Morgan’s Metaphors Solving Organizational Issues Case Study

Introduction

Morgan’s metaphors exemplify how an organization is to be seen from the perspective of development, improvement, and adjustment. The metaphors can be applied when choosing an effective leadership style or business practice that can improve competitiveness in the market. Thus, businesses operating in various industries can apply the principles to confront certain issues that facilitate negative results in production, staff retention, and other similar problems. The two case studies that will be discussed in the paper exemplify the practical implications of the theory to solve organizational difficulties. Namely, the Danish company Jyske Bank and a Middle East airport service provider that, for anonymity reasons, is called ASP Middle East.

Business Problems

Jyske Bank is a major Danish Bank that has experienced specific difficulties due to the need for change in business strategies and prospects for the bank’s improvement. Namely, the bank was willing to invest in IT development, yet the crisis did not allow for the same resources to be utilized. As a result, Jyske had to form an alliance with the IT company Bankdata back in 2010 to facilitate lower costs and time-efficient project completion (Svejvig & Nielsen, 2014). However, the company’s strategy has caused significant disturbances in productivity and communication. The reason for the challenges was the need for a systematic change in the usual workflow of Jyske Bank. The employees were to team up with the workers of their ally, learn to work with new software that was previously unknown to them, and adjust to the changes in a timely manner. As a result, the company was struggling to be resilient and embrace the organizational shifts that the bank required to be in line with the market change and the fast development IT domain within banking operations. In terms of ranking the issues the company was dealing with:

1. Communication among the employees of the two companies
2. Decreased productivity
3. Increased time and cost required to finalize the project
4. Resilience of employees to changes.

The metaphors were applied to solve the issues. Namely, Morgan’s theory implies the overlooking of machines, organisms, brains, culture, political systems, psychic prisons, domination, and transformation (Tohidian & Rahimian, 2019). Thus, the metaphor of the machine was applied to manage the productivity of employees since the theory implies that humans are the part of the organization that can maximize production and minimizes costs. For communication, the metaphor of cultural systems was applied to increase collaboration and communication among the two companies. Resilience was addressed through the concept of the organism, and the time and cost restraints were addressed through domination since the CEO has clearly pinpointed the vision and purpose.

ASP Middle East exemplifies the anonymous name of an airport service provider. The Middle Eastern organization works to improve logistical, management, and marketing issues for multiple airlines and similar organizations. However, particular challenges have occurred due to the unfavorable policies implemented in the structure of the business. Namely, the management and staff turnover was too high for the company’s liking, a challenge that was to be resolved. Moreover, the need for innovation and the issues related to difficulties of releasing start-up projects also facilitate low competition and productivity. The problems can be ranked in the following order:

1. High employee and management turnover
2. Inability to cope with market change
3. Unsuccessful start-ups

The metaphor of political systems highlights the power struggles between executive management and staff members, which leads to low retention. On the other hand, the metaphor of transformation highlights the low resilience of the organization that highlights the need for transformational strategies. Last but not least, the metaphor of brains can be applied to the unsuccess of the new start-ups, highlighting compromises in decision-making processing and planning.

Evaluation of Solutions

The solutions to Jyske Bank are valid and have been proven to affect the company positively. The metaphors have addressed the exact challenges. An example was the use of the machine metaphor, which exemplifies that every employee and manager within the alliance between the two organizations is to work collectively, similarly to a machine. Since in a machine, each element depends on the other one, and the process is impossible when one detail is misplaced, cooperation is vital. Thus, the executive management used the metaphor to encourage the employees to work together for the sake of the company’s prosperity and its future.

Another example is the use of the concept of the organism, which implies that adaption to the changes within the organizational environment is critical. Since an organism is adaptive to external factors, the principle can be implemented in the bank. Both the business and the staff members have to be resilient to changes in order for the improvement process to be smooth and challenge-free.

The solutions to the problems that occurred in the structure of ASP Middle East are also valid and appropriate based on the framework of metaphors. Thus, the metaphor or political systems highlight the power dynamics in the organization, which ultimately creates an environment for high employee turnover. Therefore, the solution is to improve the connection between executive management and employees and facilitate a less rigid leadership style. Moreover, the metaphor of brains highlights the company’s inefficiency when it comes to planning and making business decisions, implying that a solution would require a change in business strategies and more strict guidelines for the implementation of new projects.

Recommendations

Jyske Bank would benefit from additional planning and assessment of external environments and market changes. It is certain that the urgent implementation of new IT practices was a necessity, yet the crisis at the time was a risk factor that could compromise the process. The organism metaphor highlights the importance of adapting, which Jyske could do with practical crisis management and preventative resilience measures. ASP Middle East, on the other hand, could focus on the metaphor of instruments of domination to create an environment in which staff members feel appreciated, heard, and rewarded for hard work.

Communicating Solutions

The solutions are to be communicated in meetings with managers before the decisions are illustrated in staff meetings. Both companies can facilitate transparent cooperation among departments and teams, which is an efficient way of creating unity in understanding the challenge and minimizing its adverse effects. The method is adequate in both cases for multiple reasons. On the one hand, each team member will have a clear vision of the organizational objectives and work towards their achievement. On the other hand, the team members will understand the challenges and their severity, which also creates an urgent need to confront the issue.

Conclusion

The use of Morgan’s metaphors framework can be applied in different companies for various reasons. As exemplified in the case studies, organizations that operate in different markets and industries benefit from the practical implications of the theory. The metaphors can be used to contribute to a clear vision of the company itself as well as facilitate solutions to organizational problems that are to be confronted.

References

Raad, M. (2020). Gareth Morgan’s metaphors: A case study of an airport services provider.SSRN Electronic Journal. Web.

Svejvig, P., & Nielsen, A.-D. F. (2014). Leading by metaphors – A case study of a mega it project in a Danish bank. Journal of Organizational Knowledge Communication, 1(1), 31. Web.

Tohidian, I., & Rahimian, H. (2019). Bringing Morgan’s metaphors in organization contexts: An essay review.Cogent Business & Management, 6(1). Web.