Features of Metaphors: Critical Organization & Sustainability - Essay Example

Features of Metaphors: Critical Organization & Sustainability 1. Introduction of Team Members and Scenario We are a group six people including Zainab Khalaf, Dana AlQaed, Ali Ameeri, Rawan Hadi, Salwa and Hussnayn. We were supposed to make a presentation that could reflect on characteristic features of metaphors. “Metaphors” are theories that are used in organizations and help to understand, persuade and carry out certain behaviours in imaginative situations (Cornelissen, 2005). We chose “Organization’s culture” that is a metaphor in which cultural values are integrated in the organizational norm, provides flexibility and increases cultural diversity (Linda, 1983). Initially, when we created our group, we went through a tough time. However, we all felt that it was a learning process, and we learnt how certain organizational metaphors help us define different situations. Moreover, metaphors helped us create a presentation and it was met with applause from our peers and was appreciated by professors, as well. 2 Metaphors identified in the Scenario 2.1“Machine Metaphor” In the beginning, we were not very keen to complete the assignment, but we still needed to work on our presentation, so we backed ourselves through a “machine metaphor.” It enabled us achieve a predetermined goal. This metaphor can be seen as we met at regular intervals and none of us was absent during the meetings or made any excuses to delay the work. We wanted to accomplish our task as efficiently as possible. One of the most important elements of “Machine metaphor’ is that we wanted to perform, carry out proceedings through effective planning, communicating as well as controlling ourselves to perform even though in normal circumstances we would not carry out (Alan, 1997). However, this metaphor enabled us to work because we had a task in hand, which were supposed to do and we knew that we were required to give the presentation. The mechanistic properties of this metaphor may be difficult if there were changes in circumstances. In our case, we formed a group to work together in a team and this willingness to carry out our tasks led us to progress and initiate meetings. As machine metaphor has limitations, we cannot regard this as a complete encapsulate for the whole experience. It would have been difficult to construct the whole presentation through machine metaphor. Due to it “machine features” one can say that it invites a lot of discrepancies like lack of acknowledgement, blame and even stressful situations as it is more important to attain a goal or purpose (Kocha & Deetzb, 1981). 2.2 The First Meeting and “The Psychic Prison Metaphor” We had four group meetings in total. Our first meeting was on December 6th 2013, in the library, where we met to discuss the presentation topic, to gather understanding to carry out the proceedings. To be honest, we faced many issues as we did not know how to go about making a presentation and no one was serious at first too. We were constantly arguing and could not make use of the meeting effectively and did not discuss anything rationally. In my opinion, “The Psychic Prison Metaphor” was acting on our behaviour. This metaphor enabled us to think of our argument, which we felt was right, and we were confident that our personal opinions that were generated were challenging (Amal, 2005). This shows that our ideas were ‘imprisoned’ by our own set of conceptions and were not willing to make any compromises or accept other people’s ideas and feedback. “Psychic prison metaphor” is a negative notion due to which we could not draw into a solution, which made our meeting dysfunctional in some way (Sid, 2002). After a series of arguments and discussion, finally after two hours we decided that we needed to make an outline. This would help us gather ideas on how to make a presentation with the relevant knowledge as well as well that could reflect our understanding on the subject. The evidence that support using this metaphor in our situation is that we did not reach any conclusion and did not work in the first meeting because we were “imprisoned” by our own perceptions and were not willing to listen to each other. Due to the features of “Psychic imprisoned metaphor”, we were also neglecting each other’s set of ideologies, which was hampering our work. It does in some way promote “Utopian speculation” (Gareth, 1998, p.210), the critical thinking, which ignores speculation and there are psychological constraints and causes resistance in understanding. In organizations, it cannot be regarded as a proficient behaviour. 2.3 An Emerging Change “The Psychic imprisoned metaphor” was in our opinion reduced as we reached a conclusion and we were communicating effectively and made a brief outline on our presentation. In my opinion, the presentation should stand out and be reflective of us. Taking this view into consideration, it was decided that a group leader should be appointed who would initiate ideas and organize our meetings, as well. We all felt that the group leader should be vocal, focused and have a confident personality. Zainab, who has these traits, was made the group leader since she had the loudest voice, a charismatic personality, and stood out among us. The first meeting was brief, and there was no particular outcome except the fact that we were all required to come up with some idea in the next meeting. 2.4 Second Meeting and “Brain Metaphor” On December 9, 2013, our second group meeting was held in the library, which went quite well, and we can say it was productive, as well. Zainab, who was our group leader, announced that we had to spread the group presentation into 6 parts, and each of us had to complete the part individually. She had a “brain metaphor”, which was working on her. The “brain metaphor” enables a person or organizations to show resilient characteristics, a system in which there is self-organization so that the emerging challenges can be faced (Péter, 2001). This aspect helped us get disciplined and focused on our individual parts. The evidence, which highlights features of “brain metaphor”, is the fact that we had individual roles given by the leader who was proactive and she gave all-important information and assigned us responsibilities to carry out our roles effectively. We have had a privilege to study metaphors and their behaviour and relate them to organizations. This enables me to understand that brains perceive organizations as structures, which are required to communicate wisely to make them operate and give profitable results. Moreover, brains also have two important functions - being logical and creative. In order to create and carry out daily work or even when updating is required, brain can act wisely (Andrew, 2007). Zainab, our team leader had the same tendencies as she was able to speculate information. There are limitations in this metaphor, as well like it may lose focus and there is a possibility that there is no strategic plan to carry out behaviours effectively. Moreover, organizations may also forget to foresee what they exactly want and communication may start lacking (Andrew, 2007). In our case, Zainab, being a leader, was communicative and tried to make us work through discipline and listening to our issues when we were working on our parts. 