Organizational metaphors as lenses for analyzing workflow technology

Abstract

We analyze possible organizational use of workflow technology based on contemporary organizational theory for the purpose of understanding flexible workflow.Organization theory is entered through Gareth Morgan's "Images of Organization", which describes eight metaphors that can be consciously applied for the study of organizations.All metaphors contribute to this study, but some give more important contributions.Based on the brains-metaphor, we show how workflow is linked to organizational learning and how it can be extended to actually support aspects of it.Inspired by the culture-metaphor we focus on social reality construction and how user oriented process models may contribute to support the construction of shared realities and shared meaning.Utilizing the flux and transformationmetaphor, we argue against "generic" business processes except as templates for adaptation.

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