THE MORPHOLOGY of STORIES THAT SPARK ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL Stephen Denning
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THE MORPHOLOGY OF STORIES THAT SPARK ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL
Stephen Denning Abstract: In a world of rapid and pervasive change, organizational renewal is a priority both for organizations and for individuals. Although narrative has the potential to make a major contribution to authentic organizational renewal, it has proved difficult to find meaningful examples where storytellers have successfully used classic narratives (‘well-told stories’) to accomplish it. Nevertheless the search should continue. By contrast, the practitioner literature has suggested a number of examples of minimalist narratives contributing to organizational renewal. The morphology of such narratives is explored and Lotman’s theory of auto-communication provides an explanation as to why they work: listeners interpret the minimalist narrative with a new meta-story that sparks action. More research is needed on the extent to which minimalist narratives are effective in promoting organizational renewal, the conditions that are necessary for them to be effective, and the way in which auto-communication operates in the context of organizational renewal.
Length: 7,926 words Author information: Stephen Denning is a Senior Fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland. He is the author of several books on business narrative, including The Secret Language of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2007), The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (Jossey-Bass, 2005), and The Springboard (Butterworth Heinemann, 2000). His article, ‘Telling Tales’ was published by Harvard Business Review in May 2004. An Australian national, he was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He studied law and psychology at Sydney University and worked as a lawyer in Sydney for several years. He did a postgraduate degree in law at Oxford University in the U.K. He then joined the World Bank where he worked for several decades in many capacities. From 1996 to 2000, he was the Program Director, Knowledge Management at the World Bank where he spearheaded the knowledge-sharing program. In November 2000, he was selected as one of the world’s ten Most Admired Knowledge Leaders (Teleos). Contact information: Web: http://ww.stevedenning.com Email: [email protected] Fax: USA 202 686 0591
1 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 THE MORPHOLOGY OF STORIES THAT SPARK ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL
Abstract: In a world of rapid and pervasive change, organizational renewal is a priority both for organizations and for individuals. Although narrative has the potential to make a major contribution to authentic organizational renewal, it has proved difficult to find meaningful examples where storytellers have successfully used classic narratives (‘well-told stories’) to accomplish it. Nevertheless the search should continue.
By contrast, the practitioner literature has suggested a number of examples of minimalist narratives contributing to organizational renewal. The morphology of such narratives is explored and Lotman’s theory of auto-communication provides an explanation as to why they work: listeners interpret the minimalist narrative with a new meta-story that sparks action. More research is needed on the extent to which minimalist narratives are effective in promoting organizational renewal, the conditions that are necessary for them to be effective, and the way in which auto-communication operates in the context of organizational renewal.
Length: 7,926 words
2 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 THE MORPHOLOGY OF STORIES THAT SPARK ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL
In 1987, Dennis Mumby noted that the legitimation offered by organizational narratives is potentially a double-edged sword. “Although…narratives in organizations can be used as an ideological device to legitimate the meaning systems of dominant groups, narratives can also potentially de-legitimate dominant meaning systems. In this context, power becomes more than a phenomenon that is imposed on subordinate groups; it involves a ‘dialectic of control’… in which even the ostensibly powerless can utilize organizational structure to their advantage.” (Mumby, 1987: 113)
In the twenty years since then, researchers have given more attention to the use of narrative as a way of legitimating dominant meaning systems than of altering those systems in constructive ways.
This article seeks to redress this imbalance by examining the ways in which narrative, particularly storytelling, can de-legitimate dominant meaning systems and establish new meaning systems in their place, particularly those that foster genuine organizational renewal.
The need is urgent from a variety of different perspectives. Most organizations are struggling with issues of how to survive and prosper in a world where change is pervasive and rapid. Individual managers within those organizations are grappling with how to communicate authentically both with subordinates and with people over whom they have no
3 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 hierarchical control. The staff in organizations are often trying to understand what is happening as the organization goes through “white water” and frequently need to persuade the managers to adopt more constructive modes of responding to the turbulent environment. Outsiders – clients, partners, change agents – are also searching for ways to influence organizations in constructive ways.
All these actors confront dilemmas concerning how to facilitate renewal in authentic ways that offer personal and professional growth to those involved while avoiding the pitfalls of manipulation. This paper explores the potential role of narrative, particularly storytelling, to make a contribution to understanding and resolving the issues.
Literature review
Over the last thirty years, attention to narrative has steadily grown. Philosophers and psychologists argue that narrative is the foundation of human understanding and is integral to meaning-making, identity building and purposeful acting (e.g., Johnson, 1993; Maclntyre,
1981; Bruner, 1986; Sarbin, 1986). A body of research has emerged that includes a wide range of theoretical orientations.
Much research relates to how stories preserve dominant story patterns: e.g. how narrative is used as a tool of control (Wilkins, 1983); how narratives act as “social glue” (Smith &
Simmons, 1983); how narrative acts as a tool of socialization (Brown, 1985); how a seemingly innocent narrative can reinforce the power structure (Mumby, 1987); how narrative communicates the organizational culture (Myrsiades 1987); how leadership texts and narratives have hidden sexual meanings that preserve the male power structure (Calas
& Smircich, 1991; Martin, 1990); how Disney can be seen as an interplay of multiple competing narratives (Boje, 1995); how presenting the corporate activities ostensibly aimed at environmental sustainability as a journey may serve to reinforce business as usual
4 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 (Milne, 2006); how MBA students use narrative to gain confidence, although their sponsoring organizations tend to limit the application of ideas learned (Sturdy, 2006).
