Discuss one of the metaphors from Morgan’s writings (Click here) that applies to your own organizational context. From the perspective of a leader/manager, discuss the benefit of identifying the functionality of your organization through the lens of the selected metaphor. What do you learn about your organization using that metaphor? What do you learn about your role in the organization by recognizing the metaphor at work? This forum is reflective (No citations/references required). First-person is acceptable.

The Depiction of Mao Zedong by Western Media

Western media has often been criticized for reporting fake or false news and exaggerating in different issues. Although western media prides itself in reporting well-researched features that highlight the socio-economic and political issues within western nations and the world in general, critics argue that they report news in a way that paints a grim picture of various nations. Studies have shown that African nations worry about how Africa is perceived by western nations; a factor contributed largely by flawed news features that depict the continent is nothing more than a region blighted by war, diseases, death, and illiteracy. China has too criticized western media of portraying a negative image of Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China. To many westerners, Mao Zedong was a ruthless leader solely responsible for the deaths of millions of people during his regime. Chinese, however, argue that Zedong was a great leader who single-handedly led China to socio-economic and political dominance.

Mao Zedong

Born in 1893, Mao Zedong was a communist revolutionary who became the nation’s founding father. Zedong ruled China as the leader of the Communist Party since its establishment in the late 1940s until his death in the mid-1970s. Political critics argue that he followed the socio-economic and political strategies of Maoism, a type of communism doctrine that allowed Chinese leaders to capture power through armed insurgency, strategic alliances, and mass mobilization (Nagesh, 2019). Like other Maoists, Zedong used disinformation and propaganda to remain in power. Zedong's socio-economic and political ideologies were largely influenced by the Xinhai Revolution and the May Fourth Movement. However, he later abandoned these ideologies for Marxism-Leninism and eventually founded the Communist Party of China. Zedong is also responsible for creating the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army which fought against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War of the 1930s.