The Oxford Handbook of Metaphor in Organization Studies

Metaphors for organization and management have been a subject of strong interest in the area of organizational studies since the 1980s. Metaphors enhance the understanding of organizations and provide a mechanism for critiquing current practices, increasing effectiveness, and improving communication. The Oxford Handbook of Metaphor in Organization Studies provides a comprehensive reference for researchers, educators, and managers. The book comprises twenty-nine chapters, which are authored by over forty contributors, many of whom have played major roles in the development of the field over the years. The theoretical underpinnings of organizational metaphors are explored. An array of metaphorical contexts for understanding management and organizations is presented. The various uses of metaphor as a tool in research, education, and management are addressed, as are the limitations of metaphors. Finally, future research directions related to metaphors in organizational studies and management are proposed.

1 - Toward an Increasingly Flourishing Use of Metaphor/s in Organization Studies
2 - Defining the Role of Metaphor in Organization Studies
3 - Defining, Refining, and Redefining Metaphor: A Reflective and Generative Discussion with Gareth Morgan
4 - Dead and Alive, Sleeping and Waking Metaphors: The Spectrum of Metaphor and the Multimodality of Discourse
5 - The Meaning of a Word
6 - Do Indigenous Metaphors Have Universal Applicability? Learnings from Maori in New Zealand
7 - Metaphors for Diversity and Discrimination in and by Organizations
8 - Images of the Life Metaphor in Organizational Studies
9 - Metaphors of Digital Transformation
10 - "Robots at Work": A Metaphor or a Label?
11 - Metaphors for Competition within and between Organizations: The Value and Use of Sports Metaphors
12 - On Music- and Dance-Related Metaphors for Organization and Management
13 - Fifty Shades of Organization: Darkness and Light as Metaphors for Processes
14 - On Color Metaphors in Organization Studies
15 - Using Metaphors Critically and Reflexively in Empirical Organizational Research
16 - Using Metaphors in Research: Visual Metaphors in Organizations
17 - Metaphor in Gesture in an Organizational Context
18 - Ensuring Validity and Reliability in Empirical Studies on Metaphor in Organizations
19 - Just Like a Freefall: The Freedoms and Pitfalls of Critical Metaphor Analysis
20 - Metaphors in the Creative Journey: Using Metaphors in Practice
21 - Using Metaphors in the Management Classroom: Conceptualizing Complexity, Exploring Mindsets, and Driving Change
22 - Metaphors in Action: The Seductive Quality of Metaphors and Ways to Counterbalance It
23 - Translating Organizing and Organizational Metaphors: From the Universal to the Particular
24 - Metaphors and Valence - Do They Have It? Do They Need It?
25 - Jobs and the Mac: Conceptual Metaphors as Cognitive and Rhetorical Resource
26 - Metaphors and Organization Studies: A Critical Realist View
27 - Research: Invitation to Metaphor
28 - Organizational Metaphors of the Future: Some Suggested Types of Further Research
29 - Afterword: Analogy All the Way Down: Analogical Thinking Is at the Core of Understanding Organizations Interpretively

Anders Örtenblad is Professor of Working Life Science at the University of Agder, Norway. While the majority of his career has been based in the Nordic countries, he has also worked elsewhere including three years in China. He has edited numerous books and journals, including The Oxford Handbook of the Learning Organization (OUP, 2019), and has previously edited various works on metaphor in organization studies with Linda L. Putnam and Kiran Trehan.