Managerial storytelling in practice: Dynamics and implications

Storytelling in management practice is of contemporary interest to organisational scholars, managers and management consultants. The underlying assumption is that storytelling is an effective means of management communication. While the role and purpose of spontaneously told organisational stories has been widely researched, the dynamics of purposive storytelling are less well understood. Particularly the implications of purposive storytelling on organisations and its limits in management practice required further examination. This research investigated the use of storytelling in management practice as well as its appropriateness and effectiveness in a comparative case-study design. The focus was on the production and consumption of stories in two UK service organisations (one of which used storytelling explicitly and one of which did not) to establish whether and how communication practice differs. The main data collection method of this qualitative, interpretive and inductive study was in-depth interviewing to examine managers’ storytelling motives and techniques as well as employees’ perceptions and reactions. This research provides a framework for understanding the use of storytelling in management practice and furthers the current knowledge base by revealing its dynamics and limits.

管理实践中的叙事（Storytelling）是当前组织学者、管理者及管理顾问共同关注的议题。其核心假设在于，叙事是管理沟通的有效手段。尽管自发产生的组织叙事的角色与目的已得到广泛研究，但目的性叙事的动态机制仍未被充分理解。尤其是目的性叙事对组织的影响及其在管理实践中的局限性，亟待进一步探究。本研究采用比较案例研究设计，探讨了管理实践中叙事的应用及其适用性与有效性。研究聚焦于两家英国服务型组织（其中一家明确采用叙事，另一家未采用）中叙事的生成与接受过程，旨在明确沟通实践是否存在差异及差异的表现形式。本研究为质性、解释性与归纳性研究，主要数据收集方法为深度访谈，以探究管理者的叙事动机与技巧，以及员工的感知与反应。本研究构建了理解管理实践中叙事应用的框架，并通过揭示其动态机制与局限性，拓展了现有知识体系。