ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that organizational stories, because they retain the capacity to constitute the organization from the bottom-up, have the ability to reconfigure our appreciation of organization-as-cultures. The epic story-type circulates widely in many published accounts of organization and management. Yiannis Gabriel suggests that stories are, in any sense, vital components of social organization. A careful reading of novels will help to reveal and to acknowledge the dynamics of social organization and the divisions ignored and yet cemented within the academic study of organizational culture. The chapter discusses the ways in which organization (without the definite article) denies and yet enables conduct unbecoming. Reflecting upon the patterns of inclusion and exclusion evident in the work of a leading management commentator, David Collins argues that tales of organization designed to signal culture change too often suggest that women cannot achieve and indeed do not deserve full membership of the organization’s culture.
