secondary-research group 14

8/19/2019 Secondary-Research GROUP 14

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Group No. : 14 RP-1 Date: 18th January 2016

SECONDARY RESEARCH

REPORT

ON

The Pervasiveness of Stories

and

Narratives in Organization Life

Submitted !"

#RO$P NO % &'

Su!ash (ain)C*&+,

Yash -anga.)C*/0,

Shubham

Neema)C*/+,


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The self is a fundamental concept in psychological theory, holding a central position in

psychoanalytic (Kohut, 1977) and humanistic (Rogers, 1959) theories. Sinha(!!9) argues

that the centrality of "or# in people$s life may differ, %ased on the different functions that

&"or#$ may ser'e for them, ho"e'er, the influence of $"or#$ on $self(and 'ice 'ersa) can hardly

%e o'eremphasied. She says $meaning of "or#$ lead to discussions around $identity$ and

separating the t"o can cause serious gaps in understanding. The selfconcept has traditionally

%een structured as a su%stance or thing that is, its meaning has %een deri'ed from a

categorical structure (*andler, 19+).-rites (19+) supported the notion that the selfconceptre/uires a narrati'e structure. 0e "rote 2The self is a #ind of aesthetic construct, recollected

in and "ith the life of e3perience in narrati'e fashion2. -rites held that the selfconcept

consists of a narrati'ely structured recollected self, and he understood that the more complete

the story, the more integrated the self. Self#no"ledge is an appropriation of the past. 4hen

this appropriation is not recollecti'e, integrati'e, and selfdisco'ering, then the person

e3periences un happiness or a form of despair.n recent years, reformers of %oth pri'ate and

pu%lic institutions ha'e preached that fle3i%le, glo%al corporations pro'ide a model of

freedom for indi'iduals, unli#e the e3perience of fi3ed %ureaucracies *a3 4e%er once called

an 6iron cage. Sennett argues that, in %anishing old ills, the ne"economy model has created

ne" social and emotional traumas. 8nly a certain #ind of human %eing can prosper in

unsta%le, fragmentary institutions the culture of the ne" capitalism demands an ideal self

oriented to the short term, focused on potential a%ility rather than accomplishment, "illing to

discount or a%andon past e3perience. ut narrati'es present a different case .:arrati'e is first

and foremost a prodigious 'ariety of genres, themsel'es distri%uted amongst different

su%stances ; as though any material "ere fit to recei'e man$s stories.


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ne"s item, con'ersation. *oreo'er, under this almost infinite di'ersity of forms, narrati'e is

present in e'ery age, in e'ery place, in e'ery society= it %egins "ith the 'ery history of

man#ind and there no"here is nor has %een a people "ithout narrati'e (arthes,

1977).:arrati'e refers to any "ay of representing a series of e'ents as a se/uence that mo'es

from a point of %eginning to a finishing point. These e'ents can %e real or imagined, and they

can pertain to anything that the author has in mind (-or'ellec, !1). There is a common

narrati'e pattern that underlies and configures people$s temporally structured selfconcept.

There are, ho"e'er, differences in the plot lines used %y indi'iduals to organie their life

e'ents into a temporal unity. >lot lines used in the construction of selfnarrati'es are not

usually created from scratch. *ost often they are adaptations of plots from the literary and

oral stories produced %y one$s culture (0orne, 1991). The gro"ing returns of narrati'eanthropology, en/uiry, and politics ha'e prompted a 'i'id interest among organiational

practitioners, scholars and students for narrati'es from, in, a%out, around, and for

organiations. The gro"ing returns of narrati'e anthropology, en/uiry, and politics ha'e

prompted a 'i'id interest among organiational practitioners, scholars and students for

narrati'es from, in, a%out, around, and for organiations (-or'ellec, !1).8ur e3perience and

memories include a 'ast aggregation of narrati'ely structured episodes and stories. :arrati'e

structure is used to ma#e meaningful the actions of friends and ac/uaintances, pu%lic

indi'iduals and groups, and go'ernments and institutions. t is also used to interpret and gi'e

coherence to past episodes in our o"n li'es and to configure future acti'ities that "e e3pect to

lead to desired outcomes. n addition, narrati'e is used to gi'e form and meaning to our li'es

as a "hole (0orne, 1991).

0orne (1991) argues that e3periences result from interaction of cogniti'e organiing process

"ith cues from e3ternal perpetual senses, internal %odily sensation and cogniti'e memories.

-onsciousness gi'e meaning to this cues %y identifying as a part of structure. :arrati'e is one

of the cogniti'e process that gi'es meaning to temporal e'ents %y identifying them as parts of

a plot. The narrati'e structure is used to organie e'ents into 'arious #inds of stories= for

e3ample, the stories or histories of nations, %iographical or auto%iographical stories of


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indi'iduals, and imaginati'e or fictional stories in the form of no'els and fairy tales. n

addition to these pu%lic stories, indi'iduals construct pri'ate and personal stories lin#ing

di'erse e'ents of their li'es into unified and understanda%le "holes. These are stories a%out

the self. They are the %asis of personal identity and selfunderstanding and they pro'ide

ans"ers to the /uestion 24ho am ?2 These narrati'e representations or concepts of our sel'es

share "ith other #inds of stories the narrati'e structure= they differ, ho"e'er, in the unfinished

nature of their plots and in the personal nature of the e'ents a'aila%le for inclusion in the

story. Stories are narrati'es that operate as a schematic structuring of temporal e'ents.

*andler (19+) "rote that 2stories ha'e an underlying, or %ase, structure that remains

relati'ely in'ariant in spite of gross differences in content from story to story2 (p. ). The

structure consists of a num%er of ordered constituents. The story se/uence %egins "ith asetting in "hich the narrator introduces the characters, the location, and the time in "hich the

story ta#es place.@nderstanding one$s self as a su%stance, consisting of a list of properties,

fails to e3press the unfolding and storied nature of human e3istence. Aie"ing one$s self as a

narrati'e, in "hich Bife e'ents are configured and made meaningful %y personal plots or story

lines, emphasies the constructi'e and interpretati'e nature of the self. 4hen the self is

'ie"ed in terms of narrati'e, the e3perience of angst and despair is understood to %e

symptomatic of the fact that one$s personal plot can no longer hold together one$s life e'ents

nor produce a unified and integrated e3perience of self.

secondary-research group 14

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