Metaphorical mediation of organizational change across space and time

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how metaphors mediate organizational change across space and time.Design/methodology/approachThe data consist of 113 speeches by vice‐chancellors of a distance learning university, recorded in texts. Texts are apposite for this research as they transmit meaning across time and space. Hermeneutics is an appropriate methodology because it enables interpretation across temporal and spatial distance.FindingsThe paper finds that textual metaphors mediate organizational change across space and time in five ways: transferring from familiarity to strangeness, providing coherence, “breaking distance” changing reality through changing language, and recontextualising.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses on formal organizational texts and excludes informal texts and conversation. Change outcomes are not studied; there should be further research on how metaphors affect change over time and space.Practical implicationsMetaphors enable managers to communicate change across time and space. Textual metaphors are continuously available and interactive, enabling dialogue between managers and staff across space and time.Originality/valueThe paper furthers our knowledge of how metaphors mediate change across both space and time. Metaphors translate the organization across distance, fusing spatial and temporal horizons, effecting organizational change by changing language. The organization becomes a metaphor of itself, recontextualising across time and space.

Identity Talk of Aspirational Ethical Leaders

“…Metaphor also constitutes and deepen values by expressing them in novel situations (Pondy 1983), making them salient to this research. Metaphor is a constitutive and transformative trope that can transfer the meaning-maker from one understanding to another (Waistell 2006) and uphold a tensive conception of reality (Ricoeur 1976). The trope 'sees as' and this split reference refigures time, so that narrating history is 'seeing as' (Ricoeur 1984b).…”

Responsible Leadership for Multinational Enterprises in Bottom of Pyramid Countries: The Knowledge of Local Managers

“…A shared social identity and worldview are essential to the cohesion of any social group (Coleman, 1990;Hancock, 2006;Waistell, 2006). This identity should be rooted in shared and tacit beliefs, in turn rooted in the social environment as well as in formally expressed explicit political-economic criteria.…”

“…Given the partly tacit, social and inalienable nature of knowledge (Grant, 1996;Millar, 2004), such acquisition of local knowledge requires formal and informal structures in as well as responsible leadership to allow fair and equal social interactions, working closely with local associations. The complexities arising from divergent backgrounds, culture and language barriers all make sustaining successful global workers a challenge for MNEs (Enderle, 2010;Halter and Dearruda, 2011;Waistell, 2006).…”

“…Such a holistic appreciation will ensure a fairer, equal treatment of local manager's value in MNEs. Such appreciation will include the somewhat intangible value of local managers' local knowledge and social capital (Coleman, 1990;Hull, 2006;Spender and Scherer, 2007;Waistell, 2006), as well as their more tangible market value. The authors believe that global knowledge-based organisations in the twenty-first century need responsible leadership that takes into account such issues of local manager's value and identity and integration and embeddedness in the community in bottom of pyramid countries (Hahn, 2009;Tashman and Marano, 2011;Westermann-Behaylo, 2011).…”

“…In relation to human resource management this can lead to an over-reliance on expatriate managers relative to local managers (Atamer and Schweiger, 2003;Hancock, 2006;Waistell, 2006;Zaheer, 1995). Earlier studies on international management teams focusing on emerging markets, such as those of Atamer and Schweiger (2003), Hancock (2006) and Goodall and Roberts (2003), have noted that the value of the local managers' knowledge in bottom of pyramid countries was under-utilised and that expatriates relied overly on their expatriate social networks, raising questions about local manager's value and identity, and the potential social exclusion of local managers.…”