Replying to LO27074 --
>A last comment to stress that for people who have difficulty in seeing
>companies as "living beings" (and not as "machines") the Foreword of Peter
>Senge to LC makes a compiling case for that hypothesis. I have used it
>with customers and I can guarantee its success...
Dear Artur,
I wish to thank you for your effort with this very interesting series!
Here I wish to remind a lesson I have learnt from Gareth Morgans Images of
Organization.
Morgan discusses eight metaphors as perspectives on organizations. Each
metaphor allows to focus on specific characteristics but each metaphor also
has its limits.
In http://www.learning-org.com/98.01/0119.html (Is it alive? LO16518) you
can find a one-line-description of each metaphor. The question of that
thread (Is is alive?) addresses exactly your (Arie de Geus) point.
In http://www.learning-org.com/98.01/0112.html (Is it alive? LO16511) I
wrote a summary on the strengths and limits of the metaphor in question
here.
But maybe we have to distinguish "organism" in the biological sense as a
metaphor from "living being" in the sense of Arie de Geus?
Liebe Gruesse,
Winfried
--"Dressler, Winfried" <Winfried.Dressler@Voith.com>
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