An exploratory study of 401 hospitality employees examined the metaphors or mental images those employees held of their companies. Metaphors constitute a powerful communication tool that influences the structure of employees' thoughts and job performance. Researchers assigned each metaphor to one of 18 different groupings that fell into one of seven overall categories relating to such factors as management skills, organization structure, operations, and power concerns. The researchers found twice as many negative metaphors as positive metaphors, and about one-third of the metaphors related to organization structure.
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