Business Studies
Topic: Outline, explain and critique the theoretical perspective of narrative/storytelling on leading and managing change.
Narrative/Storytelling, Leadership and Change
Brief Overview
Change spawns stories and stories can trigger change. Stories can also block change and can define what constitutes change. Based on these predicates a substantial literature has developed which explores the role of stories (narratives) in change processes. Some strands of this literature focus on managerialist concerns: how can leaders spin stories that facilitate positive adaptation? How can stories be used to overcome resistance? Other strands of what is a diverse literature are more scholarly and concerned with how stories are vehicles for sensemaking, understanding temporality and exercising power. What is clear, is that the story of narrative research into organizational change is itself still unfolding.
Suggested Initial Reading List
Boje, D. M., 1991. Consulting and change in the storytelling organisation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 4(3), pp. 7-17.
Boyce, M. E., 1996. Organizational story and storytelling: a critical review. Journal of organizational change management, 9(5), pp. 5-26.
Brown, A. D. and Humphreys, M., 2003. Epic and tragic tales Making sense of change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 39(2), pp. 121-144.
Brown, A. D., Gabriel, Y. and Gherardi, S., 2009. Storytelling and change: An unfolding story. Organization, 16(3), pp. 323-333.
Buchanan, D. and Dawson, P., 2007. Discourse and audience: organizational change as multi‐story process. Journal of Management Studies, 44(5), pp. 669-686.
Chreim, S., 2005. The Continuity–Change Duality in Narrative Texts of Organizational Identity*. Journal of management studies, 42(3), pp. 567-593.
Dunford, R. and Jones, D., 2000. Narrative in strategic change. Human relations, 53(9), pp. 1207-1226.
Langer, R. and Thorup, S., 2006. Building trust in times of crisis: Storytelling and change communication in an airline company. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(4), pp. 371-390.
More Practitioner Friendly
Denning, S., 2006. Effective storytelling: strategic business narrative techniques. Strategy and Leadership, 34(1), pp. 42-48.
1. Outline, explain and critique one theoretical perspective on leading and managing change.
Please also note:
i. essays should be presented in Times New Roman, 12 pitch, with reasonable margins
ii. essays should be fully referenced
iii. In addition, please note:
1. The essay is 2000 words plus or minus 10%. The word count does not include any abstract, contents page, references, end notes, footnotes or appendices you may wish to include, all of which are ‘extras’.
2. The essays should be scholarly in orientation.
3. You are most welcome to use sub-headings should you wish.
4. Figures, tables, diagrams etc. are permitted as long as they are relevant to your arguments. If you are getting worried about your word count you can place any number of these into your appendices.
5. Q1 requires you to do two things: first, you need to outline/explain one theoretical perspective on leading and managing change. Second, you need to critique whatever perspective you have chosen. By ‘critique’ we mean that you should assess its pros and cons.
