Organizational Storytelling Seminar Series

ESRC Seminar Series 2006-2007

Storytelling and Change in Organizations Seminar

University of Bath, 18 December 2006

Abstracts (in order of appearance in the Programme

1. A Year in the Life of an Entrepreneur: Narratives of Identity and Transformation

This paper arises out of empirical data that have been collected since June 2005 from Andrew, an Exeter MBA alumnus who, on completion of the course, started his own company: Luminor. Having spent his working life in the insurance world, Andrew’s business now revolves around selling products and services to companies in this industry. We have been tracking the Luminor venture through an email diary provided by Andrew (including factual progress reports, critical reflections on his various interactions, forwarded correspondence between him and his clients, and general reflections on ‘life’ – “Why am I doing this? I keep coming back to the same issue of liking to pit my wits against the world and (occasionally) winning” (email, 26/11/05) ) which runs into 90 pages to date, and various interviews we have conducted with him over the past year.

In our paper we will delve into the issues of identity and transformation (in terms of what drives Andrew, how he came to be at his current position, and indeed the personal cost of “being an entrepreneur”). Our study mirrors thus Simon Down’s in that: “It is concerned with providing a description of self-identity processes related to acting entrepreneurially, and adding to, and clarifying the vocabulary that is used in that description” (Down, 2006: 111).
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2. Once upon a time: A tale of isolation and maturation

Once upon a time in a far away kingdom there lived two Princes. They were both very brave and worked hard doing princely things as the King and Kingdom desired. However, one Prince had lived in the kingdom since anyone could remember and the other Prince had recently arrived after visiting many other far away lands. It became apparent that the old King would not last forever and would be seeking a replacement to take charge of the Kingdom, the two Princes realised that they were the main contenders for the position and so set about fulfilling the many challenges and quests set them to their utmost ability…….

In this workshop presentation I would like to examine how story-lines, characters and plots from fairy stories may be drawn on in our accounts of ourselves in our everyday lives. Prompted by Ricoeur’s (1992) attention to the narrative self and an interest in Bettelheim’s (1976) analysis of the relevance of fairy tale characters to children’s emerging sense of self I want to explore how these may explain differences in the way our selves are constructed in the workplace.

Part of this examination will include a reconstruction of the material and its analysis along the lines of a fairy story. I hope to invite and explore reactions to this presentation as one way to highlight how academic work is also an act of identity narration.

I suggest that an individuals’ sense of self is characterized and distinguished from the concept of identity by an ability to reflect upon itself. These two aspects of identity may be labelled self-narrative and narratives of the self – or the stories we tell ourselves (about ourselves) and the stories we tell others (although this is not to suggest that we are simply the sum of the stories). Whatever labelling system that we use, these notions of our selves are drawn upon and reconstructed in accounts where speakers use practical theories to make sense of their lives. In the study I examine these ideas from accounts of people who have described changes in the work context by looking at the resources that they draw on to create and maintain a sense of self in changing conditions.

Two managers have agreed to take part in the study and are employed by the same UK-based, engine manufacturer. They are employed in the same sector of the organization, are both aged 42 and are of a similar level of seniority. They differ, however, in a fundamental manner with regard to their past work experience, Manager 1 (Ron Recent) has been employed by the company for two years (previously in the Armed Forces and other organizations) and Manager 2 (Lewis Longserved) for 20 years, since leaving Higher Education). I propose that this evident difference in their tenure in the organization will feature in their ways of legitimizing their behaviours and through this their identities as managers. Material has been collected through interview transcripts and observations in the participants’ workplaces.

In the possible resulting paper I hope to contribute to understanding in the area of identities by contrasting the resources utilized by each of the two participants in the study. Early analysis suggests that the newcomer talks about himself and others in a way similar to characters in fairy tales with a lack of ambivalence, the hero is either good or bad etc., self and other are presented as polarities. The longer serving member of the organization however explains his relationships in the organization as nuanced and symbolic of other times, other relationships, as constantly changing, never quite fixed in any sense, ambiguity and paradox are accepted and embraced as viable explanations of the work place.

Bettelheim argues that in stories a child is not asking the question ‘Do I want to be good?’ but ‘Who do I want to be like?’ Where assurance that one can succeed is the important existential problem (1976: 10). This contrasts with Ricoeur’s (1992) concern with the ethical self which poses important questions about the processes of identification.

So, the two Princes compete with one another in order to gain the King’s attention, reverting to trickery and evil deeds when required. And although, of course, they all live happily ever after it does not work out exactly as they had planned.

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3. Storytelling for Pain Study (STOPS)

The presentation will be about using purposeful storytelling to facilitate individual change in a primary health care. This is innovative work in heath care settings which remain dominated by the bioscience paradigm. Whilst the link between individual lifestyle and health is widely accepted, the role of storytelling in moulding the way we understand our world, and the potential of storytelling for effecting change, have not been explored in the health community. If found useful the approach could be applied in many areas of health care.

