a working paperknowledge, enhance elearning environments, and advance decision support systems...

Ali Asghari Sarem PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Research Seminars, February 25, 2015

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A Working Paper

The Role of Storytelling in HRD: What We Learn from Literature?

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to show the relevance of storytelling for HRD. This paper, according to Creswell’s thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), provides a literature based rationale for adopting organizational storytelling as a powerful and effective HRD tool in which stories can help HRD practitioners to achieve HRD purposes. In this paper, journal articles, written on storytelling, in English, were reviewed. The gathered information from literature demonstrates several positive applications of storytelling, e.g. as a tool for learning, training, motivation and behavioral changes that are relevant to HRD and its purposes. However, a part of the literature, considers negative and dark side of storytelling, e.g. concealing or distorting the truth, and manipulating people actions and intentions. The paper argues that storytelling should be a part of HRD’s toolkit and sugestes storytelling skill is a sterategic skill that HRD practitioners should not neglecte it. Keywords: Narrative, Storytelling, Human Resource Development, Literature Review

Introduction Academic HRD research has been slow to interrogate and to theorize about the effectiveness of storytelling. Although, HRD has been inspired by many fields, but has not yet fully realized the potential of storytelling. A pity since storytelling and more generally narrative has a unique communicative and motivational potential. May be time to give a literary turn to HRD. HRD is both an area of professional practice and a multidisciplinary field of study, applying almost any theory, practice or approaches that would serve the goal of enhance learning, human potential, and high performance in organizations (Chalofsky, 2007). It has derived its conceptual focus from three broad areas: organization theory, specifically systems thinking, economics and psychology (Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999). According to Nadler (1970), from a “human resources” perspective, “behavioral change” is the intended purpose of HRD activities (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). But, despond on different underlying philosophical and theoretical perspectives, HRD practitioners tend to focus on self-development, the productive capacity or performance of human resource (Kuchinke, 1999), motivation, learning, investments in human capital and improving organizational processes and change (Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999). HRD practitioners in order to achieve these goals, play different roles and use various approaches and tools. For example, they should remove barriers to self-development, create an open and trusting environment, and transmit knowledge, skills, and the social and behavioral rules of the organization (Kuchinke, 1999). It seems storytelling is one of the approaches that can serve these


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goals. However, in recent years, there has been increasing attention by organizations and their leaders to the role and value of storytelling as a standard managerial tool (Corvellec, 2015), this powerful tool has been less attention in the HRD, insofar it might be said storytelling, in HRD, is a lost art (Caminotti and Gray, 2012). The problem is that although there are almost many studies on storytelling role and its contribution in neighbors fields of HRD, there was at the time of this writing no enough research that discuss the role of storytelling in HRD. Except Tylor (2007) and Beigi (2014), we could not find other research that had discussed the effectiveness of the storytelling in HRD. Many researchers and scholars in different disciplines and field of studies, that share some commonality and concerns with HRD, highlight the value of storytelling, but there is a limited mention in HRD literature regarding to the use of storytelling as a powerful tool to fulfill HRD purposes. In fields such as organization theory (Boje, 1991; Lerner, 1992; Boje, 1995; Ewick & Silbey, 1995; Volker, Phillips & Anderson, 2011; Chen, 2012), change management (Faber, 1998; Kirsch, 2004; Benjamin, 2006; Denning, 2008; Hansen, 2011; Carriger, 2011; Creed, DeJordy & Lok, 2014; Landau, Drori & Terjesen, 2014), organizational development (Gephart Jr, 1991; Boje, 1994; Abma, 2003; Pässilä, Oikarinen & Kallio, 2013), training and development (Vance, 1991; Phillips, 1995; Morgan & Dennehy, 1997; McKenna, 1999; Gold & Holman, 2001; Zeelen, Wijbenga, Vintges and de Jong, 2010; Carr & Ann, 2011; Caminotti & Gray, 2012; Boston, 2103; Robinson, 2013), knowledge management (Sole & Wilson, 1999; Hannabuss, 2000; Swap, Leonard, Shields & Abrams, 2001; Küpers, 2005; Bhardwaj & Monin, 2006; Sax, 2006; Tobin & Snyman, 2008; Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges, 2011; Whyte & Classen, 2012; Geiger & Schreyögg, 2012; Wijetunge, 2012; Adorisio, 2014; Rowlinson, Casey, Hansen & Mills, 2014), organizational behavior (Boudens, 2005; Horsley, 2007; Ellis & Hibbert, 2008; McCarthy, 2008; Gill, 2014), organizational culture (Hansen and Kahnweiler, 1993; Ledwell-Brown & Dias, 1994; Humphreys & Brown, 2002; Denning, 2004; Soin & Scheytt, 2006; Loseke, 2007; Hyde, 2008; Rindfleish, Sheridan & Kjeldal, 2009; Boje & Baskin, 2011; Ohara & Cherniss, 2012), strategic management (Barry & Elmes, 1997; Alkon, 2004; Denning, 2006; Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven & Kroupa, 2006; Heil & Whittaker, 2007; Marzec, 2007; Fenton & Langley, 2010; Carriger, 2010; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010; Hansen, 2011; Carriger, 2011; Ohara & Cherniss, 2012; Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan, 2013; Chen, 2013; Baker, 2014), leadership (Ewick & Silbey, 1995; Carreiro, 2005; Denning, 2006; Harris & Barnes, 2006; Grisham, 2006; Boal & Schultz, 2007; Denning, 2008; McKenna, 2010; Carriger, 2010; Carr & Ann, 2011; Maclean, Harvey & Chia, 2012; Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist, 2013; Kuran, 2013), and human resource management (Syrjälä, Takala, & Sintonen, 2009; Powell, 2011), the supportive role and relevance of the storytelling have been discussed. Maybe, one reason for this great attention to the storytelling, is its potential power. “Stories fill our lives in the way that water fills the lives of fish” (Denning, 2000). Organizations are immersed in stories. Despite the traditional perspective, that look at storytelling, such as soft, fuzzy, squishy, emotional, fluffy, anecdotal, irrational, fantasy, fairy stories, primitive, and childish (Denning, 2011, p. xii), the storytelling has been recognized as an effective device in new management approaches (Boje, 1994; Boje, 2008; Denning, 2007; Denning, 2011). Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, was once asked about the most important attribute he had. He said, ‘‘What really counts is that I’m Irish and I know how to tell stories’’ (Brown, Denning, Groh, & Prusak, 2004, p. 5). Organizations are using storytelling both on a strategic management level, and on an operational level in day-to-day communication with employees (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 50). Story is a simple way of conveying complex ideas. Stories are used to measure and change organization culture, mapping