Gabriel (2000) has also explored the notion of the "unmanaged organization," the realm of organizational stories where organization members can “affirm themselves as independent agents, heroes, survivors, victims, and objects of love rather than identifying with the scripts the organizations put in their mouths” (Gabriel, 2000: 129). This perspective tends to view storytelling in organizations as defensive: it is the "armor" of the oppressed
(members of organizations) in the resistance against the control of the oppressors
(organizations) (Drori, 2002).
Researchers have spent relatively less time examining the role of narratives as an active tool for changing the dominant meaning system of an organization. Exceptions include work on how stories help create and resolve political conflict in organizations (Feldman, 1990); how strategic management operates as a form of fiction (Barry et Elmes; 1997); how change communications can generate anti-stories (Beech 2000); how a narrative about the past was used at a high-tech firm to craft the future (O’Connor, 2000); how narrative is used to help launch an enterprise in the marketplace (O’Connor 2002); how a fictitious character -- Ronald McDonald – has been used by McDonald’s to “revitalize its strategic narrative”, portraying itself as a nutrition-fitness organization (Boje 2006a); and how external narratives generate auto-communication with employees (Morsing, 2006).
Transportation theory has offered an explanation of how stories can lead to action (Green &
Brock, 2000).
Researchers have focused both on stories-as-told in organizations and on meta-stories as to what those stories might mean to participants, or to participant-researchers, or to non- participant-researchers. These studies typically start from “the pluralism of the narrative form—the fact that there are multiple ways of interpreting a story—to uncover suppressed
5 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 or hidden stories about, and to present alternative and often critical interpretations of, conventional storylines of a particular company, spokesperson, or message.” (O’Connor
2002)
Researchers tend to present these meta-stories as revealing the “deep structure” of organizational reality (Myrsiades, 1987). To some observers, however, they reflect “a political bias, primarily a critical one, to the service of which both the methodology and interpretation have been put,” resulting in “a lack of sustained dialogue with mainstream management and organization studies” (O’Connor, 2002).
The practitioner and the research literatures have tended to remain separate. The early work of practitioners also focused on the role of narrative in establishing and maintaining dominant meaning systems, albeit from a laudatory, rather than pejorative, viewpoint.
Topics have included the use of narratives to create a strong organizational culture (Peters
& Waterman, 1982) or to enable managers to to impart their messages more compellingly
(Tichy, 1998). More recently practitioners have begun to explore narrative as a way of transforming dominant meaning systems in constructive ways (Denning, 2000, 2005, 2007;
Simmons 2000, 2007; McKee, 2003; Mathews & Wacker, 2007; Guber, 2007).
Although most practitioners have focused on stories-as-told in organizations, there has been some discussion of the meta-stories that listeners read into minimalist narratives and that become the catalyst for action (Denning, 2000; 2005; 2007). This work has analogies to
Jüri Lotman’s theory of auto-communication (Lottman, 1977; 1990), as explicated by Broms
& Gahmberg (1983), Christensen (1995) and Morsing (2006).
Jungian analysis has also been deployed to understand the nature of archetypal stories and what they inspire in oneself, others, and whole social systems (Pearson, 1998) and how they build brands (Mark & Pearson, 2001)
6 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 Practitioners have sometimes ignored viewpoints other than those of management, and neglected the risk that inauthentic or implausible stories would lead to anti-stories and so have the opposite effect of what was intended (e.g. Tichy, 1998). On occasion, practitioners have also demonstrated an alarmingly casual attitude to veracity (e.g. Godin, 2005).
This paper seeks to draw on the strengths of both the practitioner and research literature while avoiding their respective weaknesses.
The nature of authentic organizational renewal
As a result of the convergence of powerful socioeconomic forces, rapid organizational change is pervasive in organizations around the world. Accelerating economic and social change in the global economy, the consequent imperative for ever faster innovation, the emergence of global networks of partners, the rapidly growing role of intangibles, which can’t be controlled like physical goods, the increasing ownership of the means of production by knowledge workers, the escalating power of customers in the marketplace, and the burgeoning diversity in both the workplace and marketplace—all these forces mean that change is playing a much larger role in organizations than in the past.
For both managers and staff in organizations, the pace and pervasiveness of change offer threats and opportunities. Threats emerge in terms of the greater risk of individuals being treated as things rather than as people and having their lives randomly disrupted by decisions flowing from the organization’s struggle for survival, mere collateral damage in a larger war. Opportunities for personal and professional growth in the radically shifting environment arise both for managers and for staff to the extent that they are able to understand what is happening, to cope with the challenges while growing personally and professionally, and to inspire others to do likewise.
7 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:40 下午 The focus of this paper is on organizational change in the sense of renewal: i.e. change where both the organization and the people who work there prosper through seeing the future in authentically positive terms and acting energetically to accomplish that future, while, in the process, achieving both personal and professional growth. It concerns change as constituted by alterations in the storylines that contest the narrative space of organizations and beyond, as well as in the material and personal welfare of those involved.
It explores how renewal can be authentically fostered.
The paper does not deal with imposed change: i.e. change voluntarily imposed by the hierarchy, which typically leads to cynicism and organizational malfunction, or its cousin, contested change, i.e. imposed change that is seen from the perspective of the staff being
“changed”. It also ignores superficial, fictitious or phoney change: change where there is a semblance of change, but in fact little of substance is occurring. Nor will it discuss organizational change where deliberate deception is deployed.
The pitfalls of managerialism and anti-managerialism
A concern with the dehumanizing aspects of modern employment has led to the managerialist critique, examining inter alia how narratives can be a subtle device for establishing, maintaining or reinforcing oppressive managerial practices.
