ABSTRACT
Inspired by classical theories of bureaucracy and management, organizational theory developed throughout most of the twentieth century by focusing on the impersonal, orderly, and formal qualities of organizations. Since the 1970s, however, there has been an increasing acknowledgement of organizations as cultural and political arenas, where individuals and groups seek to make sense of their experiences, influence others, and express their emotions through narratives. This development has opened up numerous interpretive possibilities, one of which addresses different types of organizational texts, including different stories and narratives. An important consequence has been a cautious acceptance of stories and narratives not merely as mere diversions from the real stuff of working and managing, but as core features of organizations. Consistent with a social constructionist orientation, a rising number of organizational scholars has come to look at narrative not as something that happens ‘inside’ a given box called organization, but as something that serves to construct the box itself.