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knowledge, enhance eLearning environments, and advance decision support systems (Snowden, 2000). Tylor (2007), encourages HRD practitioners to add the storytelling to their box of tools. But we belive before encouraging HRD practitioners to use storytelling in their functions, maybe it is HRD scholars and researcher’s duty to ensure practitioners that the tool will be effective and will help them to achieve their purposes. There is no doubt that HRD practitioners, as other managers and practitioners in organizations, seek to achieve HRD purposes at the lowest cost and highest effectiveness. However, the use of each tool in HRD, costs money and time. Therefore, maybe HRD practitioners, according to the productivity logic in organizations, prefer the non-expensive tools to achieve their purposes and goals. The question is whether the storytelling, as a non-expensive powerful tool, is effective in achieving HRD purposes or not? One way to fill this gap, is to mine in the literature. Because analysis and syntheses of existing literature, improve evidence-based decision making (Challahan, 2014) and thereby help practitioners to act more efficiently. This paper is interested in learning more about different roles of storytelling in organizations, and understanding its potential relevance for HRD. There have been numerous research and papers on the effectiveness of literature review in HRD (Torraco, 2005; Callahan, 2010; Daley & et al., 2010; Callahan, 2014). In this paper, based on gathering information from literature written on storytelling in organization and management study, we are trying to answer this question that what is the potential role or contribution of storytelling to HRD? In other words, what we learn from literature about the potential effectiveness of storytelling on HRD? In order to answer this question, the paper begins by providing theoretical background of the situation from narrative approach. In nex section, we take a look at the previous studies on storytelling in organization, to determine the status of this research in the literature. The last but not least, by applying Creswell’s thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), we uses the literature to identify themes and patterns in areas of research, and then we will discuss those themes to build a literature based rational for HRD practitioners to gives some insight as to how HRD can use storytelling in achieving to HRD purposes. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to strengthen HRD practitioner’s toolbox by introducing storytelling as a potential effective tool. This paper is important as it shows there are some information and evidences in the literature that support the idea that storytelling can help HRD practitioners to play effectively their roles in order to reach their goals. Theoretical Background: Story and Storytelling To begin this research, a few conceptual points need to be clarified. Most important, we need to define what we mean by the terms “story” and “storytelling” and what is the distinction between story, narrative, and other similar terms, such as tale, legend, myth, fiction and saga? Although precisely addressing this issue can be considered in a separate paper, but it is necessary to establish a theoretical basis for common understanding of the subject. To address this issue, we have no choice but to engage in narrative theory. An underlying assumption of narrative theory is that narratives create meaning and that meaning is socially constructed via symbolic interaction (Hansen, 2011). The explicit interest in narrative in the social sciences can perhaps be traced back to the early 1980s. This trend really gathered momentum in the early 1990s, when the journal Narrative and Life History (now published as Narrative Inquiry) in 1991 and a series of edited collections on The Narrative Study of Lives in 1993 were published (Elliott, 2005, p. 5). According to Boyce, the foundation of organizational story and storytelling is rooted in works of folklorists, anthropologists, sociologists, communication and organization theorists (Boyce, 1996). More


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recently, the narrative approach in organizations has emerged as a prominent topic in the in organization studies (Küpers, 2005). Narrative enters organization studies in at least four forms: organizational research that is written in a storylike fashion; organizational research that collects organizational stories; organizational research that conceptualize organizational life as story making and organization theory as story reading; and a disciplinary reflection that takes the form of literary critique (Czarniawska, 1997, pp. 13-14). In addition to these four forms, there are organizational research that consider stories and narratives as a management tool (e.g., Kopp & et al., 2011 and Wijetunge, 2012). This research placed in this last category. According to the postmodern view of narrative, individuals and organizations are nothing more than the stories that constitute them (Hansen, 2011). Narratives are related at the macro-, meso-, and micro-/personal levels (Herrmann, 2011) and people by stories, make sense of themselves and their surroundings (Boje, 1991; Hannabuss, 2000; Garcia-Lorenzo, 2010; Hansen, 2011; Maclean, Harvey and Chia, 2012). However, besides the story and narrative, terms such as fable, saga, myth, legend, tale and fiction have been entered in the practice and field of organization. But what they means? Do they mean the same? To answer these questions, it will be helpful to look at the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, a story is “an account of incidents or events”. Narrative is “a story that is told or written”. A fable is “a short story that usually is about animals and that is intended to teach a lesson”. A saga is “a long and complicated story with many details”. Myth is “an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true”. A legend is “a story from the past that is believed by many people but cannot be proved to be true”. Tale is “a story about imaginary events: an exciting or dramatic story” and a fiction refers to “something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically: an invented story”1. Beyond this basic definitions from the dictionary, academic literature has paid much attention to the definition and differentiation of these terms. According to these debates, narrative and story are not the same, although they are in interplay. Narrative provides a sense of time and causality (Corvellec, 2015). Narrative is a whole telling, with the linear sequence of a beginning, middle, and end (BME) based on a kind of coherency. Narrative is usually a retrospective gaze from present and changes little over time (Boje, 2008, pp. 7-8). Narrative by providing a sense of time and causality helps people make sense of the organizational life. It means that narrative can expand or compress time and according to the notion of plot, moves one from one state of affairs to another state of affairs (Corvellec, 2015). However, story is more apt to be dispersive (Boje, 2008, pp. 7-8). According to Ewick and Silbey (1995), narrative has three elements or features. First, a narrative relies on some form of selective appropriation of past events and characters. Second, within a narrative the events must be temporally ordered. This quality of narrative requires that the selected events be presented with a BME. Temporality does not necessarily refer to chronology but links elements together in time and indicates that events have a certain order (Elliott, 2005). Third, the events and characters must be related to one another and to some overarching structure. The temporal and structural ordering ensure both "narrative closure" and "narrative causality". In other words, a statement about how and why the recounted events occurred (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). Saga, has come to mean a narrative of heroic exploits. An organizational saga is a collective understanding of a unique accomplishment based on historical exploits of a formal organization, offering strong normative bonds within and outside the organization. A saga is not simply a story

1 We choose the definitions that see the word as a noun. Also the first definition for each word was chosen.


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but a story that at some time has had a particular base of believers (Clark, 1972). An organizational saga, presents some rational explanation of how certain means led to certain ends (Clark, 1972). Fable is described as the most controllable form of story. Fables are distinguished from myth by their means of propagation, their length and the formality of their message. A fable is structured so as to be told by a storyteller in such a manner, and with sufficient complexity, that the audience is unable to repeat the story but remembers the message. Virus stories are used to disrupt negative myths. Should not try and destroy a myth with fact because it won’t work; the myth has developed despite the facts because people want to believe it. One combats or uses a story with a story. Virus stories can also be used to reinforce and build valuable myths and endorse good practice (Snowden, 2000). Fiction is ‘a general term for something created by human mind. It has three aspects: (1) Not a fact, but an invention of some kind, sometimes a fabrication or a lie. (2) Not fact, but still part of reality; imaginative narrative, often part of literature. (3) A special kind of “fact”: a social and cultural construct, such as a legal fiction that helps in the administration of law, and geographical fictions like the Equator’ (MacArthur, 1992, p. 401). In the course of describing what a story is and is not, Boje (2001) derived the concept of the “antenarrative”:

I give “antenarrative” a double meaning: as being before and as a bet. First, story is “ante” to narrative; it is antenarrative. A “narrative” is something that is narrated, i.e. “story”. Story is an account of incidents or events, but narrative comes after and adds “plot” and “coherence” to the story line [...]. Secondly, ante is a bet, something to do with gambling and speculation. Story is therefore ‘‘ante’’ to story and narrative is post-story (Boje D. M., 2001, pp. 1-2).

Each story has some elements. Message, conflict, plot and characters are four elements that make up the core basic of storytelling. The central message, or premise of the story, is an ideological or moral statement that works as a central theme throughout the story. A story with more than one central message runs the risk of becoming messy and unclear. Conflict is the driving force of a good story. No conflict, no story. When faced with a problem-a conflict- we instinctively seek to find a solution. Conflict forces us to act and restore harmony. As storytellers, we get our message across through conflict and its resolution. In order for the conflict to play out, the stories need a cast of interacting and compelling characters. A story typically starts out with main character, or hero, pursuing a goal. There is always an adversary who tries to work against the hero, thereby establishing the conflict. In the case of an organization, the adversary could be unsupportive structure for human resource development. Sometimes the adversary appears in the shape of a villain. For example a boss that abuse of his or her organizational power. The resolution of the central conflict is proof of the story's message. At last, the plot is flow of the story and its sequence and progression of events (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, pp. 32-45). Bhardwaj & Monin (2006) have defined story as a written and spoken experiences of employees in the social, psychological and cultural context in which organization operates. These descriptions are in a continuous process of being and becoming. They are narratives in the state of being and antenarratives in the state of becoming (Bhardwaj & Monin, 2006). Storytelling is “systematic use of narrative” to achieve the specific purpose (Corvellec, 2015). Organizational storytelling is about learning how to do that effectively in the workplace (Marek, 2011, p. 2). According to Corvellec (2006), narration is “the action of a narrator in telling a story or a part of story, either orally or by some other means” (Corvellec, 2006). Gabriel suggests that all stories are narratives but not all narratives are stories (Gabriel, 2000, p. 5). Finally, Denning, in his books, The Secret Language of Leadership (Denning, 2007) and The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (Denning, 2005), uses narrative and story as


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synonyms, in the broad sense of an account of a set of events that are causally related. Denning (2006), knows narrative as storytelling and does not distinguish between these two terms. According to Adorisio (2009), “scholars have strongly debated on story and narrative definitions: basically every single author has his or her own interpretation of the topic, and uses the terms narrative and story with different acceptations” (Adorisio, 2009, p. 10). So, in order to avoid confusion in definitions, in this paper, we assume the “Denning’s board sense”, but our main emphasis is on the story and storytelling.

