here comes everybody the power of organizing without organizations

The fundamental organization really rests int eh complex informaiton system that coordinates the activites of all the people and firms involves rather then the discrete organizations contributing different elements to the process. To an outsider, it may be impossible to distinguish who is working for whom. Morgan gives the example of ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) manufacturing as being a process that is highly organized yet without ‘boundaries and patterns of membership’: The philosopher Daniel Dennett, someone who I read fairly widely at university during my undergraduate degree in Philosophy, suggests that our highly-ordered stream of consciousness is actually the result of ‘a more chaotic process where multiple possibilities are generated as a result of activity distributed throughout the brain.’ (ibid.) Competing parallel activities can make complementary and competing contributions into a coherent pattern. Pattern and order emerge from the process – it is not imposed. Morgan starts off the chapter comparing brains to holographs where ‘everything is enfolded in everything else’, there is not centre or point of control and, most importantly, The remainder of this post will look at organizations as ‘brains’. I’m especially interested in the idea of organizations as ‘organisms’, ‘brains’ or ‘cultures’ as I believe these lenses to be the most powerful for effecting positive change. Having just come across this neat overview of Daniel Goleman‘s idea of the various leadership styles, I wonder how much overlap/synergy there is between the two?

Organizations as Instruments of DominationĮach of these perspectives teaches the reader something about organizations it’s a very clever and interesting way of presenting insights.

Organizations as Flux and Transformation.

Morgan uses eight metaphors as a lens through which to view organizations: I found it a revelation, especially being so fond as I am of metaphor.

One of the books I read for the Management, Leadership & Change module was Gareth Morgan’s Images of Organization. Now that I’m in a position that carries more responsibility, management responsbilities and leadership opportunities, it’s time to revisit that course and related reading. Unfortunately, unlike many of my classmates, I wasn’t then at a time where I could use this knowledge being then only just finished my second year of teaching. It was an excellent course from which I gained a lot. One of them that I took back in 2006 was entitled Management, Leadership & Change. course through the University of Durham I had to take some taught modules.

Here comes everybody the power of organizing without organizations