Storytelling in Organizations – Facts, Fictions and Fantasies

Citation

Ingram, H. (2001), "Storytelling in Organizations – Facts, Fictions and Fantasies", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 47-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2001.13.1.47.2

Once‐upon‐a‐time stories were the only form of communicating what had occurred in the past. The idea that the sense can be made of the richness and complexity of an organization through stories is a compelling one. Gabriel contends that good stories are valuable in that they “entertain, inspire, explain, educate and convince”. On the other hand, it is argued that bad stories can undermine communication and can “challenge the very possibility of ‘sensical discourse”. Stories have certainly provided a verbal medium through which generations have become connected over time and as a means of keeping history alive. In this book, Gabriel first develops a theory of storytelling in organizations and then explores how stories might be used in organizational research.

A wide trawl of the limited literature in this field leads to a useful generic set of story characteristics (comic, tragic, epic and romantic) and eight storytellers’ central interpretative devices that the author terms “poetic tropes”. These include the attribution of motive, causal connection, responsibility and emotion. From a consideration of the general use of stories, Gabriel looks at the rise of the popularity of organizational culture, in which “meaning and emotion were written back into the theory of organizations”. It was Heinz Johst (head of the Nazi Chamber of Literature) who said that “when I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun”. This flimsy, but important organizational concept provides the context for stories, and the author shows how the literature has developed from Peters and Waterman and Goffman generally, to Mars and Nicod and Gabriel himself in the hospitality industry. Are case studies not stories too?

Gabriel takes a commendably cautious interpretative approach, warning that “stories carry cultural meanings, social meanings as well as personal meanings”. Stories include many semiotic clues and can be interpreted in infinite ways, and therein lies their richness and potential dangers. Some might contend that the best stories are born from personal experience. For example, Gabriel recounts the tale of a final crew inspection before shore leave was granted from his time as a recruit in the Greek navy. Normally this inspection was little more than a cursory glance, but on one occasion, a particularly feared officer who was reputed to be a stickler for regulations led the inspection. One set of regulations required crew members to wear a clean set of boxer shorts, stamped with their serial number. On the occasion recounted, the paraded recruits were required to demonstrate that they had adhered to these regulations by lowering their trousers. Those failing the test were not permitted to enjoy their long‐awaited shore leave. This story is both tragic and comic because it conjures images of humiliating titillation and helpless frustration. Gabriel argues that therein lies the sense of a good story because organizational newcomers can “make light of their bafflement and laugh both at themselves and the organization”. Good stories are emotionally and symbolically charged narratives that can infuse facts with meaning.

The second part of the book examines the use of stories in organizational research, exploring issues of data generation, classification, methodology and analysis. Throughout, the dangers of story‐based research are emphasized, including reinforcement and the regarding of stories as facts. The world of business is not the ice‐cool and logical place that some would have us believe and stories are a useful medium for studying the power of emotion, nostalgia and insults. These are all influential forces in organizational culture that can strongly affect behaviour and performance.

I enjoyed this book. It is both entertaining and academic, but most importantly, it breaks new ground. Its ideas are representative of the timely loosening of positivist methodological bonds and the acceptance that qualitative data can tap into those parts of organizational dynamics that others cannot reach. Containing indices of useful words and stories, this is a welcome book that may help to widen the scope of research methodologies, especially in hospitality where Gabriel found the material for his doctoral thesis and subsequent books. Of course, there will be no end to the continuing quest for richer and more relevant research methods, but future researchers may be helped to be happier ever after!