Storytelling in Previous Studies Before reviewing literature, in order to determine the status of our research in the literature, it is necessary to discuss about previous studies that have addressed the role of storytelling in management and leadership. Storytelling already plays an important role for organizations and their leaders and many theorists and researchers highlighted the value of storytelling (Gill, 2014). Management scholars have recognized story and narrative’s role in culture (Hyde, 2008; Rindfleish, Sheridan and Kjeldal, 2009; Boje and Baskin. 2011; Ohara and Cherniss, 2012), teaching (Phillips, 1995; Boston, 2103), sharing knowledge (Lerner, 1992; Sole and Wilson, 1999; Tobin and Snyman, 2008), communication (Kirsch, 2004; Mittins, Abratt and Christie, 2011; Herrmann, 2011; Carriger, 2013) motivation and inspiration (Harris and Barnes, 2006; Auvinen, Aaltio and Blomqvist, 2013) and learning (Vance, 1991; Boje, 1994; Pässilä, Oikarinen and Kallio, 2013). In addition to research that has been considered storytelling as a management tool, some research has been devoted to review storytelling literature. For example, Boyce (1996) uses social constructivism, organizational symbolism, and critical theory to review storytelling literature. Snowden (2000) is another example. He reviews storytelling literature and identifies four approaches to the use of stories within an organizational context: stories as a research tool; enhancing actual stories; embracing fiction; and traditional forms of story. The use of stories as a research tool received increasing prominence with the growth of post-modernism and its emphasis on the authenticity of narrative. The purpose here is to gain access to deeper organizational realities, closely linked to their member’s experiences. A second group create or reflect on actual stories from their companies and enhance or expand these to make a point. A third group freely embraces fiction – seeing stories as seen a means of conveying meaning, stimulating a response and enhancing understanding of complex issues. The fictional format allows indirect tackling of issues. The final group is interested in stories per se; it includes folklorists, professional storytellers, ethno-cultural specialists and others (Snowden, 2000). Other researchers, use literature to demonstrate the effectiveness of storytelling in a specific activity or function. For example Caminotti and Gray (2012) introduce storytelling as an effective tool for adult educators by gathering information from literature written on storytelling and adult learning. Storytelling has been recognized as an effective device inside organizations. According to Boje (1991), stories are the blood vessels through which changes pulsate in the heart of organizational life. Storytelling can contribute to more effective individual learning in organizations (Vance, 1991). Stories can be used as a means of self-development. Managers tell stories in order to evoke leadership characterized by motivation, inspiration, defusing conflict, influencing superiors, discovering a focus and constructing trust (Auvinen, Aaltio, and Blomqvist, 2013). Story and narrative are also


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used as a research tool (Ledwell-Brown and Dias, 1994; Boje, 1995; Boudens, 2005; Ellis and Hibbert, 2008). Narrative can be the object of research, the method of research, or the product of research (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). Until our research, only two studies were discussed storytelling from the HRD perspective: Tylor (2007) and Beigi (2014). Also, Kopp & et al. (2001) are among the scholars who have discussed the role of the storytelling by considering HRD and organizational crisis management commonality. Tyler (2007), based on a naturalistic inquiry, investigates and interviews whit the fifteen for-profit HRD practitioners, argues how HRD practitioners implement storytelling in business settings as a business process and a tactical tool. The purpose of her study was inform and better understand practitioners to implementing storytelling in service to organizational goals. Tylor’s findings revealed three fundamental nonlinear points about the mechanics of implementing storytelling processes in organizations: foundational activities and concerns, performance concerns, and posttelling or strategic leverage concerns. Marketing storytelling and locating and selecting stories are two foundational areas for practitioner decision and action as foundational activities. Performance concerns refers to good and appropriate physical storytelling environment and posttelling activities with the goal of maximizing strategic benefit from the storytelling, have two elements: devoting time and attention to poststory reflection, dialogue, and sharing of participant and disseminating the stories across the organization (Tyler, 2007). Kopp & et al. (2011), in a conceptual paper, considering that HRD and organizational crisis management as disciplines have great commonality, propose that storytelling can be used as HRD’s learning toolkit in leveraging human capital pre-, during, and postcrises. HRD practitioners can also use fictional stories to facilitate training and development. According to Beigi (2014), using fiction as a story source for training and development (T&D) purposes can improve efficiency, provide a safe learning environment, avoid groupthink, remove negative attitudes towards stories and increase access to varied stories. She calls HRD practitioners to use workplace-related fictional stories, because she believes collecting stories from the organization itself, is not always feasible. In her opinion work is a significant life domain, and published fiction mirrors various domains of life. She suggests fictional stories provide HRD practitioners with rich materials they can put into use for T&D purposes (Beigi, 2014). Tylor (2007) discusses how to use storytelling in organizations by asking HRD practitioners, Kopp & et al. (2011) shows the effectiveness of storytelling whit a conceptual reasoning and Beigi (2014) considers the effectiveness of a particular source of story, i.e. fiction, in facilitating training and development. This paper is going to discuss the effectiveness of storytelling to meet HRD purposes, by finding some evidences from literature. Our research is similar to Caminotti and Gray (2012) research. The aim of this literature review is not criticizing the storytelling literature, but we are looking for finding some information and evidence to demonstrate the potential relevance of storytelling in HRD. It is worth noting that we do not claim this research is a sort of integrative and comprehensive literature review. In an integrative literature review, the researchers should critique literature written on a phenomena (Callahan, 2014), but in this paper we are not going to critique storytelling literature, rather, we seek to gather, analyze and synthesize information in the literature to increase awareness of how effective storytelling can be for HRD practitioners. So, we can claim that we have tried to see the relevant literature to our purpose of paper, as much as possible.


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Method: Data Collection, Data Analysis and Finding In this section, we review the literature written on storytelling, as a means of determining support for the use of storytelling in HRD. In the next section, we will see how HRD can get benefit from bringing storytelling in its toolbox. As we mentioned in introduction, we use Creswell’s thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), to gather, analyze and synthesize literature written on storytelling to introduce storytelling as an effective tool for HRD practitioners. A good literature review is that it has a methodology that clearly answers the six important questions as components of a literature review (Callahan, 2010). We will respond to any of these questions within the text.

Table 1. Components of a Literature Review (Callahan, 2010) Components The questions

Databases and search engines Where the literature was found? Period of time When the search was conducted? Search responsible Who conducted the search? Keyword combinations How the literature was found? Data set What number of articles appeared? Selection criteria Why some articles were chosen for inclusion over others?

Data collection. Table 2 indicates the number of existing literature written on storytelling. The table is obtained by the reviewing journal articles database and publication centers, including Emerald, Wiley, Science Direct, Sage, Springer, Oxford and JSTOR digital library (Databases and search engines). In order to access to relevant papers, one of the researchers, Ali Asghari Sarem, at the Lund University, started download papers from databases and search engines (Search responsible) in December 2014. Nevertheless, literature search was conducted without a certain period of time and considered journal articles at all time (Period of time). The search was conducted with some key words. Story, storytelling, narrative, organization, human resource, human resource development (HRD) and human resource management (HRM) were the key words in this searching (Keyword combinations). As it is clear in the table 2, 480 papers were downloaded, but just 111 of them were relevant to our purpose (Data set).