2.5 “Organism Metaphor” Our group members, Ali and Salwa were not happy with their parts, which were chosen by Zainab. However, this situation was cleared when Zainab told them to switch parts, which they both agreed on. This initiative taken by Zainab was proactive and showed elements of perseverance and determination, which helped us, cope in this situation. Eventually, we were happy with our areas of interest and proceeded with our work. In our opinion, “organism metaphor” played a vital role in this scenario as through this behaviour it allowed flexibility and we were able to find a solution to our problems. Zainab, who was our leader took a wise decision, in my opinion, which led us all maintain relationships with our peers through understanding and effective communication skills. “Organism” metaphor enabled us to make interaction and build a relationship with environments and other people, in regard to taking human factors into consideration to attain a “Common goal.” In our case, we all shared a common objective. In order fulfil our objective and avoid a conflicting situation, Ali and Salwa exchanged their parts. In this “organism metaphor” people are regarded as breakable beings who need human relationships and adaptability to the environment to work proactively (John J, 1999, pp.206-07). No financial or material benefit was generated which one of the features of “organism” metaphors but both group members were satisfied and they preceded further and made preparations for their parts. 2.6 The Third Meeting The third meeting was held on 13, January 2014, on Zainab’s residence. This gap between the second and the third meeting was more showing that a lot of time was allotted to all group members to complete their tasks effectively. The main motive of the third meeting was that we had to bring our individual parts to the meeting to analyse our combined efforts and make a presentation. We all hoped that each one of us would come up with complete information so that we could start working on creating our presentation. Unfortunately, when we met, we realized that the quality of all contributions were not up to the mark. The good thing was that everyone showed up with their work, everyone was making efforts on their part even though not everyone’s work was exactly correct. There were some discrepancies and lack of structure and in some cases information was incorrect as well. 2.7“The Culture Metaphor” We had to combine our efforts and integrate all relevant information, make corrections to start building a presentation. “Culture Metaphor” has influenced us to make progress taking each other’s values and beliefs into consideration. In my opinion, this is an important aspect of “culture metaphor” and the shared understandings, expectations, assumptions have influenced our behaviour and we needed to integrate all information, which were a product of cultural diversity (Linda, 1983). This took about four hours as we had to make amendments. Dana and Rawan were assigned to create everything on power point presentation and put everything on slides. Ali and Hussnayn had the major role to proof reading the information to see which were relevant and required in the presentation and disregard the other irrelevant points. In our opinion, they did a good job and we took a lot of time and effort to work together in a team and build a presentation, which covered all areas of interest. After all information was put into the slides, Salwa and Zainab had to organize the group presentation so we could start practicing after finishing the slide presentation. The slide presentation shows creativity by Dana and Rawan who worked in a team effort, showed innovation of designs and creativity when they put up an appealing power point presentation. As “culture metaphor” is a coping mechanism, it helped us cope in this situation, which helped us focus on understanding rather than making prescriptions for change. We started practicing after complete four hours of hard work. The day paid off in the end, as well as our efforts. The only thing, which was left, was our individual practices. We all were required to do in order to make the presentation successful. 2.8 The Final Meeting The last meeting was on January 17, 2014, which was held in “Café Nero”, as suggested by our group leader, Zainab. We chose this location because it was a very pleasant environment, which was not very crowded, and we could carry practice in front of each other without interference from others. The last meeting was the best meeting. It was fruitful and left us all happy and confident. 2.9 Presentation Day We really enjoyed giving the presentation and felt that our communication skills grew and boosted our self-confidence. The amount of research work, which we carried out, comprised of relevant literature knowledge. There was a moment when I felt “stage fright”, but this exercise made me realize that I was good at communication and speaking in front of the crowd. 3. Reviews from Peers The feedback we got from our peers shows the weaknesses and strengths of our presentation, which was viewed by everyone in my class. There are two reviews. Both my classmates’ response shows some critical analysis of our presentation. According to both of them, we did not cite examples from personal experience, which was lacking in our presentation. The second flaw highlighted by both my classmates was that there was a drastic conclusion and it was not explained well. However, both reviewers were happy with the overall presentation and gave a positive feedback relating to presentation’s introduction and use of relevant and correct literature. We secured “good” in most of the ranks and analysis of models with critical examination of metaphor got “excellent” remark. The reviews and feedback, which were presented by my peers, show that our coordination was there and through correspondence and team work we had been successful in carrying out our presentation showing few elements of “organism” as well as “brain” on the part of our leader’s role. “Organism” because we were interacting and growing by gathering knowledge which we put together in one presentation, and “brain” when our leader, Zainab was able to organize and plan the whole process through coordination. Moreover, our peers have given us valuable feedback that the presentation, which had put forward, was covering all aspects. Even though, we lacked some examples I believe this shortfall was due to the fact when we gathered together in the last meeting at that time we had to sort out the differences. The opinions of our team members were also brought to a platform where integration was needed as everyone had their own point of view. However, Zainab using “Brain metaphor” was able to lead us. Ali and Hussnayn played a good role as they sorted out everything, which was required. 