Metaphors were used to teach systems thinking and to clarify concepts of organizational theory in an introductory MBA management course. Gareth Morgan's metaphors of organization were read by students and applied as frames to analyze a business case. In addition, personal metaphors were written by individual students in order to describe the organizations where they worked. Writing personal metaphors enabled students to report subjective images that otherwise could be difficult to describe in normal, declarative language. Students chose metaphors such as a dysfunctional family, hungry bear, ant hill, budding flower, subway, and an alien spaceship to exemplify their organizations. Systems theory was introduced to the students as a particularly useful metaphor for analyzing organizations. (Contains 3 tables.)