From what to where: A setting-sensitive approach to organizational storytelling
van Hulst,Merlijn Ybema,Sierk
van Hulst,Merlijn
Ybema,Sierk
Abstract
Extant literature on organizational storytelling assumes storytelling to be context-bound, but does not empirically detail or theorize how storytelling might differ across organizational settings. In the context of members’ everyday work lives, organizational storytelling research tends to focus on the content of stories and not on the actual telling. By addressing this omission, this paper makes three contributions. First, we offer a generic framework for analysing storytelling in situ by zooming in on the situated occurrence of storytelling through a focus on four questions: (1) What makes an event tellable? (2) What triggers its telling? (3) What form does the storytelling take? (4) What work does it do? By using ethnographic data gathered on storytelling in everyday police work, we empirically substantiate this framework. Our second contribution, then, is to show how a setting-specific approach to studying storytelling may help to flesh out a fuller, more grounded account of story life in organizations. Finally, we propose a typology of different forms of settingspecific discourse – meeting-room talk, workstation talk, canteen talk and closed-door talk – which allows researchers to further sensitize organizational research to the situated nature of organizational discourse.
Description
Date
2020-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Keywords
DISCOURSE, ETHNOGRAPHY, HEROES, NARRATIVES, SENSEMAKING, STORIES, STRATEGY, STRUGGLES, VIEW, WORK, context, discourse, ethnography, narrative, police, storytelling
Citation
van Hulst, M & Ybema, S 2020, 'From what to where : A setting-sensitive approach to organizational storytelling', Organization Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 365– 391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618815523