Abstract
Anders Örtenblad (Nottingham University Business School, China), Linda Putnam (University of California Santa Barbara, USA) and Kiran Trehan (University of Birmingham, UK)
In 2016 (i.e. the year when this special issue will be published), it will be 30 years since Gareth Morgan’s book ‘Images of Organization’ was originally published. The book has been seen as a seminal and ground-breaking contribution. It offered rich and evocative ways of seeing organizations and organizing. Moreover, it introduced the idea of multiple perspectives and that no image of organization is a neutral one. It still stands as an unusual and non-traditional textbook both in terms of style and content.
Some decades later, there is reason to wonder whether Morgan’s eight main images (they are still eight in the 2006 edition) are still relevant. Does Morgan’s work still have purchase in relation to contemporary organizational theorizing? Do his ideas resonate with new forms of organization and the processes of organizing? Are the metaphors provided able to catch images of organization, in a relevant way, for people outside of the Anglo-Saxon tradition to relate to? Is it that new metaphors need to be added? Is there even a need to rethink the whole set of metaphors and to construct an alternative set?
The objective of this Special Issue is to examine the substance of Morgan’s contribution in an exploratory, constructive and critically-engaged way, or that extends his work in terms of, for instance, suggesting additional metaphors or an alternative set of metaphors.
Expected implications are:
an increased awareness of the limits that current organization theory possesses in terms of
a propensity to use certain images,
the insensitivity to the context-dependency of these images, and
to encourage scholars and students to critically evaluate and extend the images used in current organization theory,
a further development and an extension of current organization theory.
Contributions are welcome that critically explore, but are not limited to, any of the following topics:
Can all existing images of organization be made sense of within Morgan’s conceptualization of metaphors and sub-metaphors?
Is there a need for new images of organization? Have recent developments in organizational theory led to new metaphors of organization?
Can the concepts of time, silence and voice/noise, gender, virtual worlds, and humour and irony be made sense of within Morgan’s set of eight metaphors or should they rather be regarded as new, additional metaphors in their own right? 2
Could other fields of inquiry (e.g. astronomy, astrology, physics, anthropology, biology, archaeology, geography, literary studies, religion) provide new insights and/or new metaphors for organization?
Are Morgan’s images universal, and, hence, can they:
- do justice to indigenous organization theories, perspectives and lives?
- do justice to organization theories and perspectives within all cultures, ethnicities and religions?
We emphasize that the focus of the Special Issue is critical debate on the usefulness of the eight images in the book and whether we need others, rather than on ‘organizational metaphors’ per se. Hence, we are not looking for manuscripts that revisit the Images or ones that predominantly address the topic of metaphor per se, given that this topic has been discussed extensively elsewhere.
Authors who are considering submitting to this special issue are welcome to contact any of the guest editors in advance of the submission date to discuss their ideas:
Anders Örtenblad
Linda Putnam
Kiran Trehan
◦ This call is open and competitive, and the submitted papers will be double-blind reviewed as per the editorial policies of Human Relations.
◦ Submitted papers must be based on original material not accepted by, or under consideration with, any other journal or outlet.
◦ For empirical papers based on data sets from which multiple papers have been generated, authors must provide the guest editors with copies of all other papers based on the same data.
◦ The guest editors will select a limited number of papers to be included in the special issue. Other papers submitted to the special issue may be considered for publication in other issues of the journal at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
◦ To be considered for this special issue, submissions must fit with the Aim and Scope of Human Relations: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/about_journal/aims. html as well as this call for papers.
◦ Papers should be submitted online in accordance with our submission guidelines: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/submit_paper.html.
Please indicate in your covering letter that the paper is intended for this special issue.
Please direct any questions about the submission process, or any administrative matter, to the Editorial Office:
This Call for Papers is available online: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Morgan.html