ABSTRACT
Storytelling is part of social action and interaction that actually shapes the future of organizations. Organization and management studies have overwhelmingly focused to date on rational narrative structures with beginnings, middles, and ends, where narrative has proved to be a handy concept in qualitative studies. Far less attention is given however to the more spontaneous and ‘non-staged’ storytelling that occurs in organizations. Storytelling and the Future of Organizations explores the science and practice of ‘antenarrative’ because that is how the future of organization is shaped.
Antenarrative is a term invented by David M. Boje in 2001, and is defined as a ‘bet on the future,’ as ‘before’ narrative linearity, coherence, and stability sets in. Antenarrative is all about ’prospective sensemaking,’ betting on the future before narrative retrospection fossilizes the past. Antenarrative storytelling is therefore agential in ways that traditional narratology has yet to come to grips with. This handbook contribution is bringing together a decade of scholarship on ‘antenarrative.’ It is the first volume to offer such a varied but systematic examination of non-traditional narrative inquiry in the management realm, organizing and developing its approach, and providing new insights for management students and scholars.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|107 pages
Individual, Gender, and Group Antenarratives
chapter 1|18 pages
Antenarrational Presuppositions
chapter 3|20 pages
The Tesseract Antenarrative Model
chapter 5|16 pages
The Creative Spirit of the Leader's Soul
part II|84 pages
Organization and Writing Antenarratives
chapter 8|15 pages
Antenarrative and Narrative
chapter 10|12 pages
Antenarratives, Strategic Alliances, and Sensemaking
part III|100 pages
Antenarratives and Organization Change
part IV|80 pages
National and Globalizing Antenarratives