However, “there is no generally agreed and precise definition of the term 'managerialist'”
(Boje 2002). Boje defines “managerialist” as: “looking at organizational behavior and theory from exclusive point of view of managers, the functional agents of an administered society” while the anti-managerialist literature often seems to be looking at organizations from the exclusive point of view of the marginalized and the oppressed (Boje, 2002; Boje, 2006b).
Viewing organizations from the exclusive viewpoint of any subgroup is necessarily distortive. Consequently this paper focuses on the pluralist role of story inside and outside
8 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 organizations, the multiple ways of interpreting stories, and the interplay between the dominant storylines of organizations and the informal, marginalized and silent stories of its managers, staff, clients and stakeholders.
The anti-managerialist critique has tended to view organizations as entities where small groups of managers impose their will on larger groups of powerless workers. The
“managers” are often viewed as a monolithic, unified, selfish group, cynically using narrative to manipulate their employees, inducing them to mouth scripts and seducing them to love their own enslavement (e.g. Mumby, 1987). This paradigm is markedly less obvious at the beginning of the 21st Century than it was at the beginning of the 20th Century: at best, it is an incomplete picture of the today’s workplace.
More research is needed on other situations of importance to organizational renewal:
The role played by narrative in determining which views become the
dominant meaning system: “Managers” are rarely a monolithic group and
typically comprise a set of factions, with different views, values and goals, some
commendable, some less so. More research is needed on the role that narrative
plays in determining which views, values and goals become dominant in the
contested story space of the organization, and which fall by the wayside, and
why.
How narratives can enable managers to communicate authentically
about organizational renewal: In today’s organization, command-and-control
approaches are typically counter-productive (Beech, 2000). The fates of
corporations and the managers who work there increasingly depend on the
narratives that are told about them and the organization by people other than the
managers. Even the most powerful CEOs are at risk of losing their jobs if the
narratives that they tell are not inspiring (Raines, 2004; Grow et al, 2006;
9 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Murray, 2007; Denning 2007). More research is needed on which narratives
inspire genuine enthusiasm for authentic organizational renewal, and which don’t,
and why.
How staff can use narrative to lead horizontally for organizational
renewal: More research is needed on the role that narrative is playing in
communications to the emerging configurations of networks, partnerships,
clients, investors, analysts and regulators that participate in the organizational
story-space, where the speaker has no hierarchical control over the audience
(Grey and Garsten, 2001). More research is needed on the role of narrative in
horizontal communications.
How staff can use narrative to lead upwards for organizational renewal:
Studies indicate that internally generated renewal is rarely led from the top of an
organization: instead, it is usually led by someone in the middle of the
organization who champions the change, with the eventual blessing of the top
once the activity has developed momentum (Davenport & Prusak, 2003). More
research is needed on the role of narrative in winning support from higher
management for renewal.
The impact of narrative in organizational renewal
The impact of any organizational narrative can be seen as a function of the nature and number of narratives and behaviors that it generates in the contested story-space of the organization and beyond. The story-space of any organization is of course not empty: it is already populated with a variety of narratives, some consistent, some inconsistent, some dominant, some weak, some suppressed or unspoken.
10 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 New narratives entering the organizational story-space that are consistent with the dominant meaning system will tend to reinforce that meaning system.
A narrative that is inconsistent with the dominant meaning system, regardless of who tells it, whether a manager, a staff member, a client, an investor, an analyst, a regulator or change agent, has the potential to alter that meaning system. There are three broad types of possible outcome:
The narrative may fail to resonate with its intended audience, and have no effect on
the narratives being told, and vanish without a trace.
It may achieve a certain degree of notoriety, generate a significant number of anti-
narratives and lead to communications and behaviors that are at odds with the initial
narrative, and fall into a weak, ineffective or suppressed position in the prevailing
meaning system (see figure 1).
Or it may achieve prominence among the narratives being told, generate a
significant number of stories that are consistent with the initial narrative (in conflict
with the dominant story-line) and lead to behaviors that are consistent with the
initial narrative, and in due course enter the enduring organizational meaning system
(See figure 2).
11 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Figure 1: Figure 2:
Narratives that are effective in generating organizational renewal are those that create a virtuous circle, enabling the organization, its staff and managers and clients to prosper while also generating life-enhancing activity, accompanied by the professional and personal growth of those involved.
The paper begins from the premise that achieving this virtuous circle of organizational renewal is difficult but inherently valuable and worth pursuing. It is now widely recognized that the standard management practices in the 20th century of instructing people to change or giving them reasons why they should change rarely achieve this virtuous circle:
Interventions by managers with great hierarchical power to impose change typically
backfire and achieve the opposite result of what was intended. The imperial style of
achieving change doesn’t generate enthusiasm with today’s difficult, skeptical,
cynical audiences, and typically leads to a flurry of anti-stories and further
disenchantment (Kotter, 1996). What the top sees as needed change, staff and
clients tend to see as autocracy (Beech, 2000; Levine et al, 2000).
12 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Giving people reasons why they should change is also typically ineffective:
psychological research shows that giving people reasons to act differently does not
lead to enthusiasm for change in an audience that already has a contrary viewpoint:
the confirmation bias typically leads people to reject the source of the reasons,
rather than change their viewpoint (Lord et al, 1979; Westen et al 2006; Shermer,
2006; Denning, 2007).
