Morgan, Gareth – Imaginization. New Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing and Managing


Gareth Morgan did it again! In 1997 he wrote another book – “Imaginization. New mindsets for seeing, organizing and managing” – on some topics like paradigms, metaphors and knwoledge as action that have disturbed and upset the scientific community for several decades. Below is a review, at a glance, of this book:

  • The discussion of some new ideas – in “Appendix A” and “Appendix B”
  • Some implementations of those ideas – in the remaining of the book. Also, those implementations are of two kinds:
    • Some old approaches discussed also in “Images of organization”, the 1986 book – see the following chapters: 5 to 8
    • Some new approaches discussed here for the first time – see the following chapters: 2 to 4; and 9 to 12

So, let’s deep a little in the two appendixes of the book and their food for mind and heart. In “Appendix A”, Morgan summarizes three important books he had written:

  • Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis. Elements of the sociology of corporate life” (1979) and its focus on “four paradigms”: “One of the main insights emerging from this work was that social scientists, like people in everyday life, tend to get trapped by their perspectives and assumptions. As a result, they construct, understand, and interpret the social world in partial ways, creating interesting sets of insights but obliterating others as ways of seeing become ways of not seeing.” (p. 277)
  • Images of organization” (1986) and its presentation of “eight metaphors”: “(…) where I demonstrated the metaphorical basis of organization theory and showed how different perspectives could generate different insights” (p. 280)
  • Imaginization” (1997) where he both recalls “old metaphors” (in the chapters 5 to 8) and develops “new metaphors” (in the chapters 2 to 4, and 9 to 12). Even its title is a metaphor that fuses the concepts of “imagination” and “organization” (p. 287). Therefore, this book is characterized by three principles:  “[I treat] organizational reality as a kind of “living text” that is simultaneously “written” and “read”.” (p. 283). Moreover, this book is about “mirrors” “to see the self in a new way” (p. 288) and “windows” “to see the rest of the world with a fresh perspective” (p. 288). And, finally, “Imaginization starts with ourselves and (…) invites in rethinking and reshaping the world around us” (p. 292). In short, a distinction is made between the “self” and the “world”: they should be “seen” as a text that is “written” and “read” in the same time. The direction of change is from the self to the world, and not from the world to the self.

Next, in “Appendix B”, the author reveals some clues concerning his method. From the start, he considers to belong to “social-constructivism” and “pragmatism”. Concerning the “social constructivism”, “increasing attention has been devoted to understanding how language, images, and ideas shape social reality and our understanding of the world at large” (p. 272); and, further, “human awareness and knowledge have an unfolding transformative potential, (…) the images and ideas people hold of themselves and their world have a fundamental impact on how their realities unfold” (p. 275). Also, concerning the “pragmatism”, “[This book is built] on the idea that it is possible for the research process to have a dual objective in a) trying to produce useful research knowledge while b) using a process that can help the people involved in the research gain a better understanding of their situations” (p. 296). So, discussing his social-constructivist view, Morgan emphasis the role the “paradigms” and “metaphors” are playing both in everyday life and science; while discussing his pragmatist view, he offers some criteria for “knowledge as action” worldview. Much was said about the paradigms and metaphors in Appendix A; and much will be said about the knowledge as action in Appendix B.

  • The protocol. Morgan’s pragmatism stands apart of the Argyris & Schön’s action learning approach – on the one hand, their view being too abstract; and apart of the Geertz’ ethnographic approach – on the other hand, Geertz’ perspective being too concrete. “[My style] is less systematic and “scientific” than the experimental approach of action science advocated by Argyris and his colleagues (…) Also, the primary aim is not to produce valid descriptions of the world [as advised by Geertz], but accounts or “stories” of interventions” (p. 298). So, here are the five injunctions of the protocol: 1) get inside, 2) adopt the role of a learner, 3) map the terrain, 4) identify the interpretations, and 5) confirm, refute and reformulate (p. 300)
  • The facts & the interpretations. The third step of the protocol – the mapping of the terrain; and the forth step of it – the identification of interpretations  – imply three classes of data: the facts (the 1st class), the constructs of the laypeople (the 2nd class) and the constructs of the researcher (the 3rd class) – p. 302
  • The interventions. Once the body of knowledge has a well defined structure, the next step is to go to action and help those concerning it: “From the first moment, the project simultaneously becomes a data gathering process and an intervention that will lead to some kind of action” (p. 300). The fifth step of the protocol – confirm, refute and reformulate the facts and the interpretation – aims the implementation side of the process.

***

The modernity is characterized by the metaphor “the menu is not the dish”. This metaphor says that there is, or not, a correspondence between the menu and the dishes. Therefore, in modernity there is both a map and a territory. However, while in pre-modernity an important emphasis is given only to dishes, then in post-modernity an important focus is given only to menu. In pre-modernity the only thing that matters is the territory, while in post-modernity the only thing that has value is the map.

That is precisely why Gareth Morgan’s book could be arranged on the post-modernity shelf, for it presents the relationship between images, or between words or numbers. Too little is known about physical reality, about the dishes themselves, about the mountains and valleys – they could even be an illusion. For “the world is a text”, as the sociologist says. And that is precisely why Gareth Morgan’s book can be imagined as a Black Friday offer in which the shop presents a substantial discount for “organizational pizza”. According to the menu, the pizza is composed of several well-defined ingredients: “paradigms” and “metaphors”. There are other ingredients, not yet discovered, that await new writers like Gareth Morgan, in the composition of this pizza, ingredients that are known as: “secret ingredients”, “uncategorized ingredients”, and so on and on…

Although written 30 years ago, this book is disgusting and causes indigestion. The great majority of the people are living in pre-modernity, in that world where if something isn’t seen, then it doesn’t exist. There are other people, few in number, who are living besides the first ones, and consider the double nature of the world as both seen, and unseen. Neither the first, nor the last ones can understand this book, however. And the researcher who embraces it and understands it has a high chance of dying in misery and poverty. For there is also a third category of people, very hard to find, who understand what the book tells. But, strangely, these people are inclined to say and believe something different, something through which their eternity could be recognize. In short, in a few words, the book is simple in its complexity, and has all the chances to remain a fragment of a misunderstood masterpiece.

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Resources:

  • Morgan, Gareth (1997): “Imaginization. New mindsets for seeing, organizing and managing”, Sage Publications, Inc.


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