Table 2. The number of existing literature and relevant papers written on storytelling Scientific data base Number of downloaded papers Number of relevant papers

Emerald 87 57 Oxford 76 2 Sage 92 22

Science Direct 49 7 Springer 67 5 Wiley 82 6 JSTOR 27 12 Total 480 111

Figure 1 shows frequency of the number of papers in their publication year. As the figure shows, the interest in story and storytelling is in growing at recent years.


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Figure 1. Frequency of selected relevant papers Data analysis. Next step, after identifying these 111 related papers to the topic and purpose of this paper, was to extract the themes. In order to achieving this aim, we concerned and analyzed the results, findings and discussions of these papers. These papers discuss the role or contribution of story and storytelling in different sort of management activities or organization process. They argue that story and storytelling in work related situations or in organizations can be used in order to achieving some kind of aims. In other words, common point of all these 111 papers is that they have some implications for organization leaders, managers, and practitioners about the application of story and storytelling in organization. Therefore, each of the 111 papers, in order to complete an incomplete sentence, were considered and reviewed. In fact, completing the incomplete sentence, was our main criteria in deriving and extracting themes from the results and finding of relevant and selected papers. This incomplete sentence was: Story and storytelling has a role or contribution in …. (Selection criteria). The blank in the sentence, were filled by the terms extracted from the papers. Each term consists of a specific theme and also each term begins with an action verb. Then, the action verb next to each specific themes, refers to the application of story or storytelling in organization. The table A, in appendix, shows extracted themes from the selected papers. This table indicates the use of storytelling as a tool for a range of organizational activities, and different aspect of organization and management study. All 111 papers, in order to complete the Table A, were reviewed. The result of this review, led to the extraction of 314 terms or phrases, as shown in Table A. Finding. After extracting the 314 themes, we tried to map them by categorizing. In order to categorizing them, we code each of the extracted themes. We wrote each of the themes on a card with its code. Then, started to put them together. We putted cards together based on the conceptual relationship between them. Picture 1 shows the cards and putting them together in specific categories.

0

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Frequency of selected relevant papers


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Picture 1. The cards and putting them together in specific categories.

Each card refer to a specific organizational concept, activity or processes. So we put the same cards in same category. We did this activity in two different methods. First, we putted the card together based on field of studies. This method highlights literature in each field of study, focusing on their relevance to each area of study. Table 3, shows the categorizing literature written on storytelling based on the field of study.

Table 3. Literature written on storytelling based on field of study Authors Number Field of Study

Gephart Jr (1991); Boje (1991); Vance (1991); Barry (1997); Faber (1998); Kirsch (2004); Benjamin (2006); Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven & Kroupa (2006); Denning (2008); Lapp & Carr (2008); Geiger & Antonacopoulou (2009); Garcia-Lorenzo (2010); Kostera & Obło´ (2010); Hansen (2011); Carriger (2011); Kopp, Nikolovska, Desiderio & Guterman (2011); Simpson (2012); Corvellec & Hultman (2012); Creed, DeJordy & Lok (2014); Landau, Drori & Terjesen (2014)

20 Change

Management

Gephart Jr, (1991); Boje (1994); Abma (2003); Pässilä, Oikarinen & Kallio (2013) 4

Organization Learning and Development

Boje (1991); Lerner (1992); Boje (1995); Ewick & Silbey (1995); Boyce (1996); Volker, Phillips & Anderson (2011); Chen (2012)

7 Organization Theory (OT)

Rentz (1992); Smith and Keyton (2001); Kirsch (2004); Mittins, Abratt & Christie (2011); Herrmann (2011); Carriger (2013); Pässilä, Oikarinen & Kallio (2013)

7 Communication


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Authors Number Field of Study Lerner (1992); Sole & Wilson (1999); Hannabuss (2000); Swap, Leonard, Shields & Abrams (2001); Küpers (2005); Bhardwaj & Monin (2006); Sax (2006); Tobin & Snyman (2008); Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges (2011); Whyte & Classen (2012); Geiger & Schreyögg (2012); Wijetunge (2012); Adorisio (2014); Rowlinson, Casey, Hansen & Mills (2014)

14 Knowledge

Management (KM)

Hansen and Kahnweiler (1993); Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994); Humphreys & Brown (2002); Denning (2004); Soin & Scheytt (2006); Driscoll & McKee (2007); Loseke (2007); Hyde (2008); Rindfleish, Sheridan & Kjeldal (2009); Boje & Baskin (2011); Ohara & Cherniss (2012)

11 Corporate

Culture

Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994); Boje (1995); Boudens (2005); Soin & Scheytt (2006); Ellis & Hibbert (2008); Middleton (2009); Syrjälä, Takala, & Sintonen (2009); Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges (2011); Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan (2013)

9 Research

Methodology

Vance (1991); Phillips (1995); Morgan & Dennehy (1997); McKenna (1999); Gold & Holman (2001); Abma (2003); Zeelen, Wijbenga, Vintges and de Jong (2010); Carr & Ann (2011); Caminotti & Gray (2012); Boston (2103); Robinson, (2013)

11 Training &

Development (T&D)

Barry & Elmes (1997); Alkon (2004); Denning (2006); Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven & Kroupa (2006); Heil & Whittaker (2007); Marzec (2007); Fenton & Langley (2010); Carriger (2010); Herskovitz & Crystal (2010); Hansen (2011); Carriger (2011); Ohara & Cherniss (2012); Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan (2013); Chen (2013); Baker, (2014)

15 Strategic

Management

Lloyd (2000); DeLarge (2004) 2

Design Management

Ewick & Silbey (1995); Bradshaw (2002); Carreiro (2005); Denning (2006); Harris & Barnes (2006); Grisham (2006); Driscoll & McKee (2007); Boal & Schultz (2007); Denning (2008); Lapp & Carr (2008); McKenna (2010); Carriger (2010); Carr & Ann (2011); Maclean, Harvey & Chia (2012); Auvinen, Lämsä, Sintonen & Takala (2013); Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist (2013); Carriger (2013); Kuran (2013)

18 Leadership

Fonnesbaek & Andersen (2005); Klein, Connell & Meyer (2007); Herskovitz & Crystal (2010); Merchant, Ford & Sargeant (2010); Pulizzi (2012); BoUrdaa (2013); Hauff, Carlander, Gamble, Gärling & Holmen (2014); Lee & Shin (2014)

8 Marketing

Boudens (2005); Horsley (2007); Ellis & Hibbert (2008); McCarthy (2008); Gill (2014)

5 Organizational Behavior (OB)

Middleton (2009); Mittins, Abratt & Christie (2011); Gill (2014) 3

Organization Image and Reputation

Tyler (2007); Kopp, Nikolovska, Desiderio & Guterman (2011); Beigi (2014)

3 HRD

Syrjälä, Takala, & Sintonen (2009); Powell (2011) 2 HRM


12

Overlapping researches are shown in Figure 2. This figure depicts a literature map written on storytelling.

Change Management

Research Methodology

T&D

Leadership

Organization Learning and Development

Strategic Management

Organization Image &

Reputation

OT

Boje (1991)

Communication

Vance (1991)

Adamson & et al. (2006);Kroupa (2006); Hansen (2011); Carriger (2011)

Gephart Jr (1991);

Kirsch (2004) HRD

Kopp &

et al. (2011)

Pässilä & et al. (2013)

Carriger (2013);

Mittins & et al. (2011)

Denning (2008); Lapp & Carr (2008)

KMLerner(1992)

Escalfoni&

et al. (2011

Corporate Culture

Ohara&

Cherniss (2012)

Boje (1995)

Ewick &

Silbey (1995)

Driscoll & McKee (2007)

Denning (2006); Carriger (2010)

Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994); Soin & Scheytt (2006)

Bowman & et al. (2013);

OB

Boudens (2005); Ellis & Hibbert (2008)

Gill (2014)

Middleton (2009)

Abma (2003)

Carr & Ann (2011)

Marketing

Herskovitz &

Crystal (2010)HRM

Syrjälä & et al. (2009)

Design Management Storytelling

Literature

Figure 2. Storytelling literature map and overlapping researches

As it is clear in Figure 2 and table 3, the 16 fieldhave addressed the role of storytelling in organizations. Change management (20 research), leadership (18 research), strategic management (15 research) and knowledge management (14 research), have the greatest attention to the role of storytelling in organizations. HRD, with just 3 research, is one of the fields that have the least interest in storytelling. Figure 3 shows the frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the fields of study.


