ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors offer a selection of maxims and a series of questions designed to inform this negotiation. Despite everyday dismissal of ‘anecdotal evidence’ stories are not to be considered as subordinate to the other narratives. Stories, as Weick makes plain, express who the people are. Indeed they often provide the resources necessary to articulate what the people should do under conditions of uncertainty and/or ambiguity. Stories, meaningfully, communicate the possibilities that shape their present and future selves. Stories have a viral character and like the influenza virus (for example) depend upon hosts for their transmission. Stories survive, therefore – they are remembered and retold – only when they reflect the needs and orientations of the social group. Stories are intimate products of experience and imagination. Storytelling has a capacity to shape thought and action within organized settings. Epic story-forms dominate the tales that are published on the business of management.
