The Dead Goat Syndrome in Organisations

Abstract

The use of metaphors to explore the connection between theory and practice in organisation and leadership studies has proven to be highly effective. This paper discusses the dead goat syndrome (DGS) as a benchmark in discussing the importance of metaphor in organisation life and to identify the various leadership types that conform to the DGS metaphor. The dead goat syndrome emanates from a popular Ghanaian metaphor literary meaning a goat that is already dead does not fear to be thrust with a knife. Using this metaphor, we present a new lens for looking at leadership effectiveness and identify the basis for certain leadership behaviours in organisations. We illuminate some definitions of metaphor by briefly reviewing the literature on the classical views on metaphors, metaphors in organisational theory development, and how the DGS metaphor can be utilised to identify certain leadership behaviours in organisations.