Identifying Some Metaphorical Functions in Organizational Leadership

Today's dynamic and complex environment no longer provides much opportunity for appropriate response. Companies that can't keep up with the changes are being destroyed. In addition, employees have less room for attention in the information age bombardment of the digital age. Any ambiguity in both matters adds to the complexity. Organizational leaders need to communicate information in a transparent, accurate, and timely manner in order to communicate and align with employees. Metaphor as a powerful and very effective tool in conveying concepts can help the leader to achieve his goals; a powerful tool that many great poets and writers have used; because metaphor conveys a large amount of concepts in the fewest words. Perspective, inspiration and persuasion are considered to be the main functions of metaphor. The present study aims to investigate the role and function of metaphor in the behavior of the organization leader in one of the successful organizations that has experienced several successful organizational changes using ethnography and content analysis. In more than a year of observing and participating in various meetings of the leader of the organization, an attempt has been made to identify the metaphors used and to classify them according to function. After reviewing and performing content analysis, four functions were identified for metaphors. The leader seems to have focused more on using specific functions than metaphors based on their function at different times.