Managing metaphorically

Abstract

While the relevance of metaphor to management and organizational analysis is now accepted in theory, if not by managers themselves, the way metaphor organizes us is not as well understood. This is because accounts of metaphor and organization neglect the embodied working of metaphor and of language in general. Metaphor works by enacting the relational quality of the world within our embodied experience. A metaphoric capacity is a capacity for organization. Poets develop this capacity through language; a good manager develops it through organization of themselves, other people and the material world. Such managing requires an openness to experience that allows organization to develop within a situation, rather than being imposed from outside or on top of it.