13

Figure 3. Frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the fields of study

In the second method, we tried to categorize extracted themes based on common managerial or leadership activities. Table 4, shows categorized selective literature based on the second method. In this table, extracted themes are in the same category based on managerial or leadership activities.

Table 4. Categorized relevant literature based on common managerial or leadership activities Card Code Storytelling has a role/contribution …

163-255-55-63-228-212-92-96-1-6-46-8-177-173-2-201-197-193-189-205-254-244-301-304

Creating, facilitating, understanding and managing change

77-294-33-35-213 Teaching 83-267-277-152-21-91-7-78-47-226-237-71-90-161 Learning, training, development

34- 178-179-18-22-64-122-118-272 Research tool: gathering, analyzing and interpreting date

9-208-123-70-209 Helping organization in achieving its purpose and improving performance

15-13-175-270-310-203-269-268-56-73-200-311-109-108-137-106-136-241-257-219-61-107-68-37-99-97-253

Gathering, recording, sharing, transforming and managing knowledge

124-305-11-10 Remembering past, explaining present and forecasting future

102-223-65-247-225-146-240-128-129-180-148-67 Promoting teamwork, creating collaboration,

127-121-214-224-246-72-58-74-93-101-16-20-25-49-19-159-88-274

Culture: sharing meanings, reflecting cultural features, building and conveying norms and values

0

5

10

15

20

25

Frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the fields of study


14

Card Code Storytelling has a role/contribution … 149-120-170-119-60-12-50-117-198-230-131-141-295-171-172-186-95

Attracting and shaping emotions, intentions and perceptions

138-264-26-233-235-139 Organizing, understanding and reflecting structure features

280-181-182-98-103-104-231-218-110-243-220-234-133-147-142-289-291-89

Communicating and conveying messages and ideas and creating dialogue

145-38 Socialization 283-285-174-245-132-300-282-130-134 Motivating, inspiration, influencing 57-140-184 Building and fostering trust and commitment 135-251-293-281-250-252-5 Leading 158-259-306-85-296-194-48-202-3-221-86-125-236-36-299-29-160

Sense making to various aspect of organizational life

239 Recruiting people 84-210-183-94-54-232-143-144-279-298-166-249-215-81-

Shaping and influencing identity

199-290-302-312-303-216- 211-116-165-115-114-113-164-258-155

Marketing internal and external costumers, and branding

14-314-275 Demanding responsibility and accountability 153-126-229-157-53-52-87-51-100-271-206-297-207-156-248-17-43

Facilitating strategic management

260-176-238-150-151-40-45-273 Manipulating peoples and their ideas 66-105 Helping to design management 42-80-41-154-222 Planning and decision making 185-217-313 Reinforcement of corporate reputation 4-309-59-308-307 Shaping and influencing organizational memory

192-23-28-188-30-32-112-31-167-39-276-286-204-195-196-191-62-69-82-24-261-76

Studying postmodern issues of organization: understanding and influencing reality, power, diversity, gendered situations, marginalized voices

111-44-265-288-75 Controlling 256-292-278-162-242-27-227-263-266-262 Creativity and Innovation 168-284 Defusing conflict and diversity

Discussion

“The most fundamental issue is not to be seduced by a good story, but to establish a purpose and use Story as a tool, not as an end in itself” (Snowden, 2000).

According to Denning (2006), “it needs to be kept steadily in mind that storytelling is a tool to achieve business purposes, not an end in itself”. For HRD practitioners, storytelling is a powerful tool and self-development, performance, change and learning (Kuchinke, 1999; Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999; Hamlin & Stewart, 2011) are the end. HRD is a process or system within the larger organizational and environmental system. The three critical application areas of HRD include human resource management, career development and quality improvement (Swanson, 2001). According to Swanson and Holton, the purpose of HRD is to focus on the resource that humans bring to the success equation—both personal success and organizational system success (Swanson & Holton, 2009, p. 4). So, HRD serves the organization’s purposes, even when HRD is


15

itself a satellite organization (Watkins, 2000). Based on Hamlin and Stewart’s targeted literature review on human resource development and study 24 definitions of HRD, four “core purposes” of HRD are:

Improving individual or group effectiveness and performance; Improving organizational effectiveness and performance; Developing knowledge, skills and competencies; and Enhancing human potential and personal growth (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011).

“HRD is any process or activity that helps or enables individuals, groups, organizations or host systems to learn, develop and change behavior for the purpose of improving or enhancing their competence, effectiveness, performance and growth” (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). HRD is linked to organizational change; it is strategic and affects company performance through individual, team and organizational development, change and learning (Kuchinke, 1998). Human resource developers use learning and change to improve individual and organizational performance (Watkins, 2000). According to the above definitions and frameworks, it can be argued that HRD is a field of practice and study that seeks to improve organizational performance through the promotion of learning, improving the ability to change and individual performance of human resources. The literature reviewed in this paper robustly supports the concept that storytelling has an effective role to play as a powerful and none-expensive organic tool for fulfilling HRD purposes. Storytelling is effective for HRD and maybe “in certain situations, nothing else works” (Denning, 2011, p. 5). As it is clear in the table 2 and the figure 2, storytelling in different field of studies, is used in order to achieve various aims and purpose. Stories serve a variety of purposes. According to HRD definition, context and model (Mankin, 2001; Swanson, 2008), HRD is linked with many field of studies that are mentioned in table 3. Swanson and Holton define HRD as “a process of developing and unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving individual, team, work process, and organizational system performance” (Swanson & Holton, 2009, p. 4). The figure 4, shows HRD definition, components, applications, and contexts (Swanson, 2008).

Figure 4. HRD: Definition, Components, Applications, and Contexts (Swanson, 2008)

Also according to Mankin’s model (2001), HRD as a concept that comprises a variety of activities and processes, has great commonalities with human resource management, strategy and structure,


16

and culture (Mankin, 2001). As it’s clear from table 2 and the figure 2, the literature reviewed in this paper supports the effectiveness of storytelling in these field.

Figure 5. The HRD model (Mankin, 2001)

In summary, many of the contained concepts in the field of studies such as change management, knowledge management, organizational training and development and training, are intimately linked with HRD. Also, many of the activities listed in the table 4, such as facilitating change, teaching, learning, training, development, motivating, inspiration and so on, are the parts of HRD practitioner’s functions or objectives of HRD. For example, according to Boje (1991), in the storytelling organization, stakeholders and consultants perform stories that make sense of and influence change. He believes story performance and change are intertwined. In this process, stories are created, old stories are remembered, some are revised, and stories about the future are performed in the collective dialogue among organizational stakeholders as they make sense of and even affect organizational change (Boje, 1991). Change is an important purpose in HRD (Kuchinke, 1998; Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999; Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). It is worth noting that the story performance is not limited only to the internal environment of the organization. Rather, the range of possible organizational actions depends on societal narratives (Corvellec & Hultman, 2012). Stories in some cases, have been change the main dialogue in some fields and professions. For example, marketing now recommended the brand story rather than the brand image, i.e. a strong brand represents a story (Salmon, 2010, p. 13; Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 50). Managers and practitioners in organization can use storytelling, as a natural entry point, to understand and intervene in the culture(s) of an organization (Boyce, 1996). Maybe, this ability of storytelling, in some cases can causes bad effects on the organizational members. A part of literature reviewed in this research Indicated that application of story and storytelling in organizations, despite its positive effects, have a dark side and can be used as a tool in distortion of the facts and manipulating people believes and actions (Boyce, 1996; Bradshaw, 2002;


17

DeLarge, 2004; Driscoll and McKee, 2007; Lapp and Carr, 2008; Geiger and Antonacopoulou, 2009; Auvinen and et al., 2013). As Dick (1978) mentioned:

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words” (Dick, 1978).

