Myths, Stories, and Organizations Premodern Narratives for Our Times

by Gabriel, Yiannis

• ISBN13: 9780199264476
• ISBN10: 0199264473
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This title includes the following features: An original exploration ofseveral key issues in organization studies, using well-known narratives to offernew insights.; Connects the pre-modern, modern, and post-modern aspects of themyths and stories, and the aspects of organizational realities that thecontributors find within them.; Considers topics such as knowledge, leadership,postmodernity, and human relations in organizations.

Author Biography

Yiannis Gabriel is Professor of Organizational Theory, School of Management, Imperial College, having taught previously at Thames Polytechnic and Bath University. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, where he also carried out post-graduate studies in industrial sociology. He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. His main research interests are in organizational and psychoanalytic theories, consumer and cultural studies. He has written numerous books and articles and is well-known for his work on storytelling in organizations. He has carried out research on leadership, management learning, the dissemination of organizational knowledge, and chaos and complexity in organizations. He has been Editor of the journal Management Learning and is Associate Editor of Human Relations.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	xv
Introduction	1	(10)
Yiannis Gabriel
I. The Knowledge Narratives: Experience, Learning, and Truth	11	(70)
The Narrative Veil: Truth and Untruths in Storytelling	17	(15)
Yiannis Gabriel
Knowing as Desire: Dante's Ulysses at the End of the Known World	32	(17)
Silvia Gherardi
The Blind People and the Elephant	49	(17)
Peter Case
Paradise in Heaven and on Earth: Western Ideas of Perfect (Non)-Organization	66	(15)
Dimitris J. Kyrtatas
II. The Heroic Narratives: Achievement, Leadership, And Power	81	(50)
Overcoming the Hydra: Leaderless Groups and Terrorism	85	(16)
Keith Grint
Divided Neither in Life, Not in Death: Friendship and Leadership in the Story of David and Jonathan	101	(15)
Robert French
Patrick Moore
The Legend of Cu Chulainn: Exploring Organization Theory's Heroic Odyssey	116	(15)
Donncha Kavanagh
Majella O'Leary
III. The Tragic Narratives: Postmodernity and its Discontents	131	(74)
The Flying Dutchman and the Discontents of Modernity	137	(14)
Peter Pelzer
Arachne and Minerva: Women, Power, and Realization	151	(14)
Yvonne Guerrier
Prometheus Unleashed: The Quest for Knowledge and the Promise of Salvation through Technique	165	(11)
Ulrich Gehmann
Phaethon: Seizing the Reins of Power	176	(16)
Diana Winstanley
Demeter and the Curse of Consumption	192	(13)
Heather Hopfl
IV. The Reflexive Narratives: Emotion, Identity, and the Nature of Relations in Organizations	205	(31)
The Velveteen Rabbit and Passionate Feelings for Organizations	209	(14)
David Sims
Shy William and the Gaberlunzie Girl	223	(13)
Tony Watson
Index	236