Metaphors and mental models: sensemaking and sensegiving in innovative and entrepreneurial activities

Journal of Management, Nov-Dec, 1995 by Hill Robert C., Michael Levenhagen

Intuitive Models

In their earliest form, mental models include emotive affect and may even include data that have been forgotten or unconsciously perceived (Polanyi, 1967). This state of mental-model development is best referred to as intuition. The cognitions at this stage constitute an open-ended, felt belief system. Individuals may not know precisely why they know what they believe they know. Moreover, at this stage of model development, the intuitive belief structure has not been verbally articulated. As described by Bird (1989), the cognitions may come to the entrepreneur as vague feelings for which full description is not yet available. This distinction is significant. Verbal articulation is a further abstraction process beyond cognition. The capacity to verbally articulate cognitions relies upon the limited capabilities of language. Not only are these intuitive mental models or belief systems selectively constructed by perceivers, they are also constrained by the capacity of the language, culture and context within which they reside. Context (the perceived structural characteristics of an environment), culture (the meanings attached to human relationships and behavior), previous experiences, and language capacity compound an entrepreneur's problem of proper description of beliefs on which to base action in similar (but new) situations. Thus, rich cognitions may be generated but with comparatively few adequate words by which to describe them. Drucker (1985) describes such a situation in the early stages of computer development. To cope with the lack of appropriate language required the use of metaphors.

Metaphors

Should an individual wish to enact her/his mental model, she/he will do so actively by a language articulation phase or by enabling others to interpret her/his stream of actions for themselves. The first articulation in the language stream is typically a metaphor. Black (1962), Hesse (1966), and Morgan (1980) suggest that metaphors are the first developments of models philosophically, psychologically, and sociologically. Metaphors are incomplete statements of one thing - in terms of another. If examined closely, metaphors express a logical inconsistency, incongruence or a contradiction (Black, 1962; MacCormac, 1985; Morgan, 1986; Ortony, 1979). Thus, all metaphors at some level are paradoxical. For example, to say that an organization is a "machine" may be quite descriptive. This same statement, however, can also be seen as false upon further evaluation. An organization may operate somewhat mechanistically, however, it cannot literally be a machine. Similarly, to build on the previous example of the language development in the emerging computer industry, the term "memory" is an effective means of describing data storage capacity. Computers, however, do not literally have memory.

Table 1 presents some commonly discussed business metaphors as well a few drawn from specific literature. From the category headings in the table, we can see that metaphors have been used for a number of purposes in organizations. As discussed previously, metaphors may be used to describe product or service mission statements. Metaphors have also been used to describe how organizations or subunits will operate. For example, the owner of Anchor Steam Brewery stressed that his organization be "all chiefs and no indians" (Gumpert, 1986). This statement is intended to foster individual autonomy and responsibility. The terms "virtual corporation" and "intellectual holding company" (Quinn, Doorley & Paquette, 1990) have been used to describe organizations that are largely alliances of buyers and suppliers. Such metaphors, though sometimes coined by academicians or observers, can be and have been adopted in practice. For example, the virtual corporation concept of organization has been pursued by entrepreneurs as a "bootstrapping" technique for new venture start-up (Davidow & Malone, 1993). This approach to start-up aids speed of entry, and allows entrepreneurs to avoid steep fixed cost barriers to entry.