The Metaphor of “ The Jazz Band ” : Ethical Issues for Leadership

Over the past twenty years the metaphor of “the jazz band” has been used in order to illuminate the phenomenon of leadership and the way we understand organizations. This paper takes a broad view, critically examining six examples of the way this metaphor has been used in order to gain an understanding of the insights that it can provide into leadership and organizations. This approach is underpinned by two assumptions. Firstly, that leadership and organizations cannot be viewed separately: a key purpose of leadership is to shape and transform organizations. Secondly, the use of metaphor to comprehend and communicate ideas about organizations is viewed as a leadership strategy and as such it cannot be viewed as being “neutral” or value-free. Consequently there are ethical issues for leaders who choose to work with the metaphor of the jazz band.