TY - JOUR

T1 - Imagining organization through metaphor and metonymy

T2 - Unpacking the process-entity paradox

AU - Schoeneborn, Dennis

AU - Vásquez, Consuelo

AU - Cornelissen, Joep

PY - 2016/4/1

Y1 - 2016/4/1

N2 - Within organization studies, Morgan’s seminal book Images of Organization has laid the groundwork for an entire research tradition of studying organizational phenomena through metaphorical lenses. Within Morgan’s list of images, that of ‘organization as flux and transformation’ stands out in two important regards. First, it has a strong metonymic dimension, as it implies that organizations consist of and are constituted by processes. Second, the image invites scholars to comprehend organizations as a paradoxical relation between organization (an entity) and process (a non-entity). In this article, we build on Morgan’s work and argue that flux-based images of organization vary in their ability to deal with the process-entity paradox, depending on the degree to which its metaphorical and metonymic dimensions are intertwined. We also examine three offsprings of the flux image: Organization as Becoming, Organization as Practice, and Organization as Communication. We compare these images regarding their metaphor–metonymy dynamics, the directionality of their process of imagination, and their degree of concreteness. We contribute to Morgan’s work, and to organization studies more generally, by offering an analytical grid for unpacking different processes of imagining organization. Moreover, our grid helps explain why images of organization vary in their ability to comprehend organizations in dialectical and paradoxical ways.

AB - Within organization studies, Morgan’s seminal book Images of Organization has laid the groundwork for an entire research tradition of studying organizational phenomena through metaphorical lenses. Within Morgan’s list of images, that of ‘organization as flux and transformation’ stands out in two important regards. First, it has a strong metonymic dimension, as it implies that organizations consist of and are constituted by processes. Second, the image invites scholars to comprehend organizations as a paradoxical relation between organization (an entity) and process (a non-entity). In this article, we build on Morgan’s work and argue that flux-based images of organization vary in their ability to deal with the process-entity paradox, depending on the degree to which its metaphorical and metonymic dimensions are intertwined. We also examine three offsprings of the flux image: Organization as Becoming, Organization as Practice, and Organization as Communication. We compare these images regarding their metaphor–metonymy dynamics, the directionality of their process of imagination, and their degree of concreteness. We contribute to Morgan’s work, and to organization studies more generally, by offering an analytical grid for unpacking different processes of imagining organization. Moreover, our grid helps explain why images of organization vary in their ability to comprehend organizations in dialectical and paradoxical ways.

KW - flux image

KW - metaphors

KW - metonymies

KW - organization theory

KW - processes of imagination

KW - process–entity paradox

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962640056&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0018726715612899

DO - 10.1177/0018726715612899

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:84962640056

VL - 69

SP - 915

EP - 944

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 4

ER -