Uses of organizational stories in social research

Systemische Forschung in Therapie, Pädagogik und OrganisationsberatungHeidelberg 5. - 7. März 2008

Professor Yiannis GabrielUniversity of London

Stories and facts

Stories present events not as they happened, but as people wish to believe they happen

In their very distortions, stories can be said to give us access to a deeper truth -the truth of how people experience events.

Why are stories important?

• they entertain, console and warn• they help us make sense of events• they help us express our emotions• they enable us to learn from the experiences of

others and transfer knowledge• they enable us to influence others• They become an important part of our identity

Some characteristics of stories

• sacrifice of accuracy for effect• plots• relatively simple characters• the skill of the storyteller• Narrative contract between

storyteller and audience

Stories and narratives

• narratives, e.g. movies, ballads, reports etc.• myths• fables, fairy-tales, children’s stories and

other stories in the public domain• personal stories• organizational stories

The storyteller is not concerned with 'facts-as-information' but with 'facts-as-experience'.

Stories and proto-stories

Stories and reports

Poetic licence.

A definition Stories are “narratives with plots and characters, generating emotion in narrator and audience, through a poetic elaboration of symbolic material. This material may be a product of fantasy or experience, including an experience of earlier narratives. Story plots entail conflicts, predicaments, trials and crises which call for choices, decisions, actions and interactions, whose actual outcomes are often at odds with the characters’ intentions and purposes” (Gabriel, 2000, p. 239).

A definition

Stories are “narratives with plots and characters, generating emotion in narrator and audience, through a poetic elaboration of symbolic material. This material may be a product of fantasy or experience, including an experience of earlier narratives. Story plots entail conflicts, predicaments, trials and crises which call for choices, decisions, actions and interactions, whose actual outcomes are often at odds with the characters’ intentions and purposes” (Gabriel, 2000, p. 239).

An alternative approach

• Ante-narrative – a “fragmented, non-linear, incoherent, collective, unplotted, and pre-narrative speculation, a bet, …a wager that a proper narrative can be constituted” (Boje, 2001, p. 1)

• Stories in fragments, multi-authored, terse, fluid, polysemic(they contain multiple meanings) and frequently unfinished

• Struggle between ‘official stories’ (the ‘Nike story’, the ‘McDonald’s story’) and emerging personal stories

Stories and images

Does a picture tell more than ten thousand words?

Accident? Disaster? Tragedy? Murder?

Accidents:

• as ruptures in the order of things (blame, responsibility)

• as omens of good or evil• as tests of character or strength• as motivated acts by some superior

intelligence

The four accounts:

• Raymond: factual report• Maureen: personal attack• Chris: test of character• Peter: opportunity for retribution

Poetic interpretations and analytic interpretations

How exactly is meaning 'infused' or 'discovered' in events?

Story-work

Stories and Organizations

• a great deal of stories are told in and about organizations• many of these stories are important in disseminating knowledge and

enhancing organizational learning• we can learn a lot about an organization by listening carefully to the

stories told by its members• stories can instigate processes of social and organizational change, for

the better or for the worse; they can also block change• good stories can have a profound effect on audiences, building solidarity,

focusing energy and unleashing creativity• leadership involves the management of meaning and emotions, both of

which rely crucially on using stories, allegories, metaphors, labels and other narrative devices

Consider the following story:

"[A] twenty-two year old bride weighing ninety pounds whose husband has been sent overseas and who, in consequence, had been given a job until his return ... The young woman, Lucille Burger, was obliged to make certain that people entering security areas wore the correct clear identification.

Surrounded by his usual entourage of white-shirted men, [Thomas] Watson [the IBM Chairman] approached the doorway to an area where she was guard, wearing an orange badge acceptable elsewhere in the plant, but not a green badge, which alone permitted entrance at her door. "I was trembling in my uniform, which was far too big", she recalled. "It hid my shakes, but not my voice. 'I'm sorry,' I said to him. I knew who he was alright. 'You cannot enter. Your admittance is not recognized.' That's what we were supposed to say."

The men accompanying Watson were stricken; the moment held unpredictable possibilities. "Don't you know who he is?" someone hissed."

Can you think of two different ends to this story?

