Images of organization / Gareth Morgan.

ISBN:

9780761906346

Title:

Author:

Morgan, Gareth, 1943-

Personal Author:

Morgan, Gareth, 1943-

Edition:

2nd ed.

Publication Information:

Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, c1997.

Physical Description:

485 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

1. Introduction -- 2. Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines -- 3. Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms -- 4. Learning and Self-Organization: Organizations as Brains -- 5. Creating Social Reality: Organizations as Cultures -- 6. Interests, Conflict, and Power: Organizations as Political Systems -- 7. Exploring Plato's Cave: Organizations as Psychic Prisons -- 8. Unfolding Logics of Change: Organization as Flux and Transformation -- 9. The Ugly Face: Organizations as Instruments of Domination -- 10. The Challenge of Metaphor -- 11. Reading and Shaping Organizational Life -- 12. Postscript.

Subject Term:

Organization.

Organizational behaviour

Management.

Format:

Books

Publication Date:

1997

Publication Information:

Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, c1997.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
658.4 MOR	Week loan	1	Standard shelving location	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

`Morgan... has given us both a retrospect on the development of views of organizations, and a prospect on how organizations and their development may be viewed now and in the future. To help the reader, Morgan provides, in the final chapter, the evidence and theory base for his views.... a powerful stimulus for critical examination of organizations, their development and structural management. Educational psychologists with an interest in the influence of organizations... and not already familiar with it, will find this book very accessible and helpful in formulating views of how their current `pet′ organization might be viewed′ - Educational Psychology in Practice

Images of Organization has already established itself as a classic that has influenced management thinking throughout the world. This New Edition takes Gareth Morgan′s achievement one step further, providing a rich and comprehensive resource for exploring the complexity of modern organizations.

In this monumental work, leading-edge theory is translated into leading-edge practice.

The New Edition carefully preserves the qualities and strengths of the original, while delivering new insights on today′s managerial challenges. Morgan shows managers how to view their organizations by using his renowned creative images and metaphors.

In a sequence of path-breaking chapters, he demonstrates how to mobilize the insights of different metaphors: to manage and design organizations in new ways; to develop novel understandings of the relationships between organization and environment; to create learning organizations with the intelligence of a living brain; to explore the intricacies of corporate culture and politics of organizational life; to understand the unconscious dimensions of organization; to translate the implications of the new science of chaos and complexity into practical management strategies; and to confront and deal with the negative impacts that organizations often have on society and the natural world.

No other management book covers so much ground while developing the implications for management with such force.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Morgan, a respected academic, author, and business consultant, here develops the theme that all theories are partial, illuminating one aspect of organization while leaving the others in shadow. Moreover, managers are not passive, objective observers of events; instead, they perceive situations through the lens of existing viewpoints, and their fragmentary interpretations then prompt actions. To alleviate this unavoidable self-construction of reality, Morgan urges alertness to the dilemma and awareness of alternative images (or metaphors). The metaphors are described in considerable detail in chapters on organization as machine, organism, brain, culture, political system, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and instrument of domination. In the process of explaining these metaphors, the author also provides a quite useful and comprehensive review of the literature on organizations. This book represents the key fact of organization theory over the past two decades: no theoretical perspective dominates the literature, so viewpoints must compete for attention in a marketplace of conceptual approaches. Though aimed at practitioners, students and teachers of organizational behavior will benefit from Morgan's insightful, well-written book on the troublesome, too often unrecognized, issue of seeing what we believe. Graduate level collections and above. C. Tausky; University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Part 1 An Overview

Introduction

Part 2 Some Images Of Organization

Mechanization Takes Command

Organizations as Machines

Nature Intervenes

Organizations as Organisms

Learning and Self-Organization

Organizations as Brains

Creating Social Reality

Organizations as Cultures

Interests, Conflict and Power

Organizations as Political Systems

Exploring Plato's Cave

Organizations as Psychic Prisons

Unfolding Logics of Change

Organizations as Flux and Transformation

The Ugly Face

Organizations as Instruments of Domination

The Challenge of Metaphor

Part 3 Implications For Practice

Reading and Shaping Organizational Life

Postscript

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Summary

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Table of Contents