Stories happen in the world of language and words, so they can be the source of distortion. For example, Auvinen and et al., (2013) identified the four types of manipulation through storytelling: humorous, pseudo-participative, seductive and pseudo-empathetic. They discuss the issue of ethics and storytelling in their article. Geiger and Antonacopoulou (2009), believe that sometimes narratives limit the organization’s ability to “see” new perspectives or “listen” to other voices and prevent the organization from questioning the principles underlying its past success. Lapp and Carr (2008), argue storytelling can be seen as a form of seduction based on emotional response. Driscoll and McKee (2007), suggest leaders can use stories to alter the values of their followers. Therefore, beside the advantage aspect of narratives and stories, they also have been see from critical stance. Salmon, in his book, “Storytelling, Bewitching the Modern Mind”, critiques the application of storytelling and warn about their risks. He argue in this book that, “narratives are explicitly used to conceal or distort the truth, and to manipulate states and public opinion” (Salmon, 2010, p. ix). Boyce, challenge the application of storytelling in theory and practice of organization. He use social constructivism, organizational symbolism, and critical theory to critique past research about storytelling. He argues that research and application of story and storytelling processes presents scholars, managers and practitioners with ethical/philosophical challenges. He notes that storytelling is an example of a process that can nurture and create meaning or reinforce control and manipulate meaning (Boyce, 1996). Bradshaw (2002) argues the presence of a powerful story in organization and suggests that the danger of a powerful story in an organization is that it can become hegemonic. Leaders can use stories to alter the values of their followers (Driscoll & McKee, 2007) and through this, they can manipulate their followers’ actions and goals. Sometimes, stories and storytelling appear in form of seduction based on emotional response and thereby preventing a change process within the organization (Lapp & Carr, 2008). In this role, stories and storytelling construct a self-sustaining frame of reference, preventing the organization from questioning the principles underlying its past success. So, they can limit organization’s ability to “see” new perspectives or “listen” to other voices (Geiger & Antonacopoulou, 2009). Some authors have challenged the effectiveness of stories in the communication. For instance, according to Carriger (2013), story is not simply effective at limiting the negative behavior impact of bad messages news in organizations. He identifies that the delivery of bad news need for both accurate facts and figures and a well-crafted narrative. In short, although most of the literature sees storytelling as a positive, supportive and effective tool, but as we mentioned, this management tool can also appears as negative or non-supportive tool.

Implications Stories can help HRD practitioners in some situations where it is difficult to find ways to communicate effectively (Beigi, 2014). HRD is about making a difference in the lives of people and of organizations (Watkins, 2000). Organizational storytelling can be seen as a kind of organizational learning discourse. Storytelling is a collective dynamic that scripts, sways and disciplines organizational learning (Boje D. M., 1994), so stories and storytelling are a good and effective tool in opening this dialogue and creating this change. Some researchers and authors,


18

have provided a sort of guidelines for helping practitioner to use storytelling in different situations an in order to get different goals that we think they are useable for HRD practitioners. For instance, Denning present a handy menu that lays out the uses of the various types of stories to achieve the objectives like sparking action, communicating who you are, transmitting values, communicating who the firm is-branding, fostering collaboration, taming the grapevine, sharing knowledge, and leading people into the future. In this handy menu, the nature of story, how to tell a story, and some possible phrases, as a starting sentence of story, are presented (Denning, 2011, pp. 17-19). Storytelling circulation (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010), as shown in figure 4, is another way in applications of storytelling in organizations. In order to establish a storytelling circulation, the organization faced with five phases:

1. Searching: finding and gathering stories. 2. Sorting: listing the stories based on their depth and relevance for the objective. 3. Shaping: making the stories tellable by casting or placing them in the four elements of

storytelling. 4. Showing: communicating the stories to employees in the different forms. 5. Sharing: ensuring that the stories are told continuously and in the relevant context (Fog,

Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 156).

Figure 4. Storytelling circulation (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010)

HRD practitioners, by using the storytelling circulation, can take advantage of this effective tool in achieving the HRD goals. They can use various vehicle for storytelling in organization. Experiences, role play, case studies (Caminotti & Gray, 2012), novels and fiction (Beigi, 2014) and film (Kirsch, 2004), are some of them. Stories are maps (Wilkins, 1984), they can help HRD practitioners to shape human resource’s perception of "who they are" and "what they stand for" (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 132). Employee, by using this maps, learns certain ways of thinking and acting. These maps that employees have in their heads are what they use to decide how to act (Wilkins, 1984). When hearing or reading a story, the human resources are pulled into the scene and feels the emotions the characters feel. They drawn back to a similar experience or setting that has personal meaning (Morgan & Dennehy, 1997). HRD practitioners, by telling

Searching

Sorting

Shaping

Showing

Sharing


19

positive, supportive and good stories (Wilkins, 1984) or altering the existing negative and none supportive stories, can influence or deal with these employee maps and challenge the level of their skills, knowledge, ability and competencies and by pulling them into new and supportive stories, make them to improve and develop their level of development. According to Fog and et.al (2010), strengthen the culture of organization and showing employees how they should behave in certain situations, are two purposes for using storytelling as a management tool (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 133). Both of these goals, can helps HRD practitioners to facilitate the development of human resources in organizations. Technological development and new digital possibilities and media, provides new opportunities for HRD practitioners to use stories fast and efficient. For example, according to Kirsch (2004), the best means to tell a good story nowadays is on film. HRD practitioners, should be better storyteller. As a story is a powerful and free technology that doesn’t need expensive hard/software or experts (Wijetunge, 2012), HRD practitioners should improve their storytelling skill and take advantage of these inexpensive, but powerful and effective tool. Although offering a cook book recipe for that is a simplistic idea, but there are some guidelines to help HRD practitioner to become better storytellers (Morgan & Dennehy, 1997; Wilkins, 1984; Harris & Barnes, 2006). We claim that storytelling skill, is a one of the important skills that HRD practitioners need to add it to their skill set. Nevertheless, HRD practitioners, in using the stories, must be careful about two fundamental points. First of all they should aware that the components or content of a story do not constitute the meaning of a story. The meaning is situationally created and a story has no meaning a part from the occasion so fits telling or "performance" (Boje D. , 1991). Stories are always told within particular historical, institutional, and interactional contexts that shape their telling, its meanings and effects (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). It means that the meaning of a story depends on the context of the telling; in particular the narrator and intended listeners of the story (Gephart Jr, 1991). HRD practitioners can tell stories for a variety of reasons, to a variety of audiences, with a variety of effects with particular interests, motives, and purposes (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). Then, a good story in a specific situation and with specific goal, may be regarded as a bad and non-productive story in another situation. HRD practitioners, in searching, sorting, shaping, showing and sharing stories, must consider the each specific context and purpose. The second point is that, they should be careful about the dark side of stories and storytelling in the organization. This point, points out the moral and ethical responsibility of HRD practitioners towards their employees.

