Metaphorical images of organization: How organizational researchers develop and select organizational metaphors

Abstract

The article examines how metaphors are developed and selected within organizational theorizing and research. The issue addressed is not whether metaphors exist and play a part in organizational theorizing – as this is now widely accepted – but to draw out how metaphors are actually used and are of conceptual value, particularly as such insights may aid organizational researchers in a better use of them.Working from this position, the article reviews the extant theoretical literature on metaphor, surveys the organizational literature to document past and contemporary metaphors-in-use (1993–2003), and identifies the heuristics (i.e. judgmental rules) that have been used by organizational researchers in developing and selecting these metaphors. The identified heuristics are the integration, relational, connection, availability, distance and concreteness heuristics. On the basis of these identified heuristics, and the biases and errors associated with them, the article also posits a number of governing rules that can guide organizational researchers in their continued development and selection of metaphors in the organizational field.