Storytelling: An Instrument for Understanding the Dynamics of Corporate Relationships
- 1 December 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Human Relations
- Vol. 46 (12) , 1391-1409
- https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679304601202
Abstract
An important aspect of corporate culture is its ability to influence relationship dynamics. This article examines how organizational stories can be used to study often unstated and perhaps unconscious codes for resolving conflicts, approaching decision-making, determining perceptions of positive and negative organizational forces, guiding role behavior, and the like. Stories are also defined, prior research is described, and the advantages and disadvantages in using this technique are discussed. We explain how our methodology can uncover comparative relationship patterns for human resource development professionals and business leaders in Fortune 500 companies.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Turning Facts into Stories and Stories into Facts: A Hermeneutic Exploration of Organizational FolkloreHuman Relations, 1991
- Stories as Cultural Creativity: On the Relation Between Symbolism and Politics in Organizational ChangeHuman Relations, 1990
- Altering the paradigm for theory building and research in human resource developmentHuman Resource Development Quarterly, 1990
- Corporations, Culture, and Commitment: Motivation and Social Control in OrganizationsCalifornia Management Review, 1989
- First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive ApproachThe Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1987
- Organizational culture and counterculture: An uneasy symbiosisOrganizational Dynamics, 1983
- The Uniqueness Paradox in Organizational StoriesAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1983
- Organizational communication as cultural performanceCommunication Monographs, 1983
- Types of Organizational Control and Their Relationship to Emotional Well BeingAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1978
- The Theory of Case StudiesSocial Forces, 1948