Conclusion Although Storytelling is an old-fashioned tool, but that’s exactly what makes it so powerful (Monarth, 2014). The notion that stories are just for kids, would be a simplistic idea. Stories are not for children, they belong to human. Humans are storytelling animals (Corvellec, 2015). Narratives and stories are working all the time in the all levels of social and private life. People and organizations make sense of the world via narratives and stories (Boje, 2008, p. 5). Then, in today's world of organizations, the presence of stories and storytelling in organizations is undeniable. Storytelling is both an art and a science (Snowden, 2000). HRD activities should promote motivation, learning, performance, change ability (Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999), knowledge, skills and competencies (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). The findings from the literature review in this research, confirmed our idea that storytelling is effective for HRD practitioners. So, they must improve their storytelling knowledge and skills. Stories can be a source of inspiration, motivation, and learning. We claim that HRD practitioners can and maybe should use this kind of


20

stories in their organizations. We believe they can challenge competencies and capabilities of employee in organization by telling stories. They can create willingness and tendency in people to move them toward improving their skills, knowledge and competencies and cope with problems and difficulties in this way. We think storytelling can be seen as an effective organic tool in creating of “development thirst”. For example, hearing success stories of others, despite their difficulties and limitations, creates a sense in listeners and readers which motivate them to rethink and reflect about their skills, knowledge, and competencies. So, they assess their level of development and probably take steps to improve it. According to Brain Boyd, storytelling is a kind of “cognitive play” (Austen, 2014). HRD practitioners can start a cognitive play in organization member’s minds in order to challenge their development level. For example, if HRD practitioners tend to engage employees in HRD programs, or would like to inspire and motivate them to improve their competencies, storytelling is one of the powerful tools in fulfilling these goals (Harris & Barnes, 2006). In conclusion, although this research supports effectiveness of storytelling in organizations, but maybe our claims and propositions in this paper, must be tested empirically in some future studies. In such a way, the story of storytelling in HRD will continue …

Appendix Table A. Extracted themes from the selected papers.

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Gephart Jr (1991) To understand organizational change management 1

Boje (1991)

Creating change 2 Make sense of events 3 Connecting individual memories to institutional memory 4 Gaining political advantage 5 Introducing change 6

Vance (1991) Effective learning 7 Facilitating change 8 Contributing to organizational performance 9

Rentz (1992)

To use the past to explain the present 10

Anticipating the future 11

Capturing attention 12

Keeping precise record of events 13

Enabling the company to be more responsive 14

Lerner (1992) Sharing knowledge 15 Hansen &

Kahnweiler (1993) Conveying organization’s interpersonal norms 16 Understanding the dynamics of corporate relationships 17

Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994)

As a interview tool 18 Knowing certain organizational beliefs and expectations 19 Understanding culture 20

Boje (1994) Organizational learning tool 21 Research tool 22

Ewick & Silbey (1995)

To re-veal truth 23 Unsettling power 24 Reflecting the cultural features of the context 25 Reflecting the structural features of the context 26 Providing openings for creativity and invention 27


21

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Reshaping the social world 28

Boje (1995)

As a tool in theorizing phenomena like organization 29 Revealing the marginalized voices 30 Showing dark side of organizations 31 Liberating organization people 32

Phillips (1995) As a tool for Teaching and study management 33 As a source of data 34 A resource in embellishing papers and presentations 35

Boyce (1996)

Expressing the organizational experience of members or clients 36

Confirming the shared experiences and shared meaning 37

Orienting and socializing new organizational members 38

Amending and altering the organizational reality 39

Developing, sharpening and renewing the sense of purpose held by organizational members

40

Preparing a group (or groups) for planning 41 Implementing plans and decision making 42 Co-creating vision and strategy 43 Reinforcing control 44 Manipulating meaning 45

Barry (1997) Facilitating organizational change efforts 46

Morgan & Dennehy (1997)

Training managers 47 A tool for interpreting behaviors 48 Understanding the organization’s culture 49 Capturing emotion 50

Barry & Elmes (1997)

Conceptualizing strategic management 51 Highlighting the discursive, social nature of the strategy project 52 Linking strategy to cultural and historical contexts 53

Faber (1998) Making organization’s identity 54 Creating change 55

Sole & Wilson (1999)

Sharing experiences 56 Building trust 57 Cultivating norms 58 Facilitating unlearning 59 Generating emotional connections 60 Sharing knowledge 61

McKenna (1999) Identifying the gap between what an organization say and what do 62 understanding managerial complexity and paradox 63 As a methodology 64

Lloyd (2000) As a mechanism in the development of a common language 65 As a useful indicator of good design 66 Aiding people to construction of social agreements 67

Hannabuss (2000) Eliciting tacit knowledge 68

Swap, Leonard, Shields & Abrams

(2001)

Leveraging of the knowledge of an organization 69 To build core capabilities of an organization 70 Building critical skills of employees 71 Building norms and values 72


22

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Carrying knowledge 73

Smith & Keyton (2001)

Informing employees about organizational cultures 74 As an internal control device 75 Illuminating underlying issues about organizational relationships and power distribution

76

Gold & Holman (2001)

As a teaching tool 77 Mediating the process of learning and action 78 Facilitating reflection 79 Enabling managers to address and solve a problem of their choice 80 Promoting self-awareness 81 Understanding of others 82 Promoting self-development 83

Humphreys & Brown (2002)

Encompassing Identity, both individual and collective 84 Make scenes of word 85 Reading meaning of life 86

Bradshaw (2002) Creating a vision of the future 87 Giving people a sense of direction, shared memories, and a definition of community

88

Abma (2003) As a source for social negotiations and conversations 89

As a learning tool 90 Fostering organizational learning 91

Denning (2004) Designing change 92 Refocusing the organization’s culture 93

Alkon (2004) Informing the identities of individuals and groups 94 Shaping people’s perceptions of the circumstances in which their actions take place

95

Kirsch (2004)

Creating a shared understanding of organizational change 96

Recording the lessons learned 97 Communicating the experiences 98

Knowledge creating 99

DeLarge (2004)

Refining strategy 100 Building cultural awareness 101 Promoting teamwork 102 Conveying lessons learned 103 Strengthening communications 104 Enhancement of design practices and relationships with clients 105

Küpers (2005)

Transferring of implicit knowledge 106

Access, stimulate and re-arrange pre-existing implicit knowledge 107

Conveying a lot of non-explicit information 108

Conveying emotional knowledge and meta-knowledge 109

Communicating complex multi-dimensioned ideas 110

Carreiro (2005) A location of organizational control 111 Reinforcing the distribution of power in organization 112

Fonnesbaek & Andersen (2005)

Increasing the perceived value of the product for buyers 113

Making product more attractive 114


23

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Injecting emotional value about products 115 Increasing the size of company’s target group 116

Boudens (2005)

Examining the experience of emotion in organizations 117 As a data collection method 118 Identifying sequences of emotion 119 Connecting emotion to events 120

Soin & Scheytt (2006)

Developing our understanding in cross-cultural research 121 As a methodology 122

Denning (2006) A tool to achieve business purposes 123 Making listeners familiar and comfortable with the future 124

Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven & Kroupa (2006)

Inserting meaning into memory 125 Understanding strategy in personal level 126 Crystallizing common values and beliefs 127 Building stronger teams 128 Building stronger sense of community 129 Creating a context for work aspirations 130 Making employee feel more valued 131 Making company happier 132

Harris & Barnes (2006)

Communicating important messages in a memorable way 133

Creating inspirational culture in organizations 134

Developing effective relationships between leader and followers 135

Bhardwaj & Monin (2006)

To visible tacit dimension of knowledge 136

Sax (2006) Organizing vast and confusing amounts of information 137 Consecrating principles and rules 138 Organizing experience 139

Grisham (2006) Building trust 140 Demonstrating empathy 141 Communicating more effectively 142

Benjamin (2006) As a tool for defining, securing and shaping people’s existence 143 Ensuring one’s survival in today’s continually changing global environment

144

Driscoll & McKee (2007)

Transferring organizational culture to members 145 Connecting members to a larger community and a higher purpose 146

Helping leaders to communicate 147 Building a community 148 Influencing ethical thinking, attitudes, and behavior 149 Altering the values of followers 150

Heil & Whittaker (2007)

Shaping peoples thinking and actions 151 Helping participants develop situated skills 152 As a tool in strategic management 153

Marzec (2007)

Building and understanding relevance business decisions 154 Helping employees appreciate the customers they serve 155 Helping employees 156 Realizing the business strategy 157


