Gareth Morgan (born 22 December 1943) is a British/Canadian organizational theorist, management consultant and Distinguished Research Professor at York University in Toronto. He is known as creator of the "organisational metaphor" concept and writer of the 1979 book Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis with Gibson Burrell and the 1986 best-seller Images of Organization . [1]
Born in Porthcawl, Wales, Morgan took his grammar school education in Bridgend, Wales and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, graduating with a BSc in economics. He then worked as an accountant in the British Public Service, becoming a Chartered Member of the Institute of Public Finance in 1968.
From there he moved to the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with an MA in Public Administration in 1970. This experience led to a change in career direction as a result of some classes in organisation science that helped him begin to see and challenge some of the assumptions underlying the accounting profession [2] He pursued this direction as a lecturer at the University of Lancaster, receiving a PhD in Organization studies in 1980, and launching his career as a writer, public speaker and management consultant.
In the 1980s he became a faculty member at the Pennsylvania State University School of Business. Moving from there to York University in Toronto. In 1988 he was elected Life Fellow of the International Academy of Management in recognition of an outstanding international contribution to the science and art of management, and in 1992 was elected Distinguished Research Professor at York University. [3] In the 1990s his book Images of Organization became a world-wide best-seller, translated into fifteen languages.
In the late 1990s Morgan turned to his attention to reinventing the teaching of organisation and management through the development and use of internet technologies. This led to the launch in 2000 of his company NewMindsets Inc, [4] and his research and activities as an internet entrepreneur.
At various times, he has served on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals including Action Learning, Administration & Society, Organization, Journal of Management, and Organization Studies.
He has been elected Associate Fellow at the Said Business School, Oxford University (December 2014); was awarded, with Gibson Burrell, the Academy of Management Trailblazer Award for his contributions to organization and management theory (August 2014), and received an honorary doctorate (dr.phil.h.c) from Syddansk Universitet (University of Southern Denmark), October 2014.
Throughout his career Morgan has sought to integrate theory and practice, writing for both academic and practitioner audiences, and has been a strong advocate of action learning as a strategy for generating effective research. The common theme uniting his work is that of challenging assumptions – to help develop new ways of thinking in social research, organisation and management theory and practice, and, by implication, in everyday life.
Morgan is known for his writings on management, social theory and research methodology, especially through his books Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis written with Gibson Burrell and Beyond Method: Strategies for Social Research.
This 1979 book by Gibson Burrell and Gareth Morgan is now regarded as a classic text on organisation theory. Building on Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm, it explores the hidden assumptions of social and organizational theory, offering a map-like representation of dozens of different schools of thought. The fundamental thesis is that different theories reflect very different implicit assumptions on the nature of social reality.
The Burrell and Morgan map contrasts the assumptions of "Functionalist", "Interpretive", "Radical Humanist" and "Radical Structuralist" paradigms, showing how these assumptions influence our perceptions and the ways we look at organisations. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been used by numerous scholars – in a wide variety of disciplines – to challenge the fundamental theories and assumptions shaping their work.
Published in 1983, this book builds on the framework offered in Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis, contrasting the assumptions and approaches of fourteen different research methodologies. Morgan invited a range of collaborators who were leading exponents of the different methodologies to outline their fundamental assumptions and how these assumptions get translated into a particular methodological approach.
After illustrating the methods e.g. positivist, interpretive, critical, transformational, radical and class-based, Morgan explores their similarities, differences and contradictory nature. This leads him to his view of "research as conversation" which, like all conversations, he contends, should be open to different voices. In this way he seeks to advance the cause of an open and reflective social science capable of exploring the multiple dimensions of social life.
In the 1980s in organizational studies an "increasing attention has been devoted to understanding how the assumptions which scientists bring to their subject of investigation". [5] To ground this concept, Morgan introduces "Imaginization" as a new way of thinking and organising. In his book Images of Organization Morgan introduces the use of metaphors to understand and deal with organisation problems, [6] describing the organisation as:
These metaphors are not meant to be exhaustive and he acknowledges that they can be used individually or in combination to guide our understanding of organisations and organisation problems. [1] His aim is to show how metaphor is central to our thinking about organisation and management and open new possibilities. This is further explored in Morgan's book Imaginization: New Mindsets for Seeing, Thinking and Managing.
This 1988 book is based on the findings of an action-learning project where senior executives explored the implications of key environmental trends for the future of their organisations. Core competencies discussed include:
The research was conducted in the 1980s and the book is written largely through the words of the senior executives involved in the research study.
In Imaginization: New Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing and Managing (1993) Morgan introduces his concept of "Imaginization" and the interconnection between thinking and acting in organizational life. He argues that an understanding of the concept:
The book presents case studies and illustrations on the above topics. The aim is to provide a practical guide that shows how to put "out of the box" thinking into practice, and develop new ways of organising that remain open, energised, and empowered in the face of constant change
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structure, function and role, and expressed through its relations with other systems. A system is "more than the sum of its parts" by expressing synergy or emergent behavior.
