The organism metaphor looks at organizations as wholes made up of interrelated parts. These parts function in such a way as to ensure the survival of the organization as an organism. Survival, therefore, replaces goal seeking as the raison d’ètre of the enterprise. Furthermore organizations, according to this view, are open systems that must secure favourable interchanges with their environments, adapting to environmental disturbances as required. Managers influenced by this metaphor play close attention to the demands of the environment and ensure that subsystems are meeting the organization’s needs. Critics argue that the organismic viewpoint forgets that individuals or groups in organizations may not share the organization’s overall purposes. They are not like the parts of the body in this respect. As a result the metaphor hides con£ict and internally generated change.