ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses narrative by examining assumptions that incorporate but move beyond a rhetorical view of narrative as information shared and influence wielded. Narratives offer organizational frames of reference that “include methodological, epistemic, ontological, and ideological assumptions that enable organizational members to make consensual meaning out of social events”. Organizational members inhabit a symbolic environment in which they create the rules, norms and values that frame the process of organizing. Whereas an epistemological view of organizational discourse assumes that one person knows something that is conveyed through messages to another person, an ontological view assumes that meaning is made available through interpretations of that enactment. This concept emphasizes how interaction through communication episodes occurs as organizational members enact their narrative view of their company as development of relationships through series of episodes that transpire over time and organize around shared themes.
