Title: Storytelling as Qualitative
Research Method and Organizational Change Strategy (12 hours in 2 6-hour days)
10-20 participants
Course
Description – Readings, exercises, and a short paper by
students on the topic of storytelling. We will cover the theory, research
methods, and practices of organizational storytelling.
Dates: Meets 4-5th of
June, 2014 (Wednesday and Thursday; 6 hours a day)
Time: 9:00 – 16:00 (lunch break 12:00 –13:00)
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3 ECTS credits will be awarded to
participants who successfully complete the course.
Instructors - David M. Boje
& Grace Ann Rosile
Office hours: Students are encouraged to request meetings with the
instructors
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
(one hour each):
1.
Introduction
to Narrative Methods: Authorial Voice (Manfred
1997); How to find topics, use narrative methods,
and publish qualitative research. In this first hour, participants will be
asked to list and then group their research topics. Discussion will include how
storytelling might apply to these topics. Read definition section of readings
list.
Antenarratives interconnect narratives and living stories with BEFORE and BET. There is a concise article about antenarratives by Roy H. Williams (June 2nd, 2014 More):
"Dean Rotbart says you are three different people.
The first of the three is the person you see when you look in the mirror;
the person you believe yourself to be.
The second is the person other people see when they look at you;
the person they believe you to be.
The third is the real you."Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them." - Allan Gurganus
Gurganus is right. The truth happens to everyone, but stories only happen to people who can tell them.
Professor Sexton recently told me about a new definition of reality known as the antenarrative: Ante: prior to, Narrative: the story.
It reminds me of that third person spoken of by Rotbart.
The antenarrative is the story that no one can tell. Not even the people who were there. It is chaotic, without logic and disconnected. It is the way things actually happen. "
The MondayMorningMemo for June 2, 2014 - hear full program by Dean Rotbart
2. Publications
using Storytelling as Qualitative Research: This
hour will consider a range of publications which employ storytelling. Examples
may include Enron and ethics scandals, the military, the mortgage crisis, a
school lunchroom program, and organizational strategy processes. Read famous
organization section of reading list.
3. *Grand
Narratives and Deconstructing Narratives: This
hour will involve participants in a workshop-style activity to identify their
own, or their organizationĠs grand narrative (airport encounter exercise). We
will ask seven questions to deconstruct the grand narratives. Read this online article - Bżje, D. M. (2003). Bush as Top Gun: Deconstructing Visual Theatric Imagery.
Working paper, New Mexico State
University, June 3, available
online at http://peaceaware.com/papers/Bush_Top_Gun.htm
4. Microstoria
Analysis and Stories in situ: This hour
focuses on how to identify microstoria for research and organizational change.
We consider the difference between Beginning-Middle-End stories and stories in
situ, story fragments, and implicit stories, as discovered in the Office Supply
study (Boje 1991 in reading list) and the Disney study (Boje, 1995 in reading
list). See Restorying Chart below.
5. Forms of
Storytelling: This session focuses on the range
of various forms of storytelling (living stories, indigenous stories, etc.) and
will draw upon the 2013 Rosile et al, Storytelling Diamond article.
Antenarrative is offered as prospective sensemaking.
6. *Antenarrative
Exercise: Participants will engage in
linear, cyclic, spiral, and rhizomatic assemblage storytelling. Read Rosile et
al Narrative Diamond article below (2013) published in Organizational Research
Methods
7. Network
Analysis and Intertextual Analysis: The
rhizomatic assemblage form of antenarrative lends itself to network and
intertextual analysis. See Intertextuality questions in figure below; Examples:
Read - Boje, D. M. (2002a). Critical Dramaturgical
Analysis of Enron Antenarratives and Metatheatre. Plenary presentation to 5th
International Conference on Organizational Discourse: From Micro-Utterances to
Macro-Inferences, Wednesday 24th - Friday 26th July (London). http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/ENRON_critical_dramaturgical_analysis.htm
8. Working with
Families of Veterans: This is an on-going project
involving networks, intertextual analysis, and embodied restorying process (ERP). See Restorying Chart below and http://peaceaware.com
9. *Storying
and Restorying Your Life: This hour
will be a workshop-style application of storytelling for personal and
organizational change, focusing on Boalian theatrical methods to embody
restorying process (ERP). See http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/448/storytellinggames.htm for exercises
10. Storytelling,
Quantum Storytelling, and New Materialisms – See New Frontiers articles e.g. Quantum Storytelling YouTube and
article
11. Consulting
Examples of Storytelling as Organizational Change & Development: See
articles in reading list on consulting with storytelling
12. *Adding
storytelling analysis to your research projects / Storytelling for Ethics
Training – See articles in reading list on
ethics and famous organizations
Pedagogy Approach
We will employ participative activities
throughout the sessions, and also have incorporated every third hour as a
highly interactive hands-on workshop format.
