Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization

Self-awareness of one’s favored ways of thinking (“going-in” assumptions, biases, mentality)

“If you want to be the type of leader or professional who helps your organization adapt to the multiple demands of an increasingly turbulent world, you need to become aware of the images and assumptions that are shaping your current thinking and develop the capacity to use new ones. You need to develop competencies that allow you to see, understand, and shape situations in new ways.”

--in mechanistic terms, as “machines”

--in cultural terms, as “cultures”
--in organic terms, as “organisms”

--in economic terms, as “markets”

--in political terms, as “interests”

--in psychological terms, as “psychic prisons”

--in dynamic terms, as “transformation and Flux”

--in neural terms, as “brains”

--in terms of domination

(me)

Extending the scope of public organization to include:

o  The traditional bureaucratic agency

o  (various kinds of) Networks

o  “Virtual” information technology systems

Thus—

<image> / Single agency / Network / IT system
Machine
Culture
Organism
Market

…etc.

Morgan

“To achieve greater effectiveness, managers must become skilled in identifying and using different approaches to organization and management. In Images terminology, they must become skilled at “reading” organizations from different perspectives and at developing action strategies that are consistent with the insights they glean.”