Given the ineffectiveness of these traditional management practices, interest has been growing in the potential of narrative to inspire genuine enthusiasm for organizational renewal. This is in part because narrative inherently concerns the clarification and magnification of being. Once human beings submit to the word-woven magic of narrative, they give themselves over to the increase in existence that it brings (Hirshfield, 1997:vii). It is thus not surprising that there is increasing interest in the contribution that narrative might make to organizational renewal (Stewart, 2007), combined with a concern at the risk of its misuse (Gabriel, 2004).
The reflexive character of narrative gives it a powerful advantage when it enters the contested meaning space of an organization. It can enable an audience to “get inside” a potential change idea and so to understand and enact it, in new meta-stories that lead to action, and in the process grow, both professionally and personally. (Gardner, 1995).
Two types of narrative
Narrative is heterogeneous. Its variety is staggering, ranging across classically structured stories, anecdotes, accounts, tales, myths, fantasies, sagas, epics, anti-stories, fragmentary stories, stories with no ending, stories with multiple endings, stories with multiple beginnings, stories with endings that circle back to the beginning, comedies, tragedies, detective stories, romances, folk tales, novels, theater, movies, television mini-series, and so on, almost ad infinitum.
13 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Within this vast variety of narrative, one dimension is of particular relevance to organizational renewal, namely the degree to which the components of the narrative are fleshed out. Two broad categories of narratives can be discerned:
Classic narratives, sometimes called well-told stories, are represented in
literature from Homer onwards and are described in Aristotle’s Poetics. Typically they
have a protagonist the listener cares about, a richly described context with the sights
and sounds and smells evoked so as to immerse the listener in the story’s context, a
catalyst compelling the protagonist to take action, a plot with trials and tribulations
for the protagonist, a turning point, and some kind of resolution. Classic narratives
take some time to tell.
By contrast, minimalist narratives, such as the Biblical parables and some
European folk tales, lack depth: the “characters are figures without substance,
without inner life, without an environment; they lack any relation to past and future,
to time altogether” (Luthi, 1986 :11) In such narratives, the protagonist often
remains a shadowy figure; little detail is given of the context of the narrative; the
plot is limited, sometimes almost non-existent; the turning point of the story is often
embryonic, and may be merely part of the resolution of the narrative. These
narratives take little time to tell, sometimes lasting no more than a minute or two.
They are abundantly present in everyday life as anecdotes and yet can have
remarkable longevity, e.g. the parables.
This paper begins by examining the role of storytelling, or classic narratives, and the interplay with minimalist narrative, in organizational renewal.
Terminology: “narrative” and “story”
There is no agreement in the literature on the definitions of the terms, story and narrative.
14 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Some writers treat narrative and story as synonyms, in the broad sense of an account of a set of events that are causally related. This approach is consistent with everyday English usage (Polkinghorne, 1988; Denning, 2005). Boje adopts a similarly broad definition of story (1995: 1000).
Other writers define story as a well-told or classic narrative. For these writers, minimalist narratives are not so much stories as ideas for possible stories yet to be told, or fragments of stories, or mere reports (Gabriel, 2000).1
This paper does not try to resolve the issue of what is “truly” a story or a narrative. Instead it refers to “classic narratives” and “minimalist narratives” within the broad field of narrative.
The advantages of the classic narrative
The potential advantages of a classic narrative for enabling organizational renewal are numerous:
The classic narrative draws on the natural affinity of human beings for stories. Even
the strongest proponents of abstract reason, such as Plato and Descartes, were
adept in using stories to make their case.
The classic narrative is inherently interesting, fresh, and entertaining and tends to
absorb the audience totally in the story. It provides a rich and meaningful
experience.
The classic narrative explicitly weaves in emotion in a way that rational argument
can never do.
The classic narrative has a track record of winning support for change in terms of
building nations, or launching religions or wars. Even if some of the relevant stories
15 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 involved exaggeration or deception, and the goals accomplished may have been less
than commendable, the role of stories in winning initial support for change is clear.
The classic narrative is reflexive and constitutive: the telling and retelling of a
powerful story is an action by which the teller and the audience are actually
becoming the story; e.g. the telling and retelling of the stories of the Founding
Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the Constitution
comprise part of the ongoing nation-building project of the USA.
If the story is powerfully told, it can overcome lack of credibility on the part of the
speaker and lack of evidence supporting the story (Green & Brock, 2000).
The classic narrative also comes equipped with a psychological theory to explain how it leads to action: the transportation mechanism. Thus according to Green and Brock (2000), when listeners/readers follow a classic narrative, they go on a kind of journey. They are transported—virtually—by the storyteller into a different world. The listeners project themselves into a different mental location—the place where the story takes place—even though they have not physically left their static sitting position. The imagined reality they visit is a world elicited by a storyteller who stimulates this mental world into existence.
When the story is very powerful, the listeners may return to their real world as changed persons, as a result of the experiences they have had on their virtual journey, the characters they have met, and the feelings they have experienced. They may be “mentally scarred.” As a result, they may have very different attitudes from those they held before they heard the story and so may act differently in future.
In the transportation theory, the narrator immerses the listeners as fully as possible in the story so that the listeners experience almost the same feelings as if they were living the story for real. By this process, the listeners are engaged, and their attention and interest
16 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 are fostered. The more absorbing the story, the more effective it is (Kouzes & Posner,
2003).
By contrast, the minimalist narrative on the surface appears to have a number of disadvantages for altering the contested narrative space of an organization:
A minimalist narrative, being little more than a bland anecdote, misses the potential
of a well-told story to communicate compellingly. On the surface, it doesn’t engage
the listener deeply.
Nor is there much scope for narrators to put themselves into the telling of the
narrative. The narrative is so short that it offers little possibility for a genuine
storytelling performance.
