RMTomasko@aol.com wrote:
> Like most metaphors, it's something that can be taken only so far. I've
> found several large management consulting firms that like to describe
> themselves as Druckeresque knowledge businesses, but the reality of their
> organization fits more the industrial revolution factory-model.
>
> It's a good thought provoker though. Sadly I've found it gets quickly
> dismissed by some more "old school" executives, especially ones who see
> value being created more from brawn than brains.
Thanks Bob,
I would be interested in where I might take a look at your book.
As for metaphors. I'm not sure how to take that. Since I'm not privy to
that original article I don't know how he meant it. My sense of him as a
writer and from listening to his way of communicating on taped lectures,
is that he is quite practical in his thinking. His discussions on
not-for-profit structures were very systematic, as opposed to
meta-phorical. That put me on the track of the orchestra as a systematic
structure rather than a metaphor.
My favorite definition of metaphor comes from the Princeton Encyclopedia
of Poetry: "A condensed verbal relation in which an idea, image, or
symbol may, by the presence of one or more other ideas, images, or
symbols, be enhanced in vividness, complexity, or breadth of implication"
So if Drucker said "the modern corporation is a mighty orchestra" then it
seems metaphorical in the "all the world's a stage" variety. If on the
other hand he said "the model for the corporate management structures for
the future will be more like an orchestra than an army," that would not be
metaphor but a description of a systematic management structure. The
orchestra is many things. Too many for me to speculate on without knowing
how Drucker meant it. To metaphor or to system, that is the question.
Thanks again for the reference.
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York
mcore@idt.net
--Ray Evans Harrell <mcore@IDT.NET>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>