The Organization That Never Sleeps: A Metaphorical Pathology of Organizational Insomnia.

The application of metaphors as a means to advance our understanding of organizations has a long-standing tradition in organization studies and organizational communication research, in particular. Generally speaking, metaphors allow for a description of organizational characteristics and functions in the terminology of another domain of interest. Anthropomorphic metaphors most commonly draw comparisons to the physiology of the human brain and the psychology of the human mind. At this, metaphorical understanding is creative rather than retentive, but it must follow a systematic approach in order to explore its theoretical value. Organizational learning and organizational memory are two prominent examples of anthropomorphic metaphors in organization studies. However, in the light of recent advancements in biology, neurology, and psychology, they lack the complementing metaphor of organizational sleep, given that sleep plays a particularly important role for the human mindÂ’s processes of learning and memory. Based on the communication as constitutive of organizations (CCO) perspective (Castor, 2005; Cooren & Fairhurst, 2005) as well as the theory of social systems (Luhmann, 1995, 2000), this study re-contextualizes the metaphors of organizational learning and memory by illustrating sleep-wake cycles of organizational communication. In particular, the contrast between an ideal-typical 'healthy sleep organization' and an 'insomniac organization' leads to a reconsideration of existing theories of organizational learning and memory, on the one hand, and brings about new implications for the management of organizational communication, on the other hand. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]