On the surface, minimalist narratives are not very interesting: they seem no more
fresh or entertaining than abstract argument. They may “shrivel over time” because
“the meaning drains out of them, so that the effort is hardly worth making to narrate
them” (Gabriel, 2000: 21).
Minimalist narratives appear to be shallow and superficial, providing none of the rich
and meaningful experience of a classic narrative. They are “unable to generate
emotion” (Gabriel, 2000: 21)
The scarcity of classic narratives that have sparked renewal
Despite the apparent potential of the classic narrative to spark renewal, there are few cited examples in the research literature of classic narratives leading to authentic change in modern organizations. For instance, Boje had difficulty finding such stories in his study of an office supply firm (Boje, 1991)
In 2004, Gabriel explained: “Organizational controls on time, movement, space and on what people are allowed to say often inhibit the delicate and time-consuming narrative process.
17 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Many people work in organizations where they have little time for storytelling (as tellers or listeners) or where the emphasis on factual accuracy is such that storytelling is severely impaired. Even when stories do emerge they frequently have to compete with official narratives and reports, frequently being silenced in a din of information and data. Numerous people do not have the time, the inclination, or indeed the skill to tell stories. Many narratives are fragmented, cursory, or incompletely are hardly narratives at all, only embryonic narrative fragments that may be regarded as ‘proto-stories’, but contain hardly any plot or characters.” (Gabriel, 2004: 24)
Further, as Walter Benjamin grieved in 1936: “the art of storytelling is coming to an end.
Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange experiences.” (Benjamin 1999)
The disadvantages of the classic narrative
Given the paucity of classic narratives that have elicited organizational renewal, it is worth considering whether their apparent advantages are not neutralized by practical drawbacks:
A classic narrative requires a skilled storyteller. Even if a major re-skilling effort were
undertaken to address the shortage of such skills, it is unclear whether a modern
audience would have the time or patience to listen to a classic narrative.
It can be difficult to craft a classic narrative that is relevant to organizational
renewal. A firm may have no inspiring legend. Indeed, the necessity of change,
driven by shifts in the marketplace, may mean that the founder’s story is a
hindrance to, rather than a facilitator of, genuine renewal.
18 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 The difficulty of getting a classic narrative to “stick” leads to a tendency to
exaggerate the story, overstating benefits and demonizing opponents. Thus in
launching wars in Vietnam and Iraq, exaggerations or deceptions were used to
overstate the threat, demonize the enemy and exaggerate the ease of victory. The
gap between the claims of a classic narrative and the evidence can cause support for
a cause launched by such stories to unravel once the audience gets an opportunity to
examine the underlying facts (Denning, 2007).
Classic narratives tend to be explicit “performances” and are recognizable as such,
with a theatrical dimension. Such performances in an organization tend to require
permission from the hierarchy. In cases where the hierarchy itself is one of the
constraints on renewal, that permission may not be forthcoming. Organizational
renewal is typically led from the middle of the organization, not the top (Davenport &
Prusak, 2003). Often mid-level champions of renewal lack the hierarchical power to
obtain permission for the performance of a classic narrative.
It is therefore not entirely surprising that few examples have emerged of classic narratives having led to successful organizational renewal.
Narratives that have sparked organizational renewal
An alternative approach is to examine instances of successful organizational renewal and use them to develop hypotheses as to what kind of narrative can actually spark renewal and then examine its characteristics.
The practitioner literature cites a number of examples where narratives have apparently contributed to organizational renewal, including AMP (Denning, 2007), Apple (Heilemann,
1997; Denning, 2007); the Body Shop (Denning, 2005), British Telecom (Denning, 2005;
BT, 2005); Costco (Clark 2004; Holmes & Zellner, 2004; Guber 2007), Global Consulting
19 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 (Denning, 2005), Al Gore’s communications on global warming (Adam, 2006; Denning,
2007), Microsoft Corporation in 1993-1995 (Denning, 2007), Southwest Airlines (Denning,
2005), Tom’s of Maine (Denning, 2005), and the World Bank, (Denning 2000; 2005; 2007;
King, 2004; Mallaby, 2004; The Economist, 2007a; Weisman, 2007).
The example briefly discussed here is the corporate responsibility program of British
Telecom (BT), an instance of leading upwards in an organization, as well as horizontally to staff and external stakeholders:2
In 2001, Adrian Hosford, a mid-level executive in BT, was invited to lead and
coordinate BT’s various activities in environmental management, community
investment, social policies and reporting. At the time, BT was under fierce criticism
for being unresponsive to social and environmental concerns. Hosford was asked to
link its activities more closely to BT’s business strategy. He set about focusing a
heterogeneous set of charitable and other activities more closely on BT’s role in
communication.
In 2002, Hosford faced a critical turning point for the program: a new chairman had
just arrived at BT in an organizational climate of financial crisis and skepticism as to
why BT, a private sector organization, should be devoting such a large sum of money
- £23 million – for social and environmental causes. Serious questions were being
asked by senior managers as to whether the program should be funded at this level.
Hosford was asked to present the program to a committee of the BT board of
directors. He included the following narrative in the preparatory discussions with
some board members and in his formal presentation to the committee:
On the 25th December 2001, an operator with the charity, Childline, took a call. I’ll
call the child, Julie - although this is not her real name.
20 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Julie is 13. She’s ringing from a payphone, from a backstreet in Deptford. She is very
upset.
It’s Christmas Day and Julie is desperate, in tears. She feels that nobody cares about
her.