I will present a current study that aims to help patients with pain to approach it in a way that will promote recovery and reduce the risk of chronicity. The presentation will include the following elements: References: Back to top

4 Researching and Supervising by Storying Around: An autoethnographic trio

This paper is a joint autoethnographic story of a period in the lives of three interacting academics. It is a reflexive account of career change, studentship, research supervision, and collegiality. Three narratives are presented for discussion. Thomas explores the changes in his life from paratrooper to academic. Michael reflects on a late change in career from teacher-trainer to publishing researcher and Andrew examines the issues arising from the supervision of two mature PhD students. The paper is thus a “story about stories” (Humphreys, Gurney and Brown, 2005) which, via a discussion of emergent intersections and disjunctions, seeks to create insight into the complex relationships between research students and their supervisors and, in the process, highlight synergies in academic collaboration and co-authorship. The research contribution of the paper is in its value to academics and research students as an interpretive framework for reflexive examination of their own experiences.
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5. Change Across Boundaries: Emotion Entrepreneurs Tell Their Stories

Sure Start was an innovative New Labour initiative, made up of well-resourced partnerships, working to improve the lives of families with young children in areas of deprivation. Between 1999 and 2004, 522 Sure Start partnerships were set up. Each had around 40 staff from a range of health and social care backgrounds, one manager, and a governing board of professionals and community members. Ministerial pressure led to all Sure Start partnerships becoming Children's Centres by the end of March 2006 with plans for numbers to increase to 3,500 by 2010. This change was announced a few months before data construction began in November 2003; when it ended, in January 2005, the change was taking effect.

The method used for data construction, following Labonte et al (2000) and Abma (2003) and drawing on the work of Winter, Buck and Sobiechowska (1999), asked participants in small peer groups to tell short fictional stories about how it felt to work in partnership as a Sure Start manager. They were then asked to discuss each story in its own terms. As well as the initial stories, the discussions contained many personal, experience, group and performance stories.

The stories told by Sure Start managers show that they are 'emotion entrepreneurs' who create ways to manage their own feelings and emotions, and the feelings and emotions of others. Their methods include the creation of opportunities for emotional communication, and for making and sharing meanings, through storytelling.

This presentation sets the social policy context and gives a brief introduction to the methodology used. It then focuses on the stories told by Sure Start managers and what they teach us about emotional management in a time of great uncertainty and change. Processes of internal and external translation are discussed. The presentation demonstrates that story is a powerful tool for studying and managing such complex, ambiguous, boundary-crossing issues as change, emotion and partnership.
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6. The paradoxical role of narrative in organizational change

This paper explores the ambiguous role that scholars attribute to narrative in the realization of organizational change. One perspective emphasizes the contribution of narrative as a sense-making device that facilitates an adaptive interpretation of organizational contingencies and fosters a reassuring sense of continuity during times of uncertainty. Another more critical perspective suggests that narrative may conversely constitute an inertial constraint on adaptive change, with heroic stories of past achievement serving as a reinforcement of outdated routines, structures and resource allocations. We apply a Greimasian (1987) framework to detailed ethnographic data of organizational change at a prominent HIV/AIDS organization in order to shed light on this puzzling contradiction. Our analysis suggests that an organizational narrative may be a notable asset during a period of incremental change, leading and justifying the modification of the relationship between the organization and its key stakeholders. However, our analysis also indicates that an organizational narrative can become a particular source of vulnerability during a period of profound environmental upheaval. Here, the attribution of organizational protagonism may lead to unwarranted assumptions about the centrality of the organization in its environmental niche, with an accordingly adverse effect on the nature and pace of change undertaken. Thus, our research contribution lies in providing a nuanced understanding of the role of organizational narrative as potentially both a resource for and a constraint on organizational change, depending on the scale of environmental turbulence with which an organization is confronted.
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7. Understanding Processes of Organisational Change: Longitudinal Studies and the Construction of Theory from Narratives

The pressures of globalisation and technological change have led to an increase in interest among researchers in process theory and the study of dynamic phenomena such as learning or innovation in organisations. However, process phenomena have a fluid character that spreads both through organisational structure and time that affects the nature of the research materials. They are often incomplete fragments told from different points of view and collected after the events have taken place. Consequently, researchers are attracted to the construction of a narrative account or story because narratives embody sequence and time and are naturally suited to the development of process theories about a wide range of organisational phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of methodological strategies that respond to the challenges of the longitudinal study of process in organisations, in particular, working with narrative materials and the accuracy of respondents’ retrospective accounts.
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8. Organizational identity narrative and legitimacy under major environmental changes: The case of UK building societies

British building societies have experienced a series of waves of major institutional transformation (e.g. deregulation and demutualisation) since the 1980s. Such transformation posed a range of significant threats to building society as a legitimate form of organization and institution. As a result, there was a widespread belief that building society was an outdated Victorian species of organization that didn’t fit contemporary business environment. These changes caused series of crises to many building societies due to waves of demutualization (conversion to or taken over by plc.) within the sector. To explain how remaining building societies respond to such environmental changes, we examined in-depth two contrasting reactions of building societies (one typical, one atypical) to external pressure posed by institutional transformation over the last two decades. The typical case (termed Alpha) was when the building society have chosen to maintain and value its mutual status, whereas the atypical case (termed Beta) was when the building society have chosen to play down its mutual status.

