search query: @indexterm ORGANIZATION THEORY / total: 191
reference: 94 / 191
Author: | Boje, D. M. |
Title: | The storytelling organization: a study of story performance in an office-supply firm |
Journal: | Administrative Science Quarterly
1991 : MAR, VOL. 36:1, p. 106-126 |
Index terms: | OFFICE EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY SUPPLY CORPORATE CULTURE ORGANIZATION THEORY ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION |
Language: | eng |
Abstract: | A participant-observation study was conducted in a large office-supply firm of how people perform stories to make sense of events, introduce change, and gain political advantage during their conversations. The stories were dynamic, varied by context, and were sometimes terse, requiring the hearer to fill in major chunks of story line, context, and implication. Stories were frequently challenged, reinterpreted, and revised by the hearers as they unfolded in conversation. A theory of organization as a collective storytelling system is supported. In it 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. |
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