Grading Criteria
Grades will be based primarily on a series reading and
presentation assignments in which students will critically reflect on material
they are exposed to and apply their insights to their own research agenda.
There will also be in-class activities to offer students opportunities to apply
and practice their skills.
This is meant to be hands on and intensely interactive course
rather than a heavy reading and lecture course. There will be some readings
from a variety of sources throughout the two-day course
(see reading list below).
Class preparation (15%)
Class participation (25%)
Assignment (50%)
Peer critique (10%)
Objectives of Seminar
After the
seminars students will have a working knowledge of the following topics:
Storytelling
for Organizational Change: Restorying (including cross-cultural examples) -
Storytelling
for Ethics Pedagogy (including cross-cultural contexts)
Storytelling:
Differences Between Indigenous and Euro-Western Perspectives
Quantum
Storytelling (the way we are interconnected, intertwined, and our storytelling
observer effects)
Storytelling
Diamond: Six Facets of Storytelling in Organizational Research Design (from our
recent Organization Research Methods journal article)
Storytelling and several New
Materialisms in feminist and posthumanist studies (from DavidĠs newest book, to
be released in print later this year from Routledge); Storytelling
Organizational Practices: Managing in the quantum age Paperback by David
M. Boje ISBN-13: 978-0415815475 ISBN-10: 0415815479
How to Find Topics, Use Narrative Methods, and Publish Qualitative
Research
Illustrations
Figure 3 - Story Network Analysis (Conflict Minerals Example) CLICK ON LINKS IN ABOVE IMAGES TO GO TO SAMPLE OF THE STORYTELLNG HAPPENING
"A node in a story network analysis can depict people, groups, organizations, stories, categories, and so forth. Links can represent the intensity or nature of such relationships through labelling or the use of colour" (source).
Not everything
is storyable
How to use
Horse-sense Storytelling
Horse Sense At
Work.mov - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrxXkyMB4vA
Four kinds of
Antenarrative:
Quantum Restorying Process gets at the disclosability of antenarratives, and the other D's of ontological-pragmatism.
See 
- QUANTUM STORYTELLING gives you info
on YouTube "Quantum Storytelling: Blacksmithing Art in the Quantum Age" -
produced by Grace Ann Rosile and David M. Boje. Boje narrates the video. QUANTUM STORYTELLING is also the
name of our Annual Conference, held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, around my
birthday, December 17th.
From Boje
(2014a, adapted from Rosile et al 2013).
From Boje
(2014)
CONSULTING WITH
STORYTELLING
see history
section of http://peaceaware.com/sustainability
and http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/448/double_spiral_for_final.html
|
Table 1: 7 STEPS of Embodied Restorying Process (ERP) |
|
1. Recharacterize (authentic Self identity) Pick a place and time in your life story where you experienced a problem or stress event. Do not tell about the event. Just call it THE EVENT. Is it before the military, during deployment, after coming back, after military, in university, in work, in family, other? What is the place and time? Here are some sandbox-figures of family, animals, military, university. Use whatever ones you like to put in your path to and from military. Place them in the sand, and use any other objects you like to tell your story visually, as you answer these questions. If you just did work with horses, then you can choose some horses and make them characters in your story. |
|
2. Externalize (de-label the Disorder Label) Pick a character for the sandbox that represents you (can be animal, human, thing). Tell us a story about a situation (a problem or a stressful situation) involving you and other people where you werenĠt happy with the outcome, and you would like the story to be different. Do not tell about the event. Just call it THE EVENT. Pick an object/thing to represent it. Name the character. Tell us the story in the sandbox. |
|
3. Sympathize (benefits) – of old story of CHARACTER NAMED (Step #2); Map the payoffs in the sand |
|
4. Revise (consequences) – Map the Organization & Economic influences of old story/old stereotypes of CHARACTER NAMED (Step #2); Map the consequences in the sand |
|
5. Strategize (Little Wow Moments of exception to grand old story); Time travel to reclaim best of you; What are some places and times when you were at your best? When you resisted the role of CHARACTER NAMED (Step #2); pick a new artifact to represent them; name this new character |
|
6. Restory (rehistoricizes the Grand old Story by collecting Little Wow moments into New story) of your new character (Step #5); |
|
7. Publicize (support networking) e.g. letter writing with supporters of your ÔNew StoryĠ of your new character (Step #5) |
HorseSense
http://peaceaware.com for 4 selves model of restorying
Reading
Start with some definitions
Bżje, D. M. Story (Narrative). Encylopedia of Managment Theory.
Marc Kessler (Ed). London: Sage. Accepted Jan 2012. Click here for pre-press version.
Bżje, D. M. & Rosile, G.A.
2008. Storytelling. In Mills, Albert J.; Durepos, Gabrielle; & Wiebe, Elden
(Eds.). Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. CA: Sage. See pre-press
chapter draft pdf.
