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The Influence of Organizational Metaphors on Writers' Communication Roles and Stylistic Choices

The Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

This study examines the influence that organizational metaphors have on report writers' framing of their writing tasks and the stylistic, organizational, and document design choices they make. The study, conducted at a medium-size organi zation, uses participant observation, semi-structured individual and group inter views, and protocol analysis to gather data from 23 staff professionals at three field sites.

The data show that writers see themselves as communication ciphers or con duits and describe their communication activities in mechanistic terms. These metaphors, which complemented the organization's view of itself as a smoothly operating machine, help explain why writers were neither aware of nor concerned about their report readers and why they write difficult-to-read reports.

These results indicate that root organizational metaphors significantly influence writers'perception of their communication role and the rhetorical choices they make. Altering these writers' composing habits would be a major intervention requiring a change in the organization's dominant or root metaphor.

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