Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:03:11.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Kill Bill’ and the change agent: A multi-genre approach to organizational stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Melanie Bryant  and
Jennifer Frahm
Melanie Bryant
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Monash University, Gippsland, VIC, Australia
Jennifer Frahm
Affiliation:
Jennifer Frahm Collaborations, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that change practitioners could benefit from expanding change communication strategies to allow for the emergence and use of multi-genre change stories in place of minimalist storylines. We argue that minimalist storylines do not acknowledge the polyvocal view of change that has been discussed in storytelling theory or engage with multiple modes of understanding and suggest that change agents adopt a multi-genre approach to storytelling to address this gap. Drawing from Quentin Tarantino's movies Kill Bill 1 & 2 as an example of how stories can be constructed, this paper proposes that the use of multiple story genres increases the likelihood of audiences finding a genre they can relate to, thus increasing better audience reach. Findings suggest that existing change narrative types can be viewed as genres of organizational change and added to change agents' repertoires to make change communication interventions more appropriate and appealing to employees. While our paper aims to provide a conceptual way forward for change agents, we acknowledge that change agents need to engage with living stories in the future. Living stories recognize the multiple loose ends developed from past and present change experiences that can be used to construct new stories, which are more likely to transform organizations and acknowledge the unfolding nature of change.

Keywords

organizational changechange agentsstorytellingchange narrativesQuentin Tarantino
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 17 , Issue 6: 25th ANZAM Anniversary Edition Remembering 2011: Managing for the Human Spirit , November 2011 , pp. 797 - 811
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aaltio-Marjosola, I. (1994). From a “grand story” to multiple narratives? Studying an organizational change project. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 7, 56–67.Google Scholar
Abraham, R. (2000). Organizational cynicism: Bases and consequences. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs, 126, 269–292.Google Scholar
Alvesson, M., & Karreman, D. (2000). Taking the linguistic turn in organizational research: Challenges, responses, consequences. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 36, 136–159.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Balogun, J., & Johnson, G. (2005). From intended strategies to unintended outcomes: The impact of change recipient sensemaking. Organization Studies, 26, 1573–1601.Google Scholar
Boje, D. (1995). Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-Land’. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 997–1035.Google Scholar
Boje, D. (2001). Narrative methods for organizational and communication research. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Boje, D. (2006). Book review essay: Pitfalls in storytelling advice and praxis. Academy of Management Review, 31, 218–230.Google Scholar
Boje, D. (2007). From Wilda to Disney: Living stories in family and organizational research. In Clandinin, D. (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 330–353). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Boje, D. (2008). Storytelling organizations. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Boje, D., & Tyler, J. (2008). Story and narrative noticing: Workaholism autoethnographies. Journal of Business Ethics, 84, 173–194.Google Scholar
Boudes, T., & Laroche, H. (2009). Taking off the heat: Narrative sensemaking in post-crisis inquiry reports. Organization Studies, 30, 377–396.Google Scholar
Brown, A., Gabriel, Y., & Gherardi, S. (2009). Storytelling and change: An unfolding story. Organization, 16, 323–333.Google Scholar
Brown, A., & Humphreys, M. (2003). Epic and tragic tales: Making sense of change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 39, 121–144.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (2004). Life as narrative. Social Research, 71, 691–710.Google Scholar
Bryant, M., & Wolfram Cox, J. (2003). The telling of violence: Organizational change and atrocity tales. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16, 563–587.Google Scholar
Bryant, M., & Wolfram Cox, J. (2004). Conversion stories as shifting narratives of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 17, 578–592.Google Scholar
Buchanan, D., & Dawson, P. (2007). Discourse and audience: Organizational change as a multistory process. Journal of Management Studies, 44, 669–686.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. (1956). The hero with a thousand faces. Cleveland, OH: Meridian.Google Scholar
Chandler, D. (1997). An introduction to genre theory. Accessed December 5, 2007, from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.htmlGoogle Scholar
