Analogical Reasoning and Knowledge Generation in Organization Theory

Abstract

This paper reviews and evaluates the cognitive status to which metaphors and analogies have been ascribed in the process of knowledge generation in organiza tion theory. Three perspectives are identified: metaphors as ways of thinking, metaphors as dispensable literary devices, and metaphors as potential ideological distortions. The main tenets of each one of them are reviewed and subsequently submitted to criticism. It is argued here that, despite their differing claims, the preceding perspectives converge on the assumption that there is a gap between metaphorical and scientific languages. The grounds for the existence of this gap are challenged in this paper, noting that the structure-mapping theory of analogy provides a methodology for developing metaphorical insights to yield scientific models and theories.