Exploring Leadership, Politics, and Organizational Behavior & Design

This essay challenges the notion that political effectiveness is the only essential skill for leaders in organizational behavior and design. It argues that while understanding political systems is important, other factors like cultural awareness, adaptability to change, and knowledge management are equally crucial. The essay references Gareth Morgan's 'Images of Organization' to highlight the importance of multiple metaphors, including organizations as machines, cultures, and living organisms. It emphasizes that leaders must possess a multifaceted skill set to navigate the complexities of modern organizations, promote innovation, and manage diverse workforces effectively. The study explores various organizational metaphors, such as viewing organizations as machines, cultures, and living organisms, and concludes that effective leadership requires a broader range of competencies beyond just political acumen.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND DESIGN
Organizational Behavior and Design
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Introduction
According to Örtenblad, Putnam & Trehan (2016), Gareth Morgan has drawn ‘Images of
Organization’ as consisting of eight different metaphors like the organization as machine, as
organism, as brain, as political system, as culture, as psychic prison, as instrument of domination
and as system of change & flux. Hence, according to Gareth Morgan, the eight different
metaphors serves the different purpose and are, therefore, appears important from the
organizational perspective. At some point in time, ‘system of change & flux’ appears as much
relevant to organizations. It is because the change process is integral to organizational practices.
On the other side, the political system appears as integral to organizations. It is, therefore, very
difficult and challenging as well to state that political system alone will do the entire thing and
also that leaders are just needed to be politically effective to become the effective leaders. The
study tries to investigate whether being politically effective is only the thing that leaders should
be well versed with or else. The study progresses by making some argument against the essay
topic.
Discussion
As argued by Stowell (2014), the working of organizations has been clarified utilizing the
worldview that an organization works as a machine. If someone does not agree with the fact then
it is advisable to read the facts and those facts will come as the surprises. It is because the
individual would have utilized some of its terminologies at the place the individual work. As per
this metaphor, when things are going great, the 'machine' is 'very much oiled', 'running
predictably'. However, when troubles arise, the needs to fix the issue are felt. These behaviors

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just indicate the dependency on machines for data. Organizations are desperate with the data and
that they intend to attain through every possible means like the inception of a new technology.
The organization as Machines works as long as 'inputs' and 'outputs' and individuals are
attached to a wheel. In this metaphor, hierarchical advancement is tied in with 'maximizing
production' and 'efficiency’ as the main drive. It can be said that the spotlight was never again on
finding the 'right man' for the job, however on preparing each man for any job. In the past, man
has been first; however, machines in the future (Kemp, 2016).
In fact, this mechanical state of mind is so profoundly ingrained by the way organizations
are conceptualized that it's hard to sort out things in an unexpected way. In any case, these
regular thoughts regarding organizations and management are based on conventional ideas of
management and organizations. Those ideas can be traced to the beginning of the last century.
This approach may work in specific circumstances; however, it has turned out to be less effective
when complex change and transformation process is dealt with. There are different complexities
of organizational learning and adaptation which are not considered useful in the 'machine'
metaphor (McCabe, 2016). However, it is also evident that only political metaphor is not just
associated with organizations.
In the opinion of Leybourne, Lynn & Thanning Vendelø (2014), systems evolve naturally
in unpredictable ways because of an extensive variety of stimuli and through various
interactions. From this point of view, organizational development and building limit is less
resembling machine building and more much the same as shaping and affecting the procedures.
Such procedures are driven by contextual factors including legislative issues, social status, values
and practices. The organizational context in which individuals work is portrayed by various

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features, for example, the leadership style, the structure, the prizes, communication subsumed
under the general ideas of organizational climate and culture. It is an ideal opportunity to
investigate new metaphors; alternative pictures that will help make better approaches to thinking
about organizations. Organizations as a whole are not just the system of politics or are run by
competing influences. These appear as if keeping a high amount of metaphors which are not just
confined to one of few of metaphors. There are more others as well.
The jump from "world" to "organization" warrants a couple of remarks, as clearly they
are not one and the same. However, one can think about the organization as a microcosm of the
social world where diverse gatherings of individuals from various styles of life interact with each
other to get the things done. Progressively, the limits amongst world and organizations are
obscuring. Hence, this highlights the importance of socially diverse groups existing in
organizations (Haslam, Cornelissen & Werner, 2017). It means that the different groups
representing the diverse cultures are also important. This can also be understood from Morgan’s
‘Images of Organization’ where Morgan finds the culture as one of the metaphors of
organizations. The statement of this essay that political metaphor is only important and that
leaders need to be well versed with politically influenced skills does not hold true as culture is
also important. Cultural values are increasingly becoming associated with organizations. In fact,
modern-day organizations are concerned with diverse cultures and are in regular hunts for
strategies to mitigate the conflicts of culture. Efforts are given to minimize the cultural
differences to the possible degrees to attain uniformity in the work (Jackson, 2016).
This can be said that culture is also important and that organizations are in regular
practice to minimize the cultural differences. They are promoting the diverse culture not due to
their eagerness for it but to attract the talented and skilled professionals. Notably, skilled

