DESCRIBE TWO OF THE ORGANISATIONAL METAPHORS STUDIED AND DISCUSS THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EACH.

This essay explores the concept of studying organisation styles metaphorically, particularly as perceived by Gareth Morgan (1986). The essay begins by describing two of the organisational metaphors, specifically the mechanistic organisation and the organisation as a brain being the most diverse of the metaphors used. It then reviews the interpretation of theorists writing on the subject and explores the practicalities of these organisational styles. In exploring these interpretations the essay discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each of the styles of organisation and endorses the continuous improvement of the brianlike …show more content…

Each department can work on its own as can be seen in artificial intelligence such as Rodney Brooks' mobot (Morgan, 1989). The departments continue on a series of processes which results in the function of part of the whole. There is no central control, but the whole (brain or organisation) engages in a set of diverse activities that eventually emerge as a coherent pattern.

This can also be compared to the holographic concept. Holography, invented by Dennis Gober in 1948 (Morgan, 1989), is a system whereby the information is recorded as a whole in all its parts. If this is broken the whole can be recreated from any part as all the information is shared within all its parts. It was Karl Pribram (Morgan, 1989) who suggested that the brain functioned in accordance with holographic principles. A real life example of this occurring was seen in the case of a small Norwegian shipping company, who as a result of a plane crash lost half its employees including many managers. Because the remaining staff shared much of the original intelligence of the company, they were able to pool their knowledge and reconstruct the various functions of the company enabling them to continue as they had before within a relatively short space of time.

At the present time, when rapid change is commonplace, organisations face the challenge of constantly learning to adapt to the changing environment in addition to planning