Metaphor or reification: Are radical humanists really libertarian anarchists?

Article Abstract:

Metaphors may enlighten our theoretical understanding of affairs, and they may be used to mystify and distort our view of social reality. In a recent series of papers, Gareth Morgan has proposed increasing metaphorical usage, to enrich management and organizational theory. This paper argues that Morgan's advocacy of metaphorical usage is too indiscriminate. By favouring a relativist (rather than a rationalist) theory of knowledge, he invites a proliferation of metaphorical ideology. Morgan's preference for an unbridled metaphorical usage is attributed, in part, to what Edgely (1984) describes as 'liberal dogmatism', and also to his neglect of the social processes that generate and disseminate metaphors. The paper uses a variety of previous metaphorical contributions to management thought - cybernetic, psychological, biological, systemic, mechanical, neurological - to argue that, in general, metaphorical usage in organization studies has always been socially partisan, and that Gareth Morgan's proposals will intensify a mode of partisanship that is clearly at variance with his sympathies expressed elsewhere. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

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Trust in business to business relationships: an evaluation of its status

Article Abstract:

The concept of trust has been used in a growing number of empirical and theoretical marketing studies of business to business relationships. Examination of a number of influential studies indicates a lack of clarity in their conceptualization of trust. The nature of this lack of clarity is examined and it is proposed that there are a number of features of trust which account should be taken of when conducting such studies. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Research, Economic aspects, Business-to-business market, Business to business market, Trust (Psychology)

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Mythicizing and reification in entrepreneurial discourse: ideology-critique of entrepreneurial studies

Article Abstract:

The author examines organizational and management science within the context of postmodernist and deconstructionist theories. Topics addressed include how entrepreneurial discourse is socially constructed, gender-biased, ethnocentric, and controlled by ideology.

United States, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Entrepreneurship, Postmodernism, Deconstruction

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