Coding and analysing metaphors within linguistic, psychology and discourse perspectives: The use of

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Coding and analysing metaphors within linguistic,
psychology and discourse perspectives The use of
quantitative methods

Joep Cornelissen and Mario Kafouros, Leeds
University Business School, May 2006
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Presentation structure

• Three studies (linguistic, psychology and
  discourse) within organisation theory
• Analytical steps around (1) identification, (2)
  inference and (3) analysis (systematicity/conventi
  onality/use) of metaphors across corpus of
  language
• Choices for methods
• Discussion the potential of quantitative methods
  and measures

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Context

• Organisations cannot be directly represented or
  experienced as single objects or entities
  (Sandelands Srivatsan, 1993 Weick, 1989) ?
  metaphorically represented as organism, machine,
  (open) system, container etc.
• Theoretical debates about how metaphors work and
  shape theorising about organisations
• Very little empirical research on how metaphors
  are developed, selected and retained, and impact
  and shape the field
• Studies funded by the Economic and Social
  Research Council (ESRC) (RES-000-22-0791)

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Study 1 Linguistic study

• why are certain metaphors selected and retained
  over time?
• A cognitive linguistic analysis of conceptual
  metaphors in organisation theory 1989-2003
• hypothesised that four psychological principles
  (the between-domains distance principle, the
  within-domains similarity principle, the
  concreteness principle and the relational
  principle) determine the aptness of a conceptual
  metaphor, and its subsequent adoption and
  continued use over time
• Data from academic publications 1989-2003

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• Adjectives organisational and corporate as
  target terms into the Topic (title, abstract or
  keywords) field tag
• (1) metaphor focus identification, (2)
  metaphorical mapping and categorization, (3)
  metaphor analysis
• Ad 1 two coders and use of dictionary
• Ad 2 deductive and inductive, measured
  inter-rater agreement (K-statistic) on
  categorization and on coding of aptness
  principles
• Ad 3 measured frequency (total counts) and
  mention (spread over years) of metaphors over
  time, correlated with aptness scores

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• The kappa-coefficient (Carletta 1996) measures
  pair-wise agreement among coders making category
  judgments, correcting for expected chance
  agreement. Good quality categorization of
  discourse phenomena normally yields a K of about
  .80 (Carletta 1996).
• Correlations between both the sum scores of
  aptness of conceptual metaphors and their
  frequency over time, and the scores of conceptual
  metaphors on each of the four principles and
  their frequency over time
• Correlations between both the sum scores of
  aptness of conceptual metaphors and the scores of
  conceptual metaphors on each of the four
  principles, and their simple mention over time

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Study 2 Psychological study

• What is the (psychological) impact of metaphors
  in organisation theory?
• The consequences or impact of a metaphor
  including an explicatory form of cognitive
  change whereby a metaphor facilitates learning or
  leads to conceptual clarification and a
  generative type of cognitive change with a
  metaphor leading to conceptual advances and
  insights that were inconceivable before
• Six central metaphors-in-use organizational
  improvisation as jazz, organizational identity,
  organizational behavior as theatre,
  organizational learning, organization as chaos
  and organization as evolution.
• 250 participants (management and organization
  scholars) rated these metaphors on a number of
  scales

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• Participants were also asked to rate the effects
  of the metaphor in question whether the metaphor
  had provided a language to communicate about a
  topic, facilitated learning/led to conceptual
  clarification, or led to conceptual advances.
• P1 The higher the within-domains similarity of a
  metaphor, the higher the generative and
  explicatory consequences of a metaphor.
• P2 The higher the between-domains distance of a
  metaphor, the higher the generative
  consequences of a metaphor and the lower the
  explicatory consequences.
• P3 The higher the comprehensibility of a
  metaphor, the higher the generative and
  explicatory consequences of a metaphor.

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Study 3 Discourse study

• Basic question in organisation theory how
  people give meaning to events, work, environment
  within and outside of the organization
• Massive literature on managerial and
  organisational cognition schemata, cognitive
  maps, learning, scripts, mental models etc.
• Most constructs strictly cognitivist and
  reproductive - emphasizing how the contents of
  cognition reflect, distort or otherwise mirror
  the world (e.g. computational metaphor)
• Sensemaking as productive account of
  meaning-making how acts of cognition impose not
  only structure but also direction on experience
  (both in retrospective and prospective sense)

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• Sensemaking accounts, constituted through
  metaphors, link language (a discursive account of
  an organization as, for example, a machine),
  thinking (thoughts and ideas about what it means
  to see an organization as a machine) and action
  (acting as if an organization was a machine)
• Need for systematic identification and analysis
  of metaphors in sensemaking/discourse processes

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• Discourse approach (1) metaphor focus
  identification, (2) metaphorical mapping, and (3)
  metaphor analysis
• Research context corporate communications
  professionals within 6 organisations in the UK,
  asked to discuss their own experiences within a
  critical incident
• First step Interview data transcribed and
  analysed manually
• Second step use of a second coder for the
  categorisation (metaphor mapping)
• Third step cluster analysis (metaphor analysis)

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Preliminary results

• BOC failed takeover by Airliquide 6 years ago ?
  it was a time to re-engage the business
  (INTER-PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS) we pointed out
  (VISIBILITY/VISUAL REPRESENTATION) to people that
  we were in control again, we had a new CEO who
  came (MOVEMENT) with a new message of growth and
  control, we organised brain-storm meetings to
  foster a can-do culture and to pre-empt employees
  bombarding (PHYSICAL AGGRESSION) corporate
  managers with questions

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• BNFL accident within the Thorpe plant ? we
  needed to bring the message across (TRANSFER (OF
  OBJECTS) to local community, media and council as
  quickly as possible, we announced (DELIVER NEWS
  AS OFFICIAL MESSENGER) this first to the local
  media, when we talked to the local community we
  translated (LANGUAGE) it for them and explained
  how we saw the situation, we also told them that
  we werent yet in the possession of all the facts
  (POSSESSION AND TRANSFER OF OBJECTS), we
  consciously did not release information (PHYSICAL
  CONTROL OF OBJECTS) to the national press, in
  part so as to pre-empt negative news coverage

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• Metaphor mapping both deductive and inductive,
  K-statistic to measure inter-rater agreement on
  categorization of metaphorical foci into
  categories (source domains)
• Metaphor analysis measure frequency of
  particular metaphorical expressions and the
  frequency of source domains across the entire
  dataset, and in relation to samples related to a
  particular critical incident (as the sensemaking
  context), a speaker, and the organization
  involved.
• Metaphor analysis measure distribution of
  metaphors by sentence and consecutive
  communications or utterances, as the unit of
  talk between the interviewer and the interviewee
  (Pollio Barlow, 1975) ? (cumulative)
  frequencies, distribution

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Discussion and implications

• Quantitative methods at analytical points, and
  dependent on theoretical assumptions and research
  questions
• Metaphor identification use of quantitative
  measures not an issue in psychological research,
  but reliability and categorization measures
  (K-statistic, Perreault and Leigh statistic)
  important to linguistic and discourse research

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• Metaphor mapping and categorization again
  kappa-statistic helpful for discourse and
  linguistic research
• Metaphor analysis measures dependent on research
  questions and dependent-independent variables
  (aptness, time) ? frequencies, correlations,
  distribution measures (poisson, cumulative
  frequencies, estimate functions)