Clandinin, D., & Connelly, F. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Clandinin, D., & Rosiek, J. (2007). Mapping a landscape of narrative inquiry. In Clandinin, D. (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 35–75). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Czarniawska, B. (2004). Narratives in social science research. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Czarniawska, B. (2007). Narrative inquiry in and about organizations. In Clandinin, D. (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 383–404). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Denning, S. (2006). Effective storytelling: Strategic business narrative techniques. Strategy & Leadership, 34, 42–48.Google Scholar
Denning, S. (2008). Stories in the workplace: Capture employees' attention during change – or when they need a change in mind-set. HR Magazine. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.Google Scholar
Ford, J., & Ford, L. (1995). The role of conversations in producing intentional change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20, 541–570.Google Scholar
Frank, A. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness and ethics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
French, R., & Moore, P. (2004). Divided neither in life nor in death: Friendship and leadership in the story of David and Jonathon. In Gabriel, Y. (Ed.), Myths, stories and organizations: Premodern narratives for our times (pp. 103–115). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. (1995). The unmanaged organization: Stories, fantasies and subjectivities. Organization Studies, 16, 477–501.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. (1998). Same old story or changing stories? Folkloric, modern and postmodern mutations. In Grant, D., Keenoy, T., & Oswick, C. (Eds.), Discourse + organization (pp. 84–103). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in organizations: Facts, fictions and fantasies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. (2004a). Introduction. In Gabriel, Y. (Ed.), Myths, stories and organizations: Premodern narratives for our times (pp. 1–9). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. (2004b). Narratives, stories and texts. In Clegg, S., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T., & Nord, W. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organization studies (2nd ed., pp. 61–77). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Gargiulo, T. (2002). Making stories: A practical guide for organizational leaders and human resource specialists. London: Quorum.Google Scholar
Hallett, T., Shulman, D., & Fine, G. (2009). Peopling organizations: The promise of classic symbolic interactionism for an inhabited institutionalism. In Adler, P. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of sociology and organization studies (pp. 486–509). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hermans, H. (2001). The dialogical self: Toward a theory of personal and cultural repositioning. Culture & Psychology, 7, 243–281.Google Scholar
Ho, D., Chan, F., Peng, S., & Ng, A. (2001). The dialogical self: Converging east-west constructions. Culture & Psychology, 7, 393–408.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W., & Yates, J. (1994). Genre repertoire: The structuring of communicative practices in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 541–574.Google Scholar
Reichers, A., Wanous, J., & Austin, J. (1997). Understanding and managing cynicism about organizational change. Academy of Management Executive, 11, 48–59.Google Scholar
Rhodes, C., & Brown, A. (2005). Narrative, organizations and research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 7, 167–188.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, P. (1984). Time and narrative (Vol. 1). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Salzer-Morling, M. (1998). As god created the earth … A saga that makes sense? In Grant, D., Keenoy, T., & Oswick, C. (Eds.), Discourse + organization (pp. 104–118). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Sims, D., Huxham, C., & Beech, N. (2009). On telling stories but hearing snippets: Sense-taking from presentations of practice. Organization, 16, 371–388.Google Scholar
Søderberg, A. (2006). Narrative interviewing and narrative analysis in a study of a cross-border merger. Management International Review, 46, 397–416.Google Scholar
Tarantino, Q. (2003). Kill Bill (Vol. 1). Los Angeles: Miramax Films.Google Scholar
Tarantino, Q. (2004). Kill Bill (Vol. 2). Los Angeles: Miramax Films.Google Scholar
Tyler, J. (2006). Only the shadow knows: Increasing organizational polyphony with liminal story/telling. Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry, 5, 109–126.Google Scholar
Weick, K., & Quinn, R. (1999). Organizational change and development. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 361–386.Google Scholar
Whittle, A., Mueller, F., & Mangan, A. (2009). Storytelling and character: Victims, villains and heroes in a case of technological change. Organization, 16, 425–442.Google Scholar