The Metaphors of Academic Administrators and Their Relationship to Administrative Behaviour: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The assumption that a relationship exists between the metaphors of administrators and administrative behaviour occurs frequently in the literature of educational administration, but is one which appears to have been rarely researched. This study found no evidence of a systematic relationship between the metaphors of administrators and administrative behaviour. The problem which the study addressed was one of clarifying the nature of the relationship between the metaphors of administrators and administrative behaviour. The purpose of the study was to extend understanding of the role or function of metaphor in organisational analysis through an examination of the relationship between the metaphors used by administrators and a selected area of administrative behaviour.