Thinking with Metaphor in the Management Discipline: A Critique of Conceptual Comfort
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63556/tisej.2025.1663Keywords:
MAnagement, Managerial Metaphors, Metephor AnalysisAbstract
This research investigates the employment of metaphors within the management literature from a critical standpoint, asserting that metaphors frequently do not transcend conceptual reductionism. Although metaphors can enhance the comprehensibility of complex organizational phenomena, they also pose risks such as distorting reality, constraining meaning, and fostering simplistic thinking. The research employs a qualitative, interpretive, and critical framework. Literature concerning metaphor analysis within the realms of management, leadership, and organizational studies in Türkiye was identified through systematic searches in Google Scholar and Dergipark databases. Of the six studies identified, only three that explicitly concentrated on management and organizational contexts were analyzed in detail. The inclusion criteria for the study stipulated that the selected literature explicitly described their methodology, involved eliciting metaphor production from participants, and utilized content or thematic analysis. In all the reviewed studies, metaphors were identified using intuitive rather than systematic methods, and there was no use of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, discursive context analysis, or systematic diagnostic procedures. This methodological shortcoming limits the theoretical and analytical depth of the findings, and the lack of discussion on the ideological and normative effects of metaphors makes their contextual production conditions invisible. Such methodological flaws create conceptual comfort zones that lead to the closure of alternative theoretical perspectives. The study suggests that metaphors should be employed in management research not in a reductionist manner, but within models supported by empirical data and interdisciplinary insights. The integration of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, critical discourse analysis, and systematic identification techniques in future research will augment the explanatory capacity of metaphor analysis, thereby making a substantial contribution to the depth and validity of management knowledge.
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