Images of organization
by Gareth Morgan · first published 1986
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Uses metaphors such as machines, organisms, brains, and psychic prisons to show how organizations can be understood in different ways; praised for anecdotes and insights that apply beyond corporate life.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This pioneering work is based on a simple premise with profound implications: All organization and management theories are based on images, or metaphors, with paradoxical effects: they can create profound insights but also great distortions. With this seminal work, Gareth Morgan shows how managers can broaden and deepen their understanding of organization and organizational problems, and use powerful new metaphors to shape new ways of working.
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Images of Organization by Garth Morgan. I went in expecting a somewhat fluffy business book, but it is nothing of the sort. Every page is full of interesting anecdotes, analogies, and insights around not just corporate life,…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗My favorite read on the topic: Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Images_of_Organization
on “A Typology of Organisational Cultures” ↗A good exploration of these metaphors is Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization[1] . To your point, my personal favorite is "Organization as Psychic Prison" - not in the sense of keeping physically curtailed, but in the sense that it is hard for workers to break out of the memes…
on “The office is a theatre for work (2019)” ↗Historically, threads from systems theory via Jay W. Forrester (“Industrial Dynamics”) and organizational psychology via Gareth Morgan (“Images of Organization”) are good places to start. You can then trace them to more modern treatments for insights.
on “Bureaucrat Mode” ↗Rather than studying how to be a good doormat (oh, I meant, how to master the behavioral interviews), it's a much better use of time to read the G. Morgan's "Images of Organization".
on “FAANG hiring managers share how to answer behavioral interview questions” ↗…a thing to be considered, and have a list of "lenses" through which to consider that thing, seems to be very valuable. The same methodology applied to businesses is described in e.g. Gareth Morgan's _Images of Organization_. The principle flaw of using that technique for decision making is that the n-dimensional consideration space has to be mapped into a single dimension, which can be problematic or impossible. Many…
on “Generating Thoughts, or, the Feynman Family Phrase” ↗…suit you well. Famous now for the "Genius Grants" given out by the MacArthur Fellows Program. John D. Rockefeller (who would argue his own virtues, of course.) Wolf of Wall Street. On my list to read: Images of organization Paperback – Jan 1997 by Gareth Morgan (Author) https://www.amazon.ca/Images-organization-Gareth-Morgan/dp/0... The Organization Man by William H. Whyte http://a.co/2kRfJHA The above 2 books said to…
on “Ask HN: Books about “unethical” behavior?” ↗