Julie lives in a children’s home. She’s run away. She hates being on her own - hates it
‘in there’.
Julie received a Christmas present. Just the one.
She says ‘no one cares I’m on my own’
She says ‘I feel like jumping in the river so nobody will find me”.
The operator and Julie talk. They discuss what might happen after Christmas when
Julie is due to move in with new foster parents.
Julie accepts that things might improve, although she’s worried they won’t like her.
The Childline operator spends 35 minutes talking to Julie.
After 35 minutes Julie says she feels better and is going to return to the care home.
The postscript is dated April 2002.
Julie rings Childline to say thank you for being there and listening when she
desperately needed to be heard. Julie says she is getting on well with her new foster
parents. For now at least, Julie is happy.
Julie’s story is rooted in communications breakdown. It shows very clearly that
everybody needs to have the ability and means to communicate effectively. Because
everyone – and particularly young people - deserves to be heard. Everybody wants to
be understood; to have their contribution recognised.
Ultimately everyone wants to make a difference.
So, what if BT could help everyone benefit from improved communication - starting
with young people who are in real distress? Because although Childline does an
21 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 incredible job, handling 3,000 calls every day, at the moment 12,000 more calls go
unanswered. That’s 80 percent. How many children like Julie do you think go unheard
in those 12,000 unaswered calls? This is a tragedy which we have to fix, urgently, and
with the help of our customers and staff, we can fix it. What if we were to support
Childline, so they could answer every call from every child that needs to be heard.
What if we were to work in the education system to teach basic human skills of talking
and listening in thousands of schools, to millions of children?
And support teachers by deploying thousands of BT volunteers to use their
communication skills in the classroom, and by volunteering in the community?
What if we were to work in some of our country’s most economically deprived areas -
to see what can be achieved when we act to energise communication within
communities?
And what if BT were to take its responsibility to society seriously, and practices what it
preaches by using better communications to run its business more effectively, at less
cost to the environment, and to engender a better work-life balance for its employees?
A brief summary of the multiple and complex effects of the narrative in the contested organizational story-space of BT is as follows:
The narrative helped communicate to BT’s board why the £23 million program of
social and environmental activities should be funded. The board accepted the
program and it became part of BT’s dominant meaning system.
The fact of the program’s approval enabled Hosford to be seen as a successful
executive within BT, someone who was able to win approval for a major program,
and helped create a platform for him to expand the goals of corporate responsibility
into everything that BT does.
22 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 The people who worked for the social and environmental program benefited from an
program that was funded, and had stimulating, expanding activities, rather than
working for a program where funding was reduced or cut off. As a result, staff began
to discover new ways for BT to contribute to society. Thus one staff member
discovered a way to ease the pain of family bereavement. Another invented an
animal fable that communicated to pre-schoolers what to do if their parent were to
have an accident. Still another found a way to help female candidates present
themselves more effectively for interview (BT, 2005). In many organizations, most
staff question whether the internal actions to implement corporate responsibility
match the external rhetoric (The Economist, 2007b). By contrast, in BT, 62% of staff
feel prouder to work for BT because of its corporate responsibility activities (BT,
2007b).
The multiple participants in BT’s activities, like “Julie” and UK society as a whole,
have also received significant benefits.
The “Julie” narrative and other similar narratives were used to communicate to a
wide range of BT’s managers and staff and outside stakeholders, the rationale for
BT’s social and environmental programs (BT, 2005).
As with all change, Hosford’s narratives encounter anti-stories. Thus some
executives at high levels within BT are skeptical whether such a large amount of
money should be spent on social programs and tell anti-stories about how the money
could be better spent elsewhere. Prior to the program’s formal acceptance into BT’s
dominant meaning system, these anti-stories were openly voiced. After its
acceptance, the anti-stories have become muted or marginalized. The situation
however remains fragile. Anti-stories could quickly re-emerge and be voiced openly if
23 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 for instance the program suffered a setback in execution, or if there were significant
personnel changes in BT senior management.
External critics also tell anti-stories, portraying programs like BT’s corporate
responsibility as a PR disguise of BT’s dominant commercial purposes, mere
“window-dressing,” and a subtly manipulative way of BT winning loyalty from its own
employees while seducing them into loving their oppressor (Morsing, 2006).
Hosford responds to such anti-stories with narratives showing how the goal of
corporate and social responsibility has gone from a set of heterogeneous charitable
activities to a goal that is benefitting society as a whole and permeating all of BT’s
operations and by providing transparent reporting on what is happening (BT, 2007b).
Hosford has also shown how BT’s social and environmental performance accounts for
more than a quarter of its overall business and reputation, which in turn is the
second biggest factor driving change in its customer satisfaction rates (Hollender
2004: 47).
In December, 2007, BT won the top award of the UK-based Association of
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants for the best corporate social
responsibility report of 2007. For BT, such an award strengthens the dominant
storyline, but to cynics, it may simply confirm a prejudice that BT’s corporate
responsibility is some kind of PR trick.
While further in-depth research is warranted, corporate responsibility at BT in the period
2001-2007 can prima facie be viewed as an example where narrative contributed to organizational renewal:
There has been a significant positive shift in the dominant meaning system at BT.
The shift has led to personal and professional growth of a large number of people.
24 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 While obviously many factors are responsible for the shift, narratives like the “Julie”
story have contributed at critical junctures: without these narratives, it is unlikely
that corporate responsibility would have generated renewal at BT to the extent that
it has.