24

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code

Boal & Schultz (2007)

Shaping the evolution of agent interactions 158 Constructing the shared meanings 159 Coalescing the past, the present, and the future of the organization 160 Fostering organizational learning adaptation 161 Achieving innovation 162 Achieving Change 163

Klein, Connell & Meyer (2007)

Changing client knowledge 164 Persuading clients 165

Loseke (2007) Creating identity at all levels of human social life 166

Horsley (2007) Challenging negative stereotypes and assumptions 167

A tool in exploring conflict and diversity 168 A vehicle to raise the women’s self-confidence 169

Hyde (2008)

Conveying meaning and emotion into organizational life 170

Illuminating and obscuring, drawing attention towards certain matters and away from others

171

Drawing attention to aspects of organizational life 172

Denning (2008) Stimulating desire for change 173 Inspiring people enthusiasm for change 174

Tobin & Snyman (2008)

Sharing knowledge 175

Lapp and Carr (2008)

As a form of seduction based on emotional response 176 Preventing a change process 177

Ellis & Hibbert (2008)

As data source 178 As a research method 179 Understanding collaboration 180

McCarthy (2008)

Conveying values and complex messages 181 Carrying messages and meaning 182 Fostering identity awareness 183 Fostering commitment 184

Middleton (2009) Studying and understanding corporate reputations 185 Syrjälä, Takala & Sintonen (2009)

Mediating and reflecting People’s feelings and experiences 186

Geiger & Antonacopoulou

(2009)

Constructing a self-sustaining frame of reference 187

Preventing the organization from questioning the principles underlying its past success

188

Influencing and constructing organizational dynamics 189

Creating self-reinforcing mechanisms 190

Blinding spots: selective/competitor perception 191

Limiting the organization’s ability to “see” new perspectives or “listen” to other voices

192

Limiting the capacity of organizations to engage in fundamental change 193

Sense making tool 194

Understanding the gendered situation 195


25

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Rindfleish,

Sheridan & Kjeldal (2009)

Understanding perceptions of inequity 196

Creating real cultural change 197

Merchant, Ford & Sargeant (2010)

Influencing and attracting emotions and intentions 198 An effective tool for attracting donations 199

Garcia-Lorenzo (2010)

To transmit and/or challenge existing collective knowledge 200 To cope with change 201

Sense-making 202 Transmission of experience 203 To re-create and re-enact reality 204 To cope with ambiguity and uncertainty 205

Fenton & Langley (2010)

Contributing to a better understanding of strategy as practice 206

Carriger (2010) Making strategy persuasive and memorable 207 To inspire followers to achieve business goals 208 Linking actions in a causal sequence to business outcomes 209

McKenna (2010) Shaping Managers’ identities about what a manager should “be’’ 210 Herskovitz & Crystal (2010)

To successful branding 211

Kostera & Obło´j (2010)

Managing change 212

Zeelen, Wijbenga, Vintges & de Jong

(2010) As a form of informal education 213

Volker, Phillips & Anderson (2011)

To avoid mistakes in cultural description 214

Mittins, Abratt & Christie (2011)

Influencing the firm’s identity 215 Influencing corporate brand 216 Influencing reputation 217 A form of internal organizational communication 218 An important source of information for management 219 To communicate the mission, values and strategic intent of the firm 220

Hansen (2011)

Making sense of organizational context 221 Guiding action and decision making 222 Revealing the team’s collective understanding 223 Helping create the organizational culture and strategy 224 Coordinating team members 225 Empowering people to act intelligently 226 Improving Improvisation: flexible, fast, proactive 227 Enables change 228

Carriger (2011)

As an effective tool for creating, disseminating and executing corporate strategy

229

To access emotion 230

Conveying complex ideas 231

Herrmann (2011) Developing Organizational and individual identity 232


26

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code As an organizing principle 233 As communication tool 234 As a organizing process 235 As a sense making process 236

Carr and Ann (2011)

As tools used in coaching for leadership development 237

Boje & Baskin (2011)

Encouraging enchantment or disenchantment within the organization 238

Powell (2011) As a key resource for recruiting members 239 Sustaining members participation 240

Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges (2011)

To capture, organize, and share organizational knowledge 241

Identifying innovation factors in organization 242

Kopp, Nikolovska, Desiderio &

Guterman (2011)

A communications tool 243

To reduce the stress and anxiety of organizational members during a crisis 244

Leveraging human capital pre-during, and post-crises 245

Ohara & Cherniss (2012)

To foster a deeper understanding of the company culture 246 To unite employees across the organization 247 To help launch a new business strategy 248 To help launch a new brand identity 249

Maclean, Harvey & Chia (2012)

As a vehicle for self-legitimization and (re)framing leaders success 250

Justifying leaders position to themselves and others 251

An effective vehicle for legitimacy-claiming 252

Whyte & Classen (2012)

Eliciting tacit knowledge 253

Simpson (2012) Understanding change and complexity 254 Conceptualizing change management 255

Corvellec & Hultman (2012)

Ordering new activities, or new ways to organize old activities 256

Geiger & Schreyögg (2012)

To sharing knowledge 257

Pulizzi (2012)

To attract and retain customers 258

Chen (2012)

Promoting consideration of agency and meaning-making 259

As a tool for combating disenchantment 260

Infusing organizational rationality 261

Charismatizing the routine 262

Inspiring listeners to imagine possibilities not covered by rules or conventions

263

Staving off bureaucratic ritualism 264

Clarifying the boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate activities

265

Encouraging a range of actions over coercive restrictions 266

A tool for Adult Learning 267


27

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Caminotti & Gray

(2012) To communicate and implement knowledge and wisdom 268

Wijetunge (2012) As a method of tacit-knowledge transfer management tool 269 Capturing knowledge 270

Bowman, MacKay, Masrani &

McKiernan (2013)

Conceptualizing Scenario planning 271

AS a conceptual lens for analyzing data 272

Auvinen, Lämsä, Sintonen & Takala

(2013) As a manipulation tool 273

Chen (2013)

Familiarizing organizations with members’ perspectives and interests 274

As a mechanism for demanding accountability 275

As a tool for recognition and voice 276

Facilitating organizational learning 277

Robinson (2013) Making people become critical and reflective thinkers 278 To develop or refine a professional identity 279 To transform people assumptions about knowledge 280

Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist (2013)

To evoke leadership 281 To Motivate 282 As a tool in inspiration 283 Defusing conflict 284 Influencing superiors 285 Discovering a focus 286 Constructing trust 287

Carriger (2013) As a tool for limiting the negative behavior 288 A means for a leader communication 289

BoUrdaa (2013) To engage people in productions 290

Pässilä, Oikarinen and Kallio (2013)

To create dialogue 291

Shifting problem in a positive way 292

Kuran (2013) To leading people 293 Boston (2103) To teaching and learning 294

Hauff, Carlander, Gamble, Gärling &

Holmen (2014) Purchasing intention 295

Baker (2014) To bring more meaning, focus and productivity on work and workplace 296

To engage and align employees around strategic planning efforts 297

Creed, DeJordy & Lok (2014)

Shaping people identities 298

Informing practices and choices 299

Animating people capacity for action 300

Providing a basis for agency for organizational change 301

Lee & Shin (2014) To engage customers 302 To achieve customers loyalty 303


28

Source Storytelling has a role/contribution … Code Landau, Drori & Terjesen (2014)

As a part of internal contestation over legitimation of change 304

Adorisio (2014)

To deal with the possibilities of organizing the selection and interpretation of the past

305

Connecting meaning and events across different times 306

Shaping organizational memory 307

Rowlinson, Casey, Hansen & Mills

(2014)

To remember 308

Making organizational memory 309

Creating new knowledge 310

Consigning other knowledge to oblivion 311

Gill (2014)

Improving employee engagement and internal loyalty to the corporate brand

312

Strengthening internal and external corporate reputation 313

Adding value to corporate social responsibility (CSR) 314

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