Mapping workplace and organizational change

Abstract

The current condition of global economy is evolving out of the ascendance of information technologies and the associated increase in the mobility and liquidity of capital. These phenomena have further propelled a corresponding change of previously national economic actors participating more actively in a complex global market. The complexities involved at different scales entail a new type of organizational structure and conceptual model which are based on dynamic perspectives to re-scale the existing strategic territories and spatial units. The intention of this thesis is to explore metaphor as a mapping mechanism in conceptualizing these unfamiliar realities. Particularly, the metaphors from nature, from living creatures and from existing physical forms and patterns are applied to find associated correspondences with these global phenomena. By mapping workplace and organizational change, the thesis attempts to construct a framework to visualize the new physical pattern and geographic distributions of global organizations to form a conceptual understanding of the complexities in the global economic activities.