The two case studies involved 36 retrospective semi-structured interviews with senior managers and longitudinal documentary analysis of the two organizations. As a result of this study, we identified the following themes. First, organizational identity (OI) and legitimacy (OL) were endangered by those major, sometimes drastic environmental changes for both organizations. However the types of OI and OL threats were perceived differently by the two organizations (we terms them Alfa type and Beta type reaction). Second, having been motivated to regain organizational legitimacy, both organizations accorded tremendous attention and efforts to OI narration and re-narration. Two types of organizational legitimacy (i.e. institutional level and organizational level) were found salient at different periods triggered by different types of environmental changes. Deregulation, especially allowance for diversification, rendered OL at the organizational level more salient, whilst demutualisation posed severe threats to OL at the institutional level. Finally, when demutualisation threat diminished, OL at the organizational level became again salient due to the resumed need for differentiation among peer building societies. On the other hand, OI narration was found to be related to the type of organizational legitimacy. When OL at the institutional level was perceived as more salient, OI narration focused on the generic elements of being a building society, whereas when OL at the organizational level was perceived as more significant, OI narration was motivated to achieve ideal positioning among the peers of building societies. Third, despite the commonality of the above findings for both organizations under study, they differed in terms of the specific content of OL perception and OI narration. Alfa type building society tended to perceive OL more at the institutional level and emphasise more on the generic element of building society as part of their OI narrative, whereas Beta type building society tended to perceive OL more at the organizational level and emphasis more on the uniqueness of itself among both its peer building societies and other financial organizations. Finally, we found that the prior differences are associated with the size and status of the organization within the sector, leadership, organizational culture, and corporate strategy.

This study has significant theoretical implications. First, a narrative approach to OI provides a useful theoretical perspective to study organizational change and legitimacy and the interplay between organizations and environment. Second, we also identified two levels of OL: institutional level and organizational level. Third, OI narrative and OL perception are interrelated. OL at institutional level is more related with generic elements of OI narrative, whereas OL at the organizational level is more related with unique elements of OI narrative. Third, OI needs to be constantly narrated or re-narrated to meet external pressure on organizational legitimacy. Finally, our study suggests that understanding organizational change requires closer investigation of OI, OL, leadership, organizational culture, strategy, organizational demographics and their interplays.
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9. Story & Anti-story: Patterns Of Narrative In Organisational Change Situations

The ability to manage change is not only a crucial factor for business organisations, but also a challenging one. While the official change stories (which are openly communicated by those in power) are easy to collect and analyse, there is a lack of understanding of patterns of stories reflecting how different groups in the organisation make sense of change. This may be due to the more covert nature of these accounts or it may be related to issues of power among a firm’s departments or hierarchical layers.

In order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of organisational change, this paper, deriving from cross-national empirical research aims to outline different reactions to competing and contradicting stories in organisational change situations. These reactions include spreading gossip and rumour within the organisation to undermine management; disbelief; neutralisation; denial; cognitive dissonance; apathy; lethargy; resistance or, in extreme cases, open conflict. The moral values underpinning an organisation’s culture and leadership style may influence people’s reactions to competing accounts. In a trusting environment it is usually straightforward to negotiate common ground (i.e. to reconcile previously contradicting stories and define an agreed and potentially dominant story). In a distrusting environment, however, there may be a negative spiral of conflict focusing on the differences between groups rather than what they have in common.

This paper also puts forward the concept of ‘narrative resources’ that may support people in their sense-making, particularly in times of change and conflict. Narrative resources are frames of meaning that allow people to discover either new sense in familiar concepts and constructs, or new truths in their lives to support their sense-making. In testing times, people feel their beliefs to be violated and as a result, they collect and share different stories to make sense of the new circumstances. In such a situation, new narrative resources may help to reconcile major differences among various groups in the organisation and inform a common story. This is no mere consensual model, but one that acknowledges differences in perceptions and interest among different groups in the organisation. It therefore sees conflicting and contradicting stories as opportunities to learn for those involved and for the organisation as a whole to grow and develop.

These patterns of stories are explored through illustrative examples from three case studies that formed the basis of the larger empirical research project, from which this paper is deriving. The case study companies, in which organisational stories and narratives were collected through in-depth interviews, come from the manufacturing sector in different geo-political contexts (i.e. Britain, South Africa and Russia) and have gone successfully through major periods of change. In order to make sense of the new circumstances, people in these organisations had to reconcile contradicting stories and make them meaningful. Hence, this material from narrative in-depth interviews is particularly rich in information on how people make sense and learn in organisations with regard to alternative accounts.

This paper concludes that differences in perceptions and conflict, manifested in patterns of stories, are an integral part of human relationships and therefore exist in any organisational context. Due to the key role of human relationships in organisations, it is of the utmost importance for management researchers and practitioners to understand such alternative accounts better, to explain certain behaviours at work and to offer alternative stories in times of crisis. The ideas presented in this paper may provide a platform for further discussion and research.
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© 2009 Organizational Storytelling Seminar Series | Academic enquiries contact: T +44 (0) 1784 414974 E Professor Yiannis Gabriel