Presentazione di PowerPoint

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The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Department of Sociology and Social
Research University of Trento
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WHY ORGANIZATIONAL STORYTELLING IS IMPORTANT
Storytelling as distinctive activity of
organizing Narratives as constitutive elements of
organizational life and communication Narrative
construction of organization
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
3
THREE MAIN DIRECTION

• Organizational storytelling
• Organizational life as written and read text
• How organizations are narrated in doing
  organizational research

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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WHAT STORIES ARE NARRATED
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
5
STORYTELLING AND SENSE-MAKING

• To preserve plausibility and coherence, to
  explain the incongruities (Weick)
• To give sense to daily events
• To reconstruct the past and orientate the future

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
6
STORYTELLING , MEMBERSHIP AND SOCIALIZATION

• To create and certificate affiliation
• To acquire new members
• To acquire a professional and organizational
  identity

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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STORYTELLING AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
Organizational learning is based on circulation
of stories Narratives as effective tools for the
promotion of learning modes based on a joined
construction of meanings
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
8
STORYTELLING AND CULTURAL REPRODUCTION
S as the system of institutional memory of
organization S as a vehicle of maintenance of the
orthodoxy Connection among events is reified and
becomes fixed and unchangeable
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
9
STORYTELLING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL
Storytelling is a practice of social
control Narratives can legitimate power and
hierarchical relationships Narratives act as
forms of indirect control and create a culture of
obedience
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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STORYTELLING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
In every narrative there is a problem Narratives
offer a work memory to face difficulties and
obstacles Narratives as tools to diagnose the
problems and to find solutions
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
11
STORYTELLING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Narratives can produce change Narrating entails
the ability of imaging alternatives and producing
new visions Narratives as autopoietic tools of
transformation Narratives as mechanism of
resistance
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
12
STORYTELLING AND EMOTIONS
Storytelling is influenced by emotions and is
finalized to produce emotions. The dimension of
entertainment cannot be neglected
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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NARRATIVE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CAREERS
Existence of paradigmatic narratives about the
work careers Ideal sequences, normative
regulation of timing, deviations
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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NARRATIVE RESEARCH IN ORGANIZATIONS

• How to collect stories
• How to analyse stories

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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HOW TO COLLECT NARRATIVES

• as spountaneously they emerge
• as objectified documents
• through interviews

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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THE NARRATIVE INTERVIEW

• Soliciting stories related to the informants
  experience
• Negotiation/cooperationg
• Conducting a narrative interview
• Recording and transcripts

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
17
NARRATIVE ANALYSIS SOME ASSUMPTIONS

• Narratives do not speak from themselves
• Focus is not only on what people says, but
  rather on how and on why stories are told
• Narratives have been treated in olistic way
• The process of narrative analysis is generative

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
18
THREE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What The content How The structure Why - The
context
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
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THE PARADIGMATIC ANALYSIS (WHAT)

• Thematic and linguistic regularities in the text
• Narratives as artifacts, products and indicators
  of a particular organizational culture
• Notions, themes and general concepts emerging
  from stories are transformed in categories,
  identifying possible connections.
• Production of taxonomies of stories, of
  characters and or situations.
• Theoretical generalization and reduction of human
  experience to data

The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
20
THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS (HOW)
How narratives impose order to the flow of the
experience Focus on structure and formal
composition. Plot, functions of characters or
propositions, narrative schemes, genre, incipit,
agency, grammatical tenses
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
21
THE CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS (WHY)
The focus is on the context where narrative is
produced Circularity between text and context A
plurality of narrative possibilities, a plurality
of meanings Silences, contradictions,
dichotomies, exceptions, rebellious and marginal
voices.
The art of storytelling
Barbara Poggio Research Unit on Communication,
Organizational Learning and Aesthetics
22
NB
As researchers we produce narrative text, and we
take narrative positions
The art of storytelling
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REFERENCES
Boje, David, 2001, Narrative Methods for
Organization and Communication Research,
Sage Czarniawka, Barbara, 2004, Narrative in
Social Science Research, Sage, London Gabriel,
Yiannis, 2000, Storytelling in Organizations,
Oxford University Press, Oxford. Poggio, Barbara,
2004, Mi racconti una storia. Il metodo narrativo
nelle scienze sociali, Carocci, Roma. Riessman,
Catherine Kohler, 1993, Narrative Analysis, Sage,
London Schreyögg, Georg e Jochen Koch (eds.)
(2005) Knowledge Management and Narratives.
Organizational Effectiveness Through
Storytelling, Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin.
The art of storytelling