Various Ways to Look at Organizations (Metaphors)

Probably everyone in the workplace has their own conception
of what “organization” means. As with most highly complex
terms, everyone is right and everyone is wrong.

The concept of organizational culture
is much like an organizational “personality”. Organizations,
like people, have life cycles.

Many people view organizational
learning much like we view organisms to be learning. Organizations
can accumulate and manage
knowledge as well. There are a variety of books that describe
other traits of organizations much like traits of people, e.g.,
depressed organizations, addictive organizations, etc.

One of the most common ways to look at organizations is as
organizational systems. (This is the
view that was used in this library when describing the concept
of an organization.) This view is becoming common among professionals
who study, teach and write about organizations. Practitioners
who work with organizational management to improve organizations
also tend to view organizations as systems. Note that machines,
organisms, persons, groups, families, family dynasties are all
systems, too.

Two people can be looking at the very same organization, but
have completely different perspectives and language about the
same organization. Unless you know the various ways to view organizations,
you’ll miss all the perspectives — you’ll miss the more accurate
truth about the organization you’re studying. You’ll only see
“one view of the elephant — you’ll grab the elephant’s trunk
and think it’s a snake.”
Organizational
Lens — How Different People Can View the Same Organization Very
Differently

For the Category of Organizational Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.