Patterns & Metaphors
Disease
Template:
A disease is a departure from the normal state of a living organism sufficient to produce overt symptoms that constitute an impairment of its functions. Physiologically the normal state is a delicate balance of chemical, physical and functional processes maintained by a complex of partially understood control mechanisms. When these fail to function appropriately in response to some particular conditions a characteristic disease may be defined. The concept is also extended to mental and emotional disorders of man. A systematic classification of human diseases exists.
Metaphor:
Groups, organizations, cultures (and even schools of thought), as organs of society, on occasion present overt symptoms of some form of disruption to the delicate balance of their control processes. These can be considered as organizational diseases which could lend themselves to some form of systematic classification analogous to that for human diseases: (a) infective diseases: Organizations and networks can be negatively affected by the transfer of some viewpoint or process from another body. (b) Parasitic diseases: Groups and cultures can function in a parasitic relationship to other bodies from which they sustain themselves. (c) Neoplasms or tumours: Groups and networks can suffer from the abnormal development of parts of their structure, whether this is of a relatively harmless nature or leads rapidly to the complete disruption of the body. (d) Endocrine diseases: To the extent that organizations have sub-divisions with specific functions, one such sub-division can function inappropriately thus unbalancing the operations of the whole. (e) Nutritional diseases: Groups and societies are sustained by the influx of resources. If the amount or nature of such resources is inappropriate, this will result in characteristic consequences for the group. (f) Metabolic diseases: Organizations and networks have established procedures for processing incoming resources both to adapt them for effective use after storage and to reject the exhausted by products of such use to permit further activity. These procedures may be disrupted. (g) Blood diseases: To the extent that organizations and societies may be described as having a medium, such as finance (whether as credit or debt), through which resources are circulated throughout their structures, the manner in which this medium functions may become disrupted. (h) Mental disorders: Groups and cultures control their own behaviour and attitudes by the appropriate transmission of information. Disorders in this process may occur because of either predisposing causes (resulting from the manner of their creation) or exciting causes or stresses. These may take the form of abnormal beliefs or acts. (i) Nervous diseases: Networks and societies can exhibit such symptoms as disturbance of information input (loss of receptivity, hypersensitivity, perverted sensitivity), or more or less complete paralysis of options of their structure (possibly accompanied by spastic forms of activity). (j) Circulatory diseases: To the extent that the resources of an organization are distributed to its subdivisions and exchanged between them through a medium such as finance, the excessive accumulation of this medium in particular parts and the inadequate supply to other parts can endanger the organization as a whole. (k) Respiratory diseases: Networks and societies may be conceived as breathing information in order to revitalize their various parts. Irregularities in the inflow of new information of the appropriate kind and the elimination of out-of-date information can severely impair operations. (l) Digestive system diseases: Organizations and groups may be conceived as digesting facts which are broken down into a form which enables information to be extracted from them, absorbed and assimilated. These processes may be disrupted. (m) Genito-urinary diseases: Groups and networks eject the exhausted resources resulting from their activity and this process may malfunction such as to impair their further operations. To the extent that organizations tend to merge or to engender spin-off bodies having a similar style or pattern. This process may also be subject to malfunction. (n) Skin diseases: An organization may be conceived as being separated from its environment by a boundary which has function analogous to those of protection, secretion, heat regulation and respiration. These processes may malfunction. (o) Diseases of the musculoskeletal system: Some features of an organization or network perform structural functions analogous to the skeletal system and the associated muscles (whether voluntary or involuntary). Weaknesses in such features can impair the functioning of the body.
[Features] The detailed understanding of the many different systems enabling the body to function and of the ways in which they interact.
[Contrast] Many terms, including diseases itself, have been borrowed from medicine to describe the condition of an organization. But although a detailed comparison has been made between the state and the human body, such terms have not been used to sild up a coherent pattern of metaphors to offer insight into the functioning of an organization.
[Keys] Medical disciplines: anatomy, physiology, pathology. Diagnosis. Medical intervention, including surgery. Pharmacology. Different forms of therapy.<