4. Reviews Conducted Presentations, which I reviewed, were according to me very knowledgeable and relevant to our studies. The first review, which I saw, was lengthy in my opinion. It was interesting, had covered all areas, and in most of the ranking criteria I gave “good”, which contained no shortfall at all. The second presentation, which I reviewed, had just one short fall. In my opinion, it was disorganized. Even though the other group covered all areas, but due to disorganized set-up our group members felt that a metaphoric term cannot be applied to this situation. 5. Understanding of events: why they took place? In my opinion, the events unfolded in this reflective essay show the different metaphoric behaviours that led us to interact and communicate showing some metaphoric traits, which made our presentation successful. After indulging into academics and works, a perspective can be drawn that each one of us is reading situations and developing a mindset to carry out tasks effectively. Most of us are racing for the same goal and in order to sustain and retain our position we try to mend our ways adapting different metaphors to carry out practices, which give maximum outcomes. Just like in our situation we became “organism metaphors” to avoid conflicts and work in teams to carry out tasks effectively (Buono & Jamieson, 2010). As metaphor is “paradoxical’ it creates insights and understanding that may even seems distorted to people for instance if a person is acting as a “machine metaphor” it does not necessarily mean he has robotic features (Morgan, 1998). However, the features of “machine metaphor’ were applicable in our situation as it was difficult to get organized in the first place and we needed to start working on our presentation. 6. Future Insight In my opinion, through critical thinking and use of metaphors, we will be able to analyse the different situations that will help us in contributing in the development of ourselves in the future. However, the features of metaphor are liable to change according to the circumstances and the situations (Littlejohn & Foss, 2008). It is still necessary to initiate a proactive role in self-organizing, being critical to ourselves, but still initiating a prospect which can give dignity to the situation and work can be carried out effectively. 7. Conclusions After carrying out our academic studies on metaphors, creating presentation and then analysing of our events it can be concluded that the metaphor characters have divulging roles. If an organization carries out a “cultural considerations” then they may only quantify cultural norms and values and do not regard anything else which can make them weak. Hence, they require change and critical examination, though in most management does not adapt change (Schultz, 1995). The metaphors, which we felt were acting on us, its presence in our scenario was changing because of the following reasons: “A Machine metaphor” has limitations. They would only enable a person or a body to be more controlling without having any ‘human’ features like empathy or understanding. ‘An organism metaphor’ can be adapted as they showed growth through interaction and effective communication. “A Psychic metaphor” does not give due respect to the people around as they feel they are always right only. Though “Brain Metaphor” was present, but it may become redundant as it might forget some key areas, as our team leader went through this situation and forgot to cite examples, which was a met with critical analysis during reviews done by other group. As she was controlling the group she undermined the power of control from others (Bell et al., 2013, p.15). However, the nature of “brain metaphor” enabled her to use intelligence and progressive solutions to some problems. A “Culture Metaphor” provides stability in the situation as it provides integration of beliefs and value but there can be lack of creativity and dissatisfaction as they only focus on norms leaving out other important factors into consideration. List of References Alan, S., 1997. Modernity Machine Metaphor. The British Journal of Sociology, 48(4), pp.561-75. Andrew, G., 2007. Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Amal, E. S., 2005. Becoming a lifer? Unlocking career through metaphor. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78(1), pp.23-41. Buono, A.F. & Jamieson, D., 2010. Consultation for Organizational Change. New York: IAP. Bell, G., Warwick, J. & Galbraith, P., 2013. Higher Education Management and Operational Research: Demonstrating New Practices and Metaphors. Rotterdam: Springer. Cornelissen, J.P., 2005. Beyond Compare: Metaphor In Organization Theory. Academy of Management, 30(4), pp.751-64. Gareth, M., 1998. Images of Organization. San Francesco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. John J, C., 1999. The Invisible Powers: The Language of Business. Oxford: Lexington Books. Kocha, S. & Deetzb, S., 1981. Metaphor analysis of social reality in organizations. Journal of Applied Communication Journal, 9(1), pp.1-5. Linda, S., 1983. Concepts of culture and Organizational Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(3), pp.339-58. Littlejohn, S.W. & Foss, K.A., 2008. Theories of Human Communication. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Morgan, G., 1998. Images of Organization. Berkeley: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Péter, É., 2001. On the 'Dynamic Brain' Metaphor. Brain and Mind, 1(1), pp.119-45. Schultz, M., 1995. On Studying Organizational Cultures: Diagnosis and Understanding. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Sid, L., 2002. The Cultural Shadows of Cross Cultural Research: Images of Culture. Culture & Organization, 8(1), pp.21-34. Read More