What is metaphor, and how it facilitates organizational change

The use of metaphors in facilitating organizational change process, is one of the most important achievements of consultants and researches in the field of management in recent years. Although, to many people, metaphors have had a long history in the management field, the systematic use and analysis of them has just started in recent years. Consequently, irrespective of the great body of literature devoted to it, we still face a lot of questions and ambiguities regarding them. Questions like: which metaphors are more suitable for explaining change? Could any organization produce its unique metaphors? Is there any standard framework to use? What are the challenges and traps in using metaphors? In which way can we properly use them?
In the paper, after a short review of the literature we introduce appropriate metaphors to use in change process as well as presenting a new and practical framework of using metaphors for managers. Finally, we differentiate modern and traditional metaphors and introduce a new classification of metaphors.