There is no closure in the contested organizational story-space at BT. The corporate
responsibility narratives and analyses are currently dominant within BT and in the
marketplace, but there is no guarantee that they will remain so. To prevail against
the marginalized anti-stories of managers, staff and critics, Hosford and his
colleagues have to continue presenting effective narratives and analyses that
accurately reflect the actions that BT is taking to implement corporate responsibility.
The morphology of narratives that lead to action
Most narratives do not lead to action. So what is peculiar about narratives like Hosford’s that do lead to positive action? Just as Vladimir Propp (1968) uncovered recurring features of Russian folk tales, narratives that have contributed to organizational renewal appear to have certain common characteristics:
The narrative embodies the change idea: The story is an example of the renewal
already in action. “Corporate responsibility” is a big, fuzzy concept that is hard to
understand. But anyone who can follow the “Julie” story can understand the gist of
what corporate responsibility means at BT and why it should be supported.
The change idea is presented as valuable in itself: The idea driving
organizational renewal is presented not merely something with instrumental or
economic benefits, but also something that is inherently valuable—in this instance,
the social and environmental responsibility of BT (Denning 2007: ch. 2).
25 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 The narrative is concrete: A narrative about a single individual is more effective
than narrative about large numbers of individuals (Wilkins 1984; O’Connor 2000,
2002; Denning, 2000, 2005; Heath 2007) The fewer the individuals in the story, the
less the degree of psychic numbing (Slovic, 2007).
The narrative is minimalist in form: Successful narratives tend to lack the
characteristics of a classic narrative—a fully articulated protagonist, a richly
described context, a plot with trials and tribulations, and a turning point. On the
surface they are scarcely more than anecdotes. The story acts as a kind of parable,
suggesting a new story in the mind of a listener (Denning, 2000; 2005).
The narrative purports to be true story, i.e. something that actually happened.
The truth of the story is foundational. Some writers insist on the importance of these
narratives being authentically true to be effective, not just factually accurate as far
as it goes (Wilkins 1984; Denning, 2007) If the narrative is seen to be untrue or
implausible, powerful anti-stories instantly emerge (Morsing, 2006).
The narrative also shows us the way the world ought to be: Like the folktale,
the narrative doesn’t just depict things as they are. It depicts the world both as it is
and as it ought to be (Luthi, 1986: 89).
The narrative is positive in tone: Narratives that have sparked renewal are
positive in tone (Denning, 2005). Negative narratives may be useful for other
purposes, e.g. to get attention or to transfer knowledge. However to get action, the
positive tone of the narrative is key (Denning, 2007).
The narrative is told as a part of a sequence of narratives. The narrative is
rarely told in isolation, but is typically delivered in a carefully composed sequence of
minimalist narratives (O’Connor, 2000).
26 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 The narrative is performed with passion: The narratives involved may look bland
and unexciting on the printed page, but in performance, things are different. Thus
Hosford believes intensely in the mission of BT to enhance communication. He says:
“There's nothing more rewarding than seeing a programme that we create or
sponsor making a positive impact. I've attended workshops at schools where you can
witness the direct benefit of, say, interactive communications sessions with kids you
see them come alive, improve their skills and have a lot of fun… You feel you are
doing a worthwhile job that's also very interesting. But more importantly, you feel
like you are making a positive impact and a difference to society.” (BT, 2007a)
There is no closure: the dominance of any particular narrative in the organizational
story-space is temporary. The contest between competing stories continues.
How the minimalist narrative overcomes its disadvantages
How does a well-told minimalist narrative overcome its apparent disadvantages?
The minimalist narrative is inconspicuous: A brief minimalist narrative doesn’t
strike listeners as a theatrical performance and so doesn’t require any hierarchical
permission to be told. It tends to fly “under the corporate radar” (Denning, 2000).
It creates a new narrative in the mind of the listener. The effective minimalist
narrative gets its effect indirectly. Unlike a classic narrative, it doesn’t try to
“transport” the listeners to another world and occupy their whole mental space, so
that they become totally absorbed in the speaker’s story, and so that their own world
vanishes. Instead, the story is deliberately crafted so as to occupy the listeners’
minds only partially and to leave the rest of their mental space available to imagine
new stories in their own context. In effect, the narrator deliberately refrains from
telling a “well-told story” because that would leave no mental space for the listeners’
27 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 own story (Denning, 2000; 2005; 2007). Contrary to Gabriel (2000: 93), listening to
a minimalist narrative isn’t necessarily passive: as in a parable, the listeners may be
engaged in an active search for a new narrative revealing what it means for them.
Figure 3:
Theoretical underpinnings – auto-communication: The unexpected power of a
suitably crafted minimalist narrative can be seen as an example of what the Soviet
semiotician, Jüri Lotman, called “auto-communication” (Lotman, 1977; 1990).
Lotman identified two modes of communication: see figure 3. The first is a traditional
sender-message-receiver mode, in which information is transferred (the “hypodermic
needle model” of communication). The second mode of communication is auto-
communication where the person sends a message to himself with an added code
(Broms & Gahmberg, 1983). The simple “I” “Him-Her” communication makes it
28 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 possible to transfer information. But in auto-communication, or “I” “I”
communication, “a qualitative change takes place in the person or group in question,
which leads to enhancement of the ego of the person or of the team spirit of a
group” (Broms & Gahmberg, 1983: 385; Christensen, 1995; Morsing, 2006). When
auto-communication succeeds, the listeners’ meta-narratives are self-generated, and
it’s much easier for people to believe their own narratives than someone else’s. The
minimalist narrative can thus contribute to enduring renewal that is espoused with
energy and enthusiasm.
