Organization story

An Organization Story is defined as "collective storytelling system in which the performance of stories is a key part of members' sense-making and a means to allow them to supplement individual memories with institutional memory" (Boje, 1991: 106).

Recent work in organization story debates antenarrative versus narrative approaches. Yiannis Gabriel thinks Boje's terse stories and (2001) fragmented antenarratives are not “proper” stories. Czarniawska, like so many others (e.g. Russian fomalists) privilege narrative over story (1997); she defines narrative as the plot, the beginning, middle and end, or causal solution to a problem: e.g. “A story consists of a plot comprising causally related episodes that culminate in a solution to a problem”. She also looks at the possiblitlity of socially situated, fragmented, and emergent storytelling, which she contrasts with more peterified storying.

First, "story" is prior to narrative; it is "antenarrative". An antenarrative is defined as a wager that a pre-story can become a full fledged narrative. "Story" itself deriives from the opposition of coherence to incoherence, but for narratologists "story" must have a beginning, middle, and end. A "narrative" is something that is narrated, i.e. "story". Story is an account of incidents or events, which narration cthen develöps with more "plot" and tighter "coherence" to the story line. Antenarrative, on the other hand, focuses on the fragmented, non-linear, emergent complex aspects of story in organizations.

Compromise is possible between story and narrative. There are story/narrative forces that are deviation-counteracting, and antenarrative forces that are deviation-amplifying. In this way story is heteroglossic, the opposition of centripetal (deviation-counteracting) and centrifugal (deviation-amplifying)forces of language.

References

• Boje, David M. 1991. The storytelling organization: A study of storytelling performance in an office supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36: 106-126.

• Boje, David M. 2001. Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. London: Sage.

• Czarniawska, B. 1997. Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Czarniawska, B. 1998. A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies. Qualitative Research methods Series Vol. 43. Thousand Oaks, Ca; Sage Publications, Inc.

• Czarniawska, B. 2004. Narratives in Social Science Research. London: Sage.

• Gabriel, Yiannis 2000. Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, fictions, and fantasies. London: Oxford University Press.

• Gargiulo, Terrence L. 2006. Stories at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communication and Build Relationships,Connecticut: Praeger

• Gargiulo, Terrence L. 2005. The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.