A Shift in Perceiving Organisational Metaphors among Business Administration Students in an EU Country: A Window into the Current Thinking of Future Employees

Abstract

This article aims to offer an insight into which metaphors future employees use to perceive an organisation as a concept. The results of inductive content analysis, based on a sample of 208 business students, show that students offer a varied set of metaphors that are vivid and provide new perspectives. The metaphor of the organisation as a machine and a living organism is still frequently used, although most often an organisation is understood in terms of linkages among social entities. Nevertheless, the ability to comprehend multiple perspectives and use critical judgments is a necessary skill educators must pass on to future generations living in a world characterised by rapid, almost unlimited access to information through the Internet and other media.

Managing Sustainable Urban Tourism Development: The Case of Ljubljana

“…Informants were asked how they view the development of tourism in the capital of Slovenia by providing an explanation for their choices. The Stanford social innovation questionnaire was applied by the research team of 10, asking tourists, visitors, and inhabitants of Ljubljana the following questions regarding the researched topic of how to design tourism development with the support of visitors, tourists, and inhabitants who share it: Narratives are formed in the sociocultural setting in which the narrator functions; that is why the purpose of the narrative analysis is to understand both the narrative as well as the sociocultural context [21]. Joint content analysis of the answers by the authors was chosen as the most suitable method for analyzing the responses, aiming to find the preferred sustainable urban tourism development.…”

“…The EU Commission named sustainable development as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [8,9]. Linear and unidimensional thinking processes are not suitable when defining the future sustainable plan, as decision-makers need to take into consideration different stakeholders as well as understand sustainability through networks and organic alliances [21].…”