Change Metaphor

Abstract

This article reports on the authors' studies of change, illustrating the power and effect of metaphorical usage. Both authors have been involved infacilitating change in a higher education institution and in a public lands wilderness dispute. One of the authors was instrumental in the process of managing the closing of a large semiconductor plant, and the other author has been involved in the Middle East peace process. The authors' primary thesis is that metaphor has tremendous power to both define and shape the dynamics of change in organizations-destructively and transformationally. A construct for understanding how metaphor can influence change is used to analyze each case, with the basic assumption that those metaphors that evoke higher order feelings of mutual understanding and community within organizational constituents will lead more directly to organizational transformation.