Flux and TransformationAutopoiesis: Rethinking Relations With the EnvironmentEnactment as a Form of Narcissism: Organizations Interact With Projections of ThemselvesIdentity and Closure: Egocentrism Versus Systemic WisdomShifting "Attractors": The Logic of Chaos and ComplexityManaging in the Midst of ComplexityLoops, Not Lines: The Logic of Mutual CausalityContradiction and Crisis: The Logic of Dialectical ChangeDialectical Analysis: How Opposing Forces Drive ChangeThe Dialectics of ManagementStrengths and Limitations of the Flux and Transformation Metaphor9. The Ugly Face: Organizations as Instruments of DominationOrganization as DominationHow Organizations Use and Exploit Their EmployeesOrganization, Class, and ControlWork Hazards, Occupational Disease, and Industrial AccidentsWorkaholism and Social and Mental StressOrganizational Politics and the Radicalized OrganizationMultinationals and the World EconomyThe Multinationals as World PowersMultinationals: A Record of Exploitation?Strengths and Limitations of the Domination MetaphorPart III. Implications For Practice10. The Challenge of MetaphorMetaphors Create Ways of Seeing and Shaping Organizational LifeSeeing, Thinking, and Acting in New Ways11. Reading and Shaping Organizational LifeThe Multicom CaseInterpreting MulticomDeveloping and Detailed Reading and "Storyline"Multicom From Another View"Reading" and Emergent Intelligence12. PostscriptBibliographic NotesIntroductionThe Machine MetaphorThe Organismic MetaphorThe Brain MetaphorThe Culture MetaphorThe Political MetaphorThe Psychic Prison MetaphorThe Flux and Transformation MetaphorThe Domination MetaphorThe Challenge of MetaphorReading and Shaping Organizational LifePostscriptBibliography

Professor Morgan, I only recently received a copy of Images of Organization (updated edition) as a desk copy to review for the I/O Psych class that I teach. I just started reading your book I am absolutely blown away by it. I cannot believe that I had missed this marvelous work. My ignorance knows few, if any, limits! You pull together such a span of ideas and integrate them beautifully with your own angle, stimulating one′s thinking. This is the kind of mind opening perspective to which I like to expose my classes. Thank you for condensing it so powerfully. By the way, the bibliographic notes are as exciting a read as is the rest of the book. I look forward to devouring the rest of the book. James Michael Burke, Ph.D.Virginia Commonwealth UniversityL. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public AffairsCenter for Public Policy