Stories of Life in the Workplace: An Open Architecture for Organizational Narratology

by Browning; Larry

• ISBN13: 9780805858907
• ISBN10: 0805858903
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Addressing both renowned theories and standard applications, Narrative Theoryexplains how stories affect human practices and organizational life. Authors Larry Browning and George H. Morris explore how we experience, interpret, and personalize narrative stories in our everyday lives, and how these communicative acts impact our social aims and interactions. In pushing the boundaries of how we perceive narrative and organization, the authors include stories that are broadly applicable across all concepts and experiences. With a broad perception of narrative and its organizational application, chapters focus on areas such as pedagogy, therapy, project management, strategic planning, public communication, and organizational culture. Readers will learn to: Differentiate and gain an in-depth understanding of perspectives from varying narrators Recognize how stories are constructed and used in organizations, and modify the stories they tell View stories as a means to promote an open exchange of creativity By integrating a range of theories and practices, Browning and Morris write for an audience of narrative novices and scholars alike. For those just discovering narrative theory, topics such as identity, memory, and local contexts will offer a unique way to understand how the individual applies narrative stories within society. Scholars will find the value of narrative analysis as a necessary contribution to topics such as participation, leadership, and learning, and will see how their work fits into a larger pattern of narrative analysis. With a distinctive approach and original insight, Narrative Theory shows how individuality, developing culture, and the psychology of the self are constructed with language ”and how the acceptance of one "s self is accomplished by reaffirming and rearranging one "s story.