George Ritzer is an American sociologist, professor, and author who has mainly studied globalization, metatheory, patterns of consumption, and modern/postmodern social theory. His concept of McDonaldization draws upon Max Weber's idea of rationalization through the lens of the fast food industry. He coined the term after writing The McDonaldization of Society (1993), which is among the best selling monographs in the history of American sociology.
In science and philosophy, a paradigm is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word paradigm is Greek in origin, meaning "pattern", and is used to illustrate similar occurrences.
Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This type of research typically involves in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observations in order to collect data that is rich in detail and context. Qualitative research is often used to explore complex phenomena or to gain insight into people's experiences and perspectives on a particular topic. It is particularly useful when researchers want to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences or when they want to uncover the underlying reasons for people's behavior. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, social work, folklore, educational research and software engineering research.
In sociology, social complexity is a conceptual framework used in the analysis of society. In the sciences, contemporary definitions of complexity are found in systems theory, wherein the phenomenon being studied has many parts and many possible arrangements of the parts; simultaneously, what is complex and what is simple are relative and change in time.
Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself". OB research can be categorized in at least three ways:
Grounded theory is a systematic methodology that has been largely applied to qualitative research conducted by social scientists. The methodology involves the construction of hypotheses and theories through the collecting and analysis of data. Grounded theory involves the application of inductive reasoning. The methodology contrasts with the hypothetico-deductive model used in traditional scientific research.
Narrative inquiry or narrative analysis emerged as a discipline from within the broader field of qualitative research in the early 20th century, as evidence exists that this method was used in psychology and sociology. Narrative inquiry uses field texts, such as stories, autobiography, journals, field notes, letters, conversations, interviews, family stories, photos, and life experience, as the units of analysis to research and understand the way people create meaning in their lives as narratives.
Jeffery Richard (Jeff) Hearn is a British sociologist, and Research Professor at the University of Huddersfield, and Professor at the Hanken School of Economics.
Ian Irving Mitroff is an American organizational theorist, consultant and Professor Emeritus at the USC Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California He is noted for a wide range of contributions in the field of organizational theory from contributions on strategic planning assumptions and management information systems, to the subjective side of the workplace and spirituality, religion, and values.
Critical ethnography applies a critical theory based approach to ethnography. It focuses on the implicit values expressed within ethnographic studies and, therefore, on the unacknowledged biases that may result from such implicit values. It has been called critical theory in practice. In the spirit of critical theory, this approach seeks to determine symbolic mechanisms, to extract ideology from action, and to understand the cognition and behaviour of research subjects within historical, cultural, and social frameworks.
Cultural institutions studies is an academic approach "which investigates activities in the cultural sector, conceived as historically evolved societal forms of organising the conception, production, distribution, propagation, interpretation, reception, conservation and maintenance of specific cultural goods".
Helmut K. Anheier is a German-American academic. He is professor of sociology and past president of the Hertie School in Berlin. Until September 2019 he held a chair at the Max Weber Institute of Sociology, Heidelberg University, where he was also the Academic Director of the Center for Social Investment and Innovation. His research interests include civil society, social innovation, organizational theory, governance and policy research, social science methodology, including indicator models
Stewart Clegg is a British-born Australian sociologist and organizational theorist, and a professor at the School of Project Management, University of Sydney. Prior to joining the University of Sydney he was Distinguished Professor of Management and Organization Studies at the University of Technology Sydney.
Linda Smircich is a Professor of Management in the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst where she teaches Organizational Alternative Paradigms. She is part of the critical management studies approach field and a critical researcher in organizational culture and gender.
Howard E. Aldrich is an American sociologist who is Kenan Professor of Sociology and Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Yvonna Sessions Lincoln is an American methodologist and higher education scholar. Currently a Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, Lincoln holds the Ruth Harrington Endowed Chair of Educational Leadership. As an author, she has been largely collected by libraries.
Gibson Burrell is a British sociologist and organizational theorist, Professor of Organisation Theory at University of Manchester, Honorary Professor at the University of York, and formerly the University of Leicester. He became known as writer of the 1979 book Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis with Gareth Morgan, and is recognized for establishing a criticalmanagement school at the University of Leicester.
John Hassard is a British social scientist specialising in organization theory. He is known for conducting a ‘multiple paradigm’ case study investigation in organizational research.
Norman Kent Denzin is an American professor of sociology. He is an emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was research professor of communications, College of Communications scholar, professor of sociology, professor of cinema studies, professor in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. Denzin's academic interests include interpretive theory, performance studies, qualitative research methodology, and the study of media, culture and society.