On Color Metaphors in Organization Studies

Abstract

Abstract This chapter acknowledges color metaphors in organization studies, and focuses on one group of color metaphors that may be the most frequently used—the variety of color-coded versions of the collar metaphor, such as blue- and white-collar workers. The chapter is based on an unsystematic literature review, and identifies and discusses a set of fairly common color metaphors that have occurred in both more academic and more practitioner-oriented writings. The authors make efforts to trace how certain colors have been given certain meanings, as they have been used as metaphors in combination with “collar.” The authors give examples of the many different meanings that there are of any single color, discuss the universality of meaning of any particular color, and suggest that caution is exercised by any organizational researcher who wants to include color metaphors in their research.