Sense-making Narratives
Narrative as a Managerial Skill: Use of Storytelling as a Management Tool
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Satish Kumar
Storytelling or Narrative Paradigm Theory (NPT) is recognized as a cross-culturally accepted method of effective communication. It is an exchange of information that is value-laden and is shared along the organizational diversity continuum. Stories are memorable, easy to understand and establish a common platform. It has been recognized as an excellent business tool in many organization areas. It is considered a perfect alternate to face to face and time consuming social exchange because exchanges are inherent in a story itself. Stories bring quick processing and desired results. The Storytelling Model of Organizational Communication (STMOC) helps in developing a swift communication environment. It fosters a symbiotic understanding among all participants from a cognitive and affective standpoint leading to behavioural actions that benefit the organization. These benefits include improved understanding of the organizational culture, while increasing cohesiveness among team members and higher quality relationships among both internal and external members. By raising the overall quality and timeliness of information exchange in the organization, it can help lead to more effective and long-standing business relationships both within and between organizations. It becomes a significant pathway to garnering strategic competitive advantages in a global working environment. This paper intends to highlight the relevance of storytelling in day to day functioning of an organization.
Mundane Change: Unfolding the Sensemaking of Changes as Everyday Activities of Organizational Life
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Signe Bruskin
"The only thing that is constant is change" is a common expression, both in the academic and business world. However, within a classical Weickian sensemaking perspective, change has most often been studied as an exceptional episode shaped by change agents as sense makers. This paper draws on literature from a Post Weickian sensemaking perspective to unfold sensemaking of mundane changes. The data applied is collected via a longitudinal study of a Nordic bank and by analyzing the stories of the organizational members the paper has two theoretically contributions. First, by exploring the role of disruption, interruption and influence in sensemaking processes of change the paper unfolds three empirically differences between a classical Weickian and a Post Weickian sensemaking perspective on change. Second, by exploring the relatively unknown field of sensemaking of mundane changes, the paper contributes with an extension of a Post Weickian sensemaking perspective on change.
