ABSTRACT
Organizations may lose parts of their legitimacy, their “licence to operate”, or they may be unconvincing in their wish to change the organization, or to adapt their products and services and the way these are delivered. Polish-Swedish scholar Barbara Czarniawska has paved the path to a better understanding of these processes. In the same way Steven Barley studies technology in organizations, Czarniawska posits her work explicitly in the stream of social constructionism. Linguistic fundamentals have wide application inside organizations and between organizations and their stakeholders. Czarniawska connected her narrative approach even to budgeting in the public sector in Sweden. In general, it comes as no surprise that Czarniawska’s emphasis on narratives and communication in and around organizations, easily translates to the security and military sector. In the military and security domain, strategic narratives play a giant role in the legitimization of the use of violence, or on the contrary, in preventing the emergence of violence.
