Playing the Changes on the Jazz Metaphor proposes an expanded view of the jazz metaphor in a broadened perspective that embraces a wide range of possibilities in organizational, management, and marketing-related themes. This monograph presents a new typology of Jazz Musicians based on different kinds of artistic offerings. This typology will combine three key distinctions or dimensions to construct a twelve-fold classification that - when extended to the sphere of organizational behavior and business strategy as a Typology of Management and Marketing Styles - will shed light on different ways in which the jazz metaphor relates to organizational design, business practice, management skills, and marketing opportunities.

In order to describe these typologies, the author examines important aspects of a first-level jazz metaphor as it relates to organizational issues involved in shaping the jazz improvisation into a form of collective collaboration. This is followed by attention to a second-level linguistic metaphor based on viewing jazz as a kind of language at the foundation for a collaborative conversation.