• Stories and deep symbolism – what do tell us about deeper desires that are acted out in organizations

•

• What are the main types of stories, plots, characters, emotions and tropes

Types of story

• Comic• Tragic• Epic• Romantic

Generic poetic modes

Gift, romantic fantasy, falling in love, reciprocation, recognition

contest, challenge, trial, test, mission, quest, sacrifice

crime, accident, insult, injury, loss, mistake, repetition, misrecognition

accident, mistake, coincidence, repetition, the unexpected and unpredictable

Predicament

Love triumphant; misfortune conquered by love

achievement, noble victory, success

undeserved misfortune, trauma

misfortune as deserved chastisement

Plot focus

Gift-giver, lover, injured or sick person

rescue object, assistant, villain

villain, supportive helper

tricksterOther characters

Love objectheronon-deserving victim

deserving victim, fool

Protagonist

RomanticEpicTragicComicMODE

Love, care, kindness, generosity, gratitude

(nostalgia)

pride, admiration, nostalgia,(envy)

sorrow, pity, fear, anger, pathos

mirth, aggression, (hate), scorn

Emotions

1.emotion (loving, caring)

2. motive3.credit (worthy

love object)4.fixed qualities

(gratitude, caring, loving, vulnerable, pathetic)

1.agency2.motive3.credit4.fixed qualities

(nobility, courage, loyalty, selflessness, honour, ambition)

1.malevolent fate2.blame3.unity4.motive (to the

villain)5.fixed qualities

by juxtaposition (victim: noble, decent, worthy, good; villain: evil, devious, mean etc.)

1.Providential significance

2.unity3.agency before

misfortune4.denial of agency

during misfortune

5. fixed qualities (pomposity, arrogance, vanity etc.)

poetic tropes

RomanticEpicTragicComicMODE

Generic poetic modes

Some secondary poetic modes

unorthodox achievement, display of wit

misfortune, both deserved and undeserved, leading to comic twists and tragic results

cock-up as test for non-heroic hero

misfortune as occasion for wit

Plot focus

villain, victim, accomplice

(villain, unjust system)

Other characters

unwitting hero, hero with humour, prankster, trickster

victim who turns out to be unheroic hero and vice versa

hero fixer, wizard

survivor, humorist, wizard, ironist

Protagonist

epic, comictragic, comiccomic, epiccomic Source modes

epic-comictragi-comiccock-uphumourMODE

Some secondary poetic modes

mirth, admiration, levity

amusement, pity, fear, guilt, pathos

mirth, admiration

mirth, admiration, (pity)

Emotions

1.agency2.motive3.credit4.fixed qualities (sense of humour, irony, imagination, bravado)

1.providential significance2.fixed qualities (fortitude, moral courage, defiance, wit)

1.agency2.credit3.fixed qualities (wit, imagination, cunning, speed, common-sense)

1.denial of emotion2.fixed qualities (grace, sense of humour, self-possession, fortitude)

Poetic tropes

prank, puzzle, challenge, wager, the unexpected

boon turns into misfortune or vice-versa

crisis, problem, mistake, break-down, puzzle

accident, mishap, reversal of fortune, injustice, repetition, coincidence

Predicament

epic-comictragi-comiccock-uphumourMODE

Interrogating a story

• Is it a good story? What makes it a good story?

• What is your emotional response to the story?

• Is there anything about the story that troubles/bothers you?

• If you could re-write history how would you change the story?

• What do you see as the main meaning/moral of the story?

• What does the story tell us about (a) the nature of the project, (b) the nature of the organization, (c) …

• What meaning/moral may outsiders read into the story?

Stories and the management of meaning

• Framing – here various events or characters are placed at the heart of the narrative, while others are placed near the edges or left out altogether;

• Focusing – extends the idea of framing by according special emphasis on a single cluster of events or characters, diminishing the importance of others;

• Filtering – whereby specific events or characters are taken out of the narrative, in spite of their closeness to some of the central characters or events;

• Fading – whereby specific events or characters are brought in or out of focus for specific aspects of the plot and then silenced as though their usefulness and significance were extinguished;

• Fusing – whereby two or more characters or events are merged into a single one, collapsing temporal and other distinctions;

• Fitting – whereby specific events or characters are re-interpreted or represented in accordance with the requirements of the plot.