Cover not available
Article published In:
Applied Narratology
Edited by Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar, Laura Karttunen and Anna Ovaska
[Narrative Inquiry 34:2] 2024
► pp. 408–431

Organizational small storymaking

Creating dialogic change through ‘small story openings’

ORCID logo | Aalborg University
ORCID logo | Aalborg University
In this contribution, we place narrative theory in conversation with narrative practice to offer a small storymaking approach for engendering organizational change. Drawing on insights from counter-narrative studies, small story analysis, and communicative approaches to organizational change, we offer an applied narratology that conceptualizes organizational change as occurring in small storymaking practices. Embracing discourse and communication as constitutive of organizations, we invite narrative scholars to move beyond traditional distanced researcher positions to participate more actively in the co-creation of small stories and thus enable more participatory, collaborative organizational change practices. Rather than merely interpreting organizational stories, as in many traditional narrative studies, our applied narratology encourages researchers to invite organizational participants to co-create stories of their potential futures. Through this tension-filled practice of organizational small storymaking, narrative researchers and leaders can generate the ‘small story openings’ necessary to inspire innovative change.
Keywords: small stories, counter-narrative, organizational communication, dialogue, organizational change, small story openings, communicative constitution of organization, applied narratology
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Dialogic approaches to organizational communication and change
    • Dissensus and organizational change
    • Organizational narrative – small story dynamics
    • Dialogic small storymaking and change
  • Counter-narrative studies: Moving from storytelling to storymaking
    • Multiplicity and messiness: Beyond preset assumptions and strict narrative–counter-narrative dualities
    • Small story analysis
  • Organizational change as a multi-layered counter-narrative process
    • Engaging in multilayered small story analysis
      • Level one: Small story analysis
      • Level two: Small story analysis
      • Level three: Small story analysis
    • Potentials for organizational change
  • An applied narratology for engendering participatory organizational change
    • Organizational small storymaking at a Danish electrician company
    • Small story openings and organizational change
  • Future research avenues and concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 June 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.22052.bag
References (53)
References
Alvesson, M. & Kärreman, D. (2011). Decolonializing discourse: Critical reflections on organizational discourse analysis. Human Relations, 641, 1121–1146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bager, A. S. (2015). Organizational ethnography: An interaction analysis of identity work through the study of other-orientation and storytelling practices in a leadership development forum. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 13(3), 36–56.Google Scholar
(2023). Organizational small storymaking and change: Identity work as coming into being in narrative-small-story dynamics. In S. Reissner, I. Winkler, & R. M. C. Pereira (Eds.), The handbook of research methods for studying identity in and around organizations: Usual suspects and beyond (pp. 40–55). Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bager, A. S., Lueg, K., & Lundholt, M. W. (2021). Concluding remarks. Narrative processuality and future research avenues for counter-narrative studies. In K. Lueg & M. W. Lundholdt (Eds.) Routledge handbook of counter-narratives (pp. 444–463). Routledge.Google Scholar
Bager, A. S., & Lundholt, M. W. (2021). Organizational storymaking as narrative-small-story dynamics: A combination of organizational storytelling theory and small story analysis. In K. Lueg & M. W. Lundholdt (Eds.) Routledge handbook of counter-narratives (pp. 166–181). Routledge.Google Scholar
Bager, A. S. & McClellan, J. G. (2023). Leadership and organizational small storymaking: Inviting employee engagement and engendering open and sustainable workplaces. In D. Boje & K. M. Jørgensen (Eds.), A world scientific encyclopedia of business storytelling: Volume on business storytelling and sustainability (pp. 155–189). World Scientific Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. (2010). Toward a philosophy of the act. University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. (2004). Considering counter narratives. In M. Bamberg & M. Andrews (Eds.) Considering counter narratives: Narrating, resisting, making sense (pp. 351–371). John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016). Language, interaction, and culture. In H. Miller (Ed.), The Sage encyclopedia of theory in psychology (pp. 497–470). Sage.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M., & Andrews, M. (Eds.). (2004). Considering counter-narratives: Narrating, resisting, making sense. John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28(3), 377–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M., & Wipff, Z. (2021). Re-considering counter narratives. In K. Lueg & M. W. Lundholdt (Eds.) Routledge handbook of counter-narratives (pp. 60–72). Routledge.Google Scholar
Barge, J. K., & Little, M. (2002). Dialogical wisdom, communicative practice, and organizational life. Communication Theory, 12(4), 375–397. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boje, D. M. (2014). Storytelling organizational practices: Managing in the quantum age. Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself. Fordham University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooren, F. (2015). Textual agency. In K. Tracy, C. Ilie, & T. Sandel (Eds.) The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction (pp. 1–5). Wiley. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooren, F., Kuhn, T., Cornelissen, J. P., & Clark, T. (2011). Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 321, 1149–1170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooren, F. & Caïdor, P. (2019). Communication as dis/organization: How to analyze tensions from a relational perspective. In C. Vásquez & T. Kuhn (Eds.) Dis/Organization as communication: Exploring the disordering, disruptive and chaotic properties of communication (pp. 36–59). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Craig, R. T. (1989). Communication as a practical discipline. In B. Dervin, L. Grossberg, B. J. O’Keefe, & E. Wartella (Eds.), Rethinking communication: Vol. 1. Paradigm issues (pp. 97–122). Sage.Google Scholar
