Metaphor and Management: Making Sense of Change

Autor/in	Tyler, Christine
Titel	Metaphor and Management: Making Sense of Change
Quelle	In: Management in Education, 19 (2005) 3, S.28-32 (5 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0892-0206
DOI	10.1177/08920206050190030701
Schlagwörter	Figurative Language; Adult Education; Educational Change; Organizational Change; Role Perception; Role Theory; Organizational Culture; Evaluative Thinking; Foreign Countries; United Kingdom (England) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Adult; Adults; Education; Adult basic education; Adult training; Erwachsenenbildung; Bildungsreform; Organisationswandel; Role conception; Rollenverständnis; Rollentheorie; Unternehmenskultur; Ausland
Abstract	Roles in further education colleges, at various levels of the management structure, are in flux. For the people involved in this process of transformation, the situation can appear ambiguous, unsettling and unclear. This places an imperative upon colleges to deal with the process of change effectively, and to help those involved to make sense of the context within which they are working. In this article, one strategy for enabling mutual understanding of complex organisational situations is presented: that of metaphor. In his seminal work on sensemaking, Karl Weick writes of the idea that "shared meaning" is usually portrayed as the glue of organisational culture. Weick's view encapsulates the theme of this article, as it uses metaphor (the "glue") and relates it to making sense of a situation and finding a common way of encoding and talking about it. By perceiving an organisational situation through the use of shared metaphor, managers may come to a common understanding and make sense of it before moving to future action. The example explored in this article suggests that metaphor has considerable potential as a tool in the complex process of change management. (Contains 1 figure.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10