Change metaphor - Grappling with the two-headed organizational behemoth

This article reports on the authors' studies of change, illustrating the po wer and effect of metaphorical usage. Both authors have been involved in fa cilitating change in a higher education institution and in a public lands w ilderness dispute. One of the authors was instrumental in the process of ma naging the closing of a large semiconductor plant, and the other author has been involved in the Middle East peace process. The authors' primary thesi s is that metaphor has tremendous power to both define and shape the dynami cs of change in organizations-destructively and transformationally. A const ruct for understanding how metaphor can influence change is used to analyze each case, with the basic assumption that those metaphors that evoke highe r order feelings of mutual understanding and community within organizationa l constituents will lead more directly to organizational transformation.