| Neil Postman, in his book Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk, discusses the proposition that all language is metaphorical. He and other writers have suggested that metaphor is the basis from which our language develops. These writers suggest that metaphor enables metaphor makers to widen their base of reference by comparing an unknown experience to a known experience. In particular, problems may arise if we assume that our particular metaphorical construction is exactly shared by all of the participants in the situation.;Postman's proposition was examined by correlating evaluations of compatibility with evaluations of effectiveness. The study collected data from three large scale behavioral simulations currently used at New York University's Schools of Business for executive training. The participants in these simulations included managers from a major New York publishing company and an international manufac- turing company.;Each of the forty-eight managers in the study was asked to iden- tify his or her metaphor for managing. Specifically, they were asked to respond to the statement, "As a manager in (name of simulation), I was like a ." Forty-six unique metaphors were given. The metaphors of each of the managers were then paired. Managerial pairs were made up of two managers who had a direct reporting relationship. As a result of this pairing, there were a total of eighty- six observations in the study.;These pairs of metaphors were evaluated for compatibility by three business people using a five-point Likert-type scale. Following this, the metaphors were correlated to the evaluations of effective- ness gathered from fellow managers during the simulations.;Postman provided the foundation on which this study was based in his suggestion of the possibility of what he called metaphorical in- compatibility. Incompatibility arises when the roles and rules implied by the metaphors used by different individuals are so incongruent that the 'reasonable' actions of one person will inevitably conflict with the reasonable actions of another.;Based on the data, it is possible to conclude that there is a statis- tically significant correlation between evaluations of effectiveness and a composite rating of compatibility. However, between these two variables results thus far indicate that the relationship is weak. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)... |