The sequence of narratives is crucial: Although each individual minimalist
narrative offers little scope for the storyteller to put himself into the performance, it
is possible that a sequence of minimalist narratives will enable considerable scope for
an authentic performance.
Much of the power of the narrative come from the performance: Although
minimalist narratives are not on their surface very interesting and don’t weave in
emotion in any explicit way, the actual performance of the narrative by an
impassioned narrator can create the emotional connection with the content. The
performer’s enthusiasm can be contagious. A series of minimalist narratives can
even move the listeners deeply (O’Connor 2002).
The issue of manipulation
Ever since Plato, the use of narrative to achieve changes in an audience’s point of view has given rise to the charge of “manipulation”. Since those who allege “manipulation” are also, like Plato, notorious users of narrative to achieve dominance of their own viewpoints, a look at the substance of the charge of manipulation is warranted, although there is no space here for a full discussion.
29 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 The charge of manipulation typically involves four different senses, only one of which is legitimate.
Manipulative sometimes implies that it is unethical for one human to try to change the opinions, views, goals and attitudes of any other human beings. In this broad sense, all human beings are manipulators, including Plato, Jesus Christ and everyone who has ever lived. When all communication is manipulative, the term loses any meaning, and becomes a term of diffuse moral disapproval.
A second sense of manipulative accepts that it is ethically permissible to try to influence another human being, but objectionable if the goal of the persuasion is perceived as questionable or immoral (e.g. Salmon, 2007). However who is to determine whether the goal is questionable, when that is the issue in question? Here again, the term is being used to express diffuse moral disapproval.
A third sense of manipulative is that the communicator is using means of persuasion that conflict with the personal rhetorical preferences of the accuser, for example, by playing on the listeners’ emotions, rather than offering abstract reason (Salmon, 2007). However, neurological research shows that there is no such thing as effective communication without emotion. Without emotion, no decision is made and no outcome ensues (Damasio, 2000).
And it is worth noting that those, like Salmon or Plato, who charge manipulation in this sense, do not hesitate to use emotive narratives to further their own goals. 3
A fourth—and legitimate—sense of manipulative is that the communicator is using some form of deception, about either goals or intentions, or through concealment of relevant evidence, or by simulation of fictional evidence as real. This is a legitimate meaning of manipulation, but it is not obvious that narrators like Hosford are being manipulative in this sense.4
30 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:41 下午 Conclusions
Organizational renewal is a priority for organizations and individuals in a world of rapid and pervasive change. Although narrative has the potential to make a major contribution to authentic organizational renewal, it has proved difficult to find meaningful examples where storytellers have successfully used classic narratives (‘well-told stories’) to accomplish genuine organizational renewal. Nevertheless the search should continue.
By contrast, the practitioner literature has suggested a number of examples of minimalist narratives that appear to have contributed to organizational renewal. Lotman’s theory of auto-communication offers an explanation as to how this is possible: listeners interpret the minimalist narrative with a new meta-narrative that sparks action. More research is needed on the extent to which minimalist narratives are effective in promoting organizational renewal and in promoting the personal and professional growth of the staff, managers, clients and stakeholders involved, the conditions that are necessary for them to be effective, and the way in which auto-communication operates in the context of organizational renewal.
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39 星期五, 四月 27, 2018 3:22:42 下午 1 Still other writers (Vincent, 20002) have suggested that story should be used in the broader sense to include all narratives, while narrative should be used in the narrower sense of “a story as told by a narrator.” On this view, “narrative = story + theme”: the theme is a layer added to the story to instruct, to provide an emotional connection, or to impart a deeper meaning.
2 This account is based on interviews with participants inside and outside BT, BT’s own reporting and the extensive press coverage of BT’s corporate responsibility program, including: http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/SocialandEnvironmentReport/pdf/2007/BT_CSR.pdf http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/SocialandEnvironmentReport/section.aspx?sectionid=1bd1c594-0fba- 48ed-a681-12256365b0b1 http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Companyprofile/Corporatesocialresponsibility/index.htm http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/SocialandEnvironmentReport/pdf/2007/BT_CSR.pdf http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=2338 http://www.csrwire.com/News/2793.html http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/1213acc.html http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Hottopics/DigitalDivideHotTopic2003update.pdf http://64.37.122.55/business/strategy/corporate-social-responsibility-bitc.html http://www.allbusiness.com/management/3498994-1.html http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article2084.html http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/25828/20071030150903/graphics.eiu.com/upload/BT_SUSTAIN_UK_301007.pdf http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=bt+csr&aje=false&id=030206006013&ct=0 3 Plato’s view of rhetoric and manipulation evolved over time. In the early dialogue Gorgias,
Plato has Socrates argue that rhetoric is a cheap trick that plays on the emotions and is a means of enslaving the people. In the Republic, storytelling and poetry are attacked as having no legitimate place in the rational republic. In Symposium, however, Socrates treats rhetoric as having a claim on epistemic validity because it shows the structure of dialectic as a valid means of pursuing knowledge. In Phaedrus, Plato reverses himself on the role of rhetoric and the emotions: now emotions are a key ingredient in reaching an understanding of the Good; rhetoric deploys the emotions to communicate the Good to others (Register 1999).
4 Morsing (2006: 177) takes a contrary view, arguing that failure to make explicit the auto- communication mechanism involved in such communications is itself deceptive. Such an argument takes manipulation to absurd extremes. On this basis, the Biblical parables and the narratives in the dialogues of Plato would be considered manipulative, because they fail to reveal the mechanism by which they are persuasive, but would cease to be manipulative if they had contained an explanatory section, revealing the underlying psychological mechanism that gives them rhetorical force.