Research on writers' stylistic, organizational, and document design choices within organizational settings is still in short supply. In 'Writing in Non-Academic Settings', Odell (1985) stated that written communication researchers have a limited understanding of the organizational context's impact on writing; we know little about the content and stylistic choices writers make and why they make them. Almost a decade later, Stratman and Duffy's (1990) and Smeltzer and Thomas's (1994) research echoes Odell's concern. This lack of adequate knowledge about context-based factors such as organizational, functional area, and departmental language norms; dominant organizational and functional area metaphors; organizational structure, job design, power and authority; and behavioral control systems significantly limits our understanding of how organizational members think about writing and the constraints that limit the organization, document design, and stylistic choices they make. We must better understand these and other complex contextual factors before we can determine what is effective and ineffective organizational writing and design intervention strategies that will improve organizational writing processes and products. This study examines one important contextual factor, organizational metaphor, and assesses its impact on writers' perception of and approach toward their writing tasks. More specifically, this research analyzes the steering effect that an organization's root metaphor has on writers' perception of their report writing role, their awareness of report readers, and their content, document design, and stylistic choices. Finally, the study's results suggest that changing writers' language habits is a major organizational intervention requiring alteration of the organization's root metaphor and its entailments. (From the Introduction)