Through Their Own Words: Towards a New Understanding of Leadership through Metaphors 2002
"Metaphors can serve as an underlying, organising structures of leadership thinking and experience" p 159
"Leadership metaphors carry implicit suggestions about values - what is good, what should be done, and how - and may also allow for insights into the ethics of leadership" p 159
"But the greatest thing by far is to have command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another, it is the mark of genius." (Aristotle, Poetics) p 160
"Metaphors are based upon correspondence bewteen two different concepts. Understanding and expressing one concept in terms of the other, metaphors cross-reference a source domain (such as sports or familes) and a target domain (such as leadership) by a simultaneous activation of both domains. While highlighting specific aspects of the target domain, each metaphor necessarily hides other aspects (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980), thereby providing a filter for examining the concept in a different light (Black, 1977)" p 160
"Metaphors often build a bridge from the known to the unknown, from the familiar to the unfamiliar. They help us underestand and intteract with phenomena which otherwise would be too abstract and too complex" p 160
Understanding Organizational Culture; Mats Alvesson, Sage Publications, 2002
"Metaphors are seen as important organising devices in thinking and talking about complex phenomena" p 16
"I argue that culture should not be seen as the "final" image to be used when organizations are being conceptualized. Instead we should have good reason to reflect upon metaphors for culture( i.e. a metaphor for the metaphor) in organizational culture thinking" p 16
P 17 ---notes
A metaphor (sometimes referred to as 'modifier') is transferred from one system of level of meaning to another (the principle subject), thereby illuminating the central aspects of the latter and shadowing others"
DL example - modifier = Gardener -------------- Principle subject = preparation and sustained engagement.
"A metaphor allows an object to be perceived and understood from the viewpoint of another object. It thus creates a departure from the literal meaning"
"A good metaphor depends on an approriate mix of similarity and difference between the transferred word and the focal one" p 18
"A key characteristic of metaphors is that they call for some goodwill, imagination and knowledge of the subject matter. A metaphor, building on the mixing of two elements, means a crossing or carrying over of a concept or idea from one field to another" p 18
"Metaphors can be seen as a crucial element in how people relate to reality. Metaphors are (Morgan (1986: 12) says , "a way of seeing and a way of thinking"
(Morgan , G. (1986) Images of Organization, Beverely Hills, Sage)
DL - Alvesson talks about Organizing metaphors and root metaphors - In my case the organising metaphor might be the oidea of change practice as the kaleidoscope, whilst the root metaphors might be the various sides/perspectives e.g. The Parent
"Metaphors must be approached and understood as if they were true at the same time that we are aware that they are fictitious - created and artificial" p 19
Advantages of metaphors:
The most frequently expressed advantage of metaphoprs vconcerns their ability to develop new ideas and guide analysis in novel ways. p 21
Metaphors can be used in communicating insight to others. p 21
Metaphors work as data reducing devices. p 21
Problems with Metaphors:
"One of the problems with metaphors is the risk of unsing 'bad ones'. p 22
Alvesson writes about this problem when there is a lack of overlap between metaphor and the target.
""A related difficulty is the 'catchiness' problem that springs partly from the current popularity of metaohrs in organization studues. This can easily lead to the excessive use of seductive metaphorsical expressions." p 22
Alvesson talks about the supermarket attitude to metaphors. He writes:
For example, Morgann's (1986) IMages of Organization, despite its great value, may convey the impression that the more metaphors are emplyed the more comprehansive the understanding of the organizational phenomna. ....Attempting to employ more than a few guiding concepts in advanced analysis resilts in superficiality. THIS IS A KEY POINT FOR ME!! -I need to make it clear why the metpahors I have selected conjointo provide a rich and deep understanding of the culture to which we aspire.
"Complex understanding is perhaps more often derived from a synthesis of different metaphors than froma a single sharp-profile picture" p 23 Alvesson answers this for me - sythesis is the key which is what underpins the Seven Sides.
The metaphors employed in the Seven Sides are not metaphors which describe the culture - they describe the behaviour of leader which are in tune with a particular perspective on the type of culture we apsire to in education.
"From a traditional point of view, the problem with metaphors is that they cannot be tranmslated into more precise, objective language and thus eludes rigorous measurement and testing" p 19
" Organizatios or Communities? Changing the Metaphor changes the theory" Thomas J. Sergiovanni , in Organizational Effectiveness and Improvement in Education, Eds, Hariis et al, 1997
DL - Sergiovanni argues that the metaphor we use for schools as 'organization' has anegative influence upon how we behave and treat peoplew within the school e.g. the higher up you are in the organization the more you know about teaching and learning. He suggests that we should change the metaphor to school as 'community', which he believes would have a dramtic effect upon how we would engage with each other within schools. For me this links with Argyris' concepts of theory-in-use, or what Senge calls mental models, i.e the theory - if its internalised - will impact upon behaviour. This is where I came up with the strapline I use in the home page "Changing the metaphor - changes the theory - changes the practice".
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Posted by: xanax | August 03, 2011 at 07:30 PM