De Fina, A. & Georgakopoulou, A. (2019). The handbook of narrative analysis. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Deetz, S. (1992). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: Developments in communication and the politics of everyday life. State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
(2001). Conceptual foundations. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.) The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 3–46). Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deetz, S. & McClellan, J. G. (2009). Communication. In M. Alvesson, T. Bridgman, & H. Willmott (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of critical management studies (pp. 433–453). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frandsen, S., Lundholt, M. W., & Kuhn, T. (2018). Introduction. In S. Frandsen, T. Kuhn, & M. W. Lundholt (Eds.), Counter-narratives and organization (pp. 208–226). Routledge.Google Scholar
Frandsen, S., Kuhn, T., & Lundholt, M. W. (Eds.). (2018). Counter-narratives and organization. Routledge.Google Scholar
Ford, J. D., & Ford, L. W. (1995). The role of conversations in producing intentional change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 201, 541–570. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A. (2015). Small Stories Research: Methods – Analysis – Outreach. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.). The handbook of narrative analysis (pp. 255–272). John Wiley & Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grant, D., & Iedema, R. (2005). Discourse analysis and the study of organizations. Text & Talk, 25(1), 37–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2009). Analyzing narrative reality. Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmgreen, L. L., & Strunck, J. (2021). Narratives of recruitment: Constructions of policy, practice and organizational identity in a Danish bank. In K. Lueg & M. W. Lundholdt (Eds.) Routledge handbook of counter-narratives (pp. 1–13). Routledge.Google Scholar
Iedema, R. (2007). On the multi-modality, materiality and contingency of organization discourse. Organization Studies, 281, 931–946. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jabri, M., Adrian, A. D., & Boje, D. (2008). Reconsidering the role of conversations in change communication: A contribution based on Bakhtin. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 211, 667–685. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, K., & Boje, D. (2009). Genealogies of becoming: Antenarrative inquiry in organizations. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 8(1), 32–47.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, K. M. (2020). Storytelling, space and power: An Arendtian account of subjectivity in organizations: Organization , 29(1), 51–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2023). The ethics of sustainability in management: Storymaking in organizations. Taylor & Francis. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keller, R. (2021). Narrative, discourse, and sociology of knowledge: Applying the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) for analyzing (counter-)narratives. In K. Lueg & M. W. Lundholdt (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Counter-Narratives (pp. 98–109). Routledge.Google Scholar
Langley, A., & Tsoukas, H. (2017). Introduction: Process thinking, process theorizing and process researching. In A. Langley & H. Tsoukas (Eds.) The SAGE handbook of process organizational studies (pp. 1–26). Sage.Google Scholar
Lewin, K. (1958). Group decision and social change. In E. E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, & E. L. Hartley (Eds.), Readings in social psychology (pp. 163–226). Hold, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
McClellan, J. G. (2011). Reconsidering communication and the discursive politics of organizational change. Journal of Change Management, 11(4), 465–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017). Corporate colonization. In C. Scott, L. Lewis, J. Barker, J. Keyton, T. Kuhn & P. Turner (Eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication (pp. 506–516). Oxford, Wiley Blackwell Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2021). Organizational culture, discipline, and the politics of self: Transformation through responsive conversation. International Journal of Business Communication, 581, 152–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mumby, D. K. (2013). Organizational communication: A critical approach. Sage.Google Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2009). Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections. Organization Studies, 30(12), 1391–1418. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rantakari, A., & Vaara, E. (2017). Narratives and processuality. In A. Langley & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of process organizational studies (pp. 271–285). Sage.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, R. K. (2018). Rethinking Counter-Narratives in Studies of Organizational Texts and Practices. In S. Frandsen, T. Kuhn, & M. W. Lundholt (Eds.), Counter-narratives and organization (pp. 293–332). Routledge.Google Scholar
Shotter, J. (2011). Embodiment, abduction, and expressive movement: A new realm of inquiry? Theoretical Psychology, 211, 439–456. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schoeneborn, D., Kuhn, T. R., & Kärreman, D. (2019). The communicative constitution of organization, organizing, and organizationality. Organization Studies, 401, 475–496. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strand, A. M. C. (2012). Enacting the Between: On dis/continuous intra-active becoming of/through an Apparatus of Material Storytelling. Book 1: Posing (an Apparatus of) Material Storytelling as discontinuous intra-active rework of organizational practices. PhD Thesis, Aalborg University.
Thackaberry, J. A. (2004). “Discursive opening” and closing in organisational self-study: Culture as trap and tool in wildland firefighting safety. Management Communication Quarterly, 17(3), 319–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsoukas, H. (2009). A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in Organizations. Organization Science, 201, 941–957. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsoukas, H., & Chia, R. (2002). On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change. Organization Science, 13(5), 567–582. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vásquez, C., & Kuhn, T. (2019). Dis/organization as communication: Exploring the disordering, disruptive and chaotic properties of communication. Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar