Putting stories to work

So far we have established that organizational storytelling is usefully understood as a response to the political problems and emotional complexities associated with shaping and directing the efforts of others. In addition we have considered the ways in which managers have been encouraged to regard stories as tools that can be used to secure control over the processes which shape thought and action at work. Examining sensemaking and sensegiving processes, we have reflected upon the different ways in which such accounts (a) conceptualise the essence of social organization, (b) construct stories, and (c) project the capacity of storytelling at work. In addition we have considered the manner in which poetic tropes may be arranged to produce different forms and effects. And at this point critical academic commentary tends to tail off. But I am not quite ready to shamble back to the common room. ¹ Indeed I believe that without causing too much violence to the ethos of ‘critical scholarship’ (see Parker and Thomas 2011; Butler and Spoelstra 2012) it should be possible to say something useful, something productive, about the practices and processes associated with telling tales at work. To this end I offer six headline questions or, perhaps more accurately, six sections of talk designed to encourage further reflection and action on organizational storytelling.