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professionals do not just belong to one community but rather they are expanded to wider
communities. Hence, organizations exist within the workforce which is culturally diverse. Such a
diverse workforce needs the leaders who are well versed with skills to sort out the cultural
differences. Leaders must be well equipped with characteristics and qualities which could help in
uniting the diverse workforce. To become a competitive organization, it is very important to
encourage innovation and creativity (Young & Lecy, 2014). Innovation and creativity require
employees having the diverse skills. The required diverse skills may or may not belong to one
community. As opined by K. Smollan (2014), with the expanding recognition of the symbolic
aspects of organizational settings, those keen on studying organizations have utilized the idea of
culture to understand the existence of organizational presence and life. It is nothing unexpected
that the idea of culture, which attempts to clarify the examples and precision of our life
experiences, has also invaded the organizational world.
Then again, the orientation of "culture as metaphor" centers around the symbolic
meanings related with the cultural structures. For example, customs, physical conditions, and
various leveled structures, to name of few. Culture is a focal point through which analysts see the
organization. It advances a perspective of organizations as a specific type of human expression
(George, Whitehouse & Whitehouse, 2016). For example, globalization has encouraged the
association of diverse cultures serving the different needs. Today, trades are done freely across
the borders to receive and provide the diverse resources like physical, human and financial.
Employees can be moved to other companies as a result of strategic alliances. This clearly
indicates a probability of working of different cultures together. These are just a few examples of
cultural diversity which have become accustomed to modern organizations. An independent
business is possible but at a very shorter level. Business operating in the number of regions

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bound to have the cultural diversity as one of their essential organizational parts (Coulson et al.,
2015). This is, therefore, may be unjustified to say that the political system is only important to
organizations. Management is constrained to empowering or forming values, beliefs, language
and norms. This is most successfully achieved through a reliable arrangement of the
organization's activities with the leadership's actions. In short, leadership ought to exhibit that
culture regularly has a political measurement as a development of reality that includes a hidden
motivation and an inclination to a political flavor. In the event that there is hidden motivation
they can be confusing and hindering to the balance of the organization (Avison et al., 2014).
It is important for leaders to identify that what cultural metaphors are suitable for the
concern organizational setting. It is indeed very critical to identify the suitable cultural metaphor
and make decisions. For example, the cultural metaphor will be differently required for two
separate firms such as the sports team and a musical group. Sports teams are needed to balance
their skills with the demands of the audience. It is, therefore, important for leaders such as the
coach to identify the diverse skills and utilize all those to perfection. This is needed to perform
and live up to the expectations of supporters and the audience. On the other hand, a musical
group is not just required to use their diverse skills. They rather need to be creative to find out
the innovative aspects of diverse skills and fulfill the changing demands of the target audience.
Hence, just being a musician will probably not work. The musician will probably need to add
varieties to its skills, so that, the audience is able to see the differences. The musical group thus
follow a flexible cultural metaphor. Nevertheless, organizations that are creative do all follow a
flexible cultural metaphor as to serve the increasingly growing demands of customers. Business
such as SAP and Microsoft do follow the same cultural metaphor as that followed by a musical

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group (Case & Gaggiotti, 2016). These all just indicates that leaders are not just required to be
well equipped with political metaphors but also with the cultural metaphors.
Organisations as living organisms are another metaphor that influences the organizational
practices. The management and the leaders need to have the requisite set of skills to adapt to the
environment where the business operates into. The importance of acquaintance with the living
organisms has increased in contemporary times. People are increasingly growing with their
awareness on environmental aspects. This is why they expect organizations fulfilling their needs
of the environment. For example, the greenhouse gas emission is a serious environmental issue.
Organizations across the globe have struggled so far to mitigate the threats. They lack the solid
counter of environment pollution. It, therefore, appears as if leaders must also have a counter to
environmental threats in the form of suitable strategies and technologies. It also put forward a
fact that leaders cannot just survive with their knowledge of political systems. They should rather
have a multi-faceted knowledge which also covers the knowledge of living organisms (Cheng &
Ho, 2017).
Organization as a brain is focussed on storing, processing and sharing of information and
knowledge. Information is generated in the form of data and is attained from different resources.
Leaders have a role to play here as they can promote a culture of knowledge management within
the organization. However, they should also know about the information which is important from
the organizational perspective. This is why it is imperative that leaders are also equipped and
well versed with the organization as a brain (Hilligoss, 2014).
Organization as a psychic prison is a set of skills that leaders have and they use it to
manage the competing tensions and powers. There are instances when leaders implement a

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strategy and seem like getting supports from every single employee. However, once it progresses
they seem to land into a number of troubles due to the competing tensions among the workforce.
This is where leaders are tested for their skills to sort out the competing tensions and utilize the
resources appropriately (Greve, 2015).
Organization as a system of change and flux is a set of occasions where change is
required. Changes can be both smaller and bigger; however, it is up to the leaders to be able to
identify the needs for the change. Leaders will again be required to be well versed with the skills
to sense the needs for change. Therefore, organizations as a system of change and flux are also a
part of organizational practices (Kopnina, 2016).
Conclusion
In summary, this can be said that the political system is essential to organizations and that
leaders need to be well versed with skills to deal with the political challenges. However,
organizations do not just mean the system of politics but are rather expanded to other metaphors
as well. It is also very difficult to find a dominating metaphor of organization. It rather can be
said that leaders need to have the diverse skills to deal with the different metaphors of
organizations.

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