RESEARCH EXAMPLES
Bżje, D.M. "Organizations as
Storytelling Networks: A Study of Story Performance in an Office-Supply
Firm," Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 36, 1991: 106-126.* http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/Boje_Storytelling_ASQ_1991.pdf
Bżje, D. M. 1995. "Stories of the
Storytelling Organization: A Postmodern Analysis of Disney as
'Tamara-land.'" Academy of Management Journal. 38(4): 997-1035.* http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/DisneyTamaraland.html or print out the PDF version
CURRENT
THEORY
Rosile, G. A.; Bżje, D. M.;
Carlon, D.; Downs, A.; Saylors, R. (2013). Storytelling Diamond: An
Antenarrative Integration of the Six Facets of Storytelling in Organization
Research Design.Organizational Research Methods (ORM) Journal, Volume 16
Issue 4 October 2013 pp. 557 - 580. Click here for pre press pdf
Frames and Narrative Voice
- Jahn,
Manfred. (1997). "Frames, preferences, and the reading of third-person
narratives: Towards a cognitive narratology." Poetics Today 18:
441-468. http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Cognitive/Readings/Jahn_1997.pdf
PRAXIS
EXAMPLES
Rosile,
Grace Ann & David M. Bżje. 2002. Restorying and postmodern organization
theatre: Consultation in the storytelling organization. Chapter 15, pp. 271-290
in Ronald R. Sims (Ed.) Changing the Way We Manage Change. Wesport, CONN/London:
Quorum Books. Click here for pre-publication pdf
Bżje, D. M.; Hillon, M. E.,
& Cai, Y. 2007. Small Business Consulting in New Mexico: The
Theatre of Socio-Economic Intervention Research. Accepted for publication (Nov
20 2006). Pp. 215-227 in Anthony F. Bruno & Henri Savall (eds.)
Socio-economic Intervention in Organizations: The intervener-researcher and the
SEAm approach to organizational
analysis. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. View
draft at http://peaceaware.com/papers/Bżje_Hillon_Cai_SEAM_chapter_06.pdf
FAMOUS COMPANIES
Bżje, David M. & Grace Ann Rosile (2003).
Life Imitates Art: Enrons Epic and Tragic Narration. Management Communication
Quarterly.* Vol. 17 (1): 85-125. Pre-publication version at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/theatrics/7/EpicTragicTheatre.pdf
Bżje, D. M. & C. Rhodes. (2005a). The
Leadership of Ronald McDonald: Double Narration and Stylistic Lines of
Transformation. Leadership Quarterly Journal * Vol 17 (1): 94-103. see
pre-publication draft at http://peaceaware.com/McD/papers/Ronald_McDonald_LQ_2005.pdf
Bżje, D. M.; & Rosile, Grace Ann. 2008.
Specters of Wal-Mart: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Stories of Sam WaltonĠs
Ghost. Critical Discourse Studies Journal.Click here for pre-press PDF version. Full journal article pdf
Bżje, D. M.; Alison Pullen, Carl Rhodes and Grace
Ann Rosile. 2009. The Virtual Leader. Chapter #38 to appear in Bryman, A.,
Collinson, D., Grint, K., Jackson, B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (Eds.) The Sage Handbook
of Leadership. Click here for pre-press version.
Haley, U. C.; Bżje, D. M. (2014). Storytelling
the Internationalization of the Multinational Enterprise. Accepted on May 4th,
2014 at Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS).Click here for pre-publication draft.
NEW
FRONTIERS
Bżje, D. M. (2011). Reflections: What does
Quantum Physics of Storytelling Mean for Change Management?Journal of Change
Management, accepted 7/22/2011, Vol. 12 (3): 253-271.Click here for pre-press pdf.
Bżje, D. M.; Jżrgensen, Kenneth Mżlbjerg; &
Strand, Anete M. Camille. (2013) TOWARDS A POSTCOLONIALSTORYTELLING THEORY OF
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION, was accepted 9/27/2011 for publication in
Journal of Management Philosophy, expected date of publication,
2013. Click here for pre-press pdf.
ADDITIONAL READING
Boje, D.
M. (2001). Narrative Methods for Organization and Communication
Research. London:
Sage.
Boje, D.
M. (2008). Storytelling Organizations. London: Sage.
Boje, D.
M. (2011). Storytelling and the
Future of Organizations: An Antenarrative Handbook. London:
Routledge.
Boje, D.
M. (2012b) Quantum Storytelling. Free online book (until
it gets finished with its revisions, and a publisher calls).
Boje, D.
M. (2012c) Quantum Spirals for Organization Consulting online book (until it gets finished
with its revisions, and a publisher calls).
Boje, D. M. (2014) Storytelling
Organizational Practices: Managing in the quantum age Paperback by David
M. Boje ISBN-13: 978-0415815475 ISBN-10: 0415815479;
New book released May 7 2014