Organizational Storytelling Translated to Successful Business

In 2007, two friends decided to establish a new IT company, but not just another software company – a phrase that later became one of their slogans. The Finnish IT company called Vincit has turned out to be a success story both financially and in terms of personnel and customer satisfaction. The company is known for its skillful use of media as a deliverer of their company story. This paper examines organizational storytelling through media. The empirical data was gathered between 2012 and 2019, and it is analyzed using narrative analysis focusing on the types of stories told and how they are narrated.

The role of storytelling in a nonhostile takeover

PurposeWhy did a powerful department of hospital doctors support a merger with a rival hospital that they knew would ruin their beloved workplace?Design/methodology/approachThis ethnographic study draws on 12 months of fieldwork consisting of 24 one-on-one interviews as well as 26 h of observations, informal conversations and archival records research to answer its research question. Grounded theory and the discourse analysis were employed to analyze all data.FindingsData reveal how participants' belief in a “merge or go bankrupt” narrative contributed to widespread support for a merger that seemed unthinkable on the surface. Although each doctor believes the merger will jeopardize or ruin their workplace culture, none resisted the merger nor did any ask hospital executives to provide evidence in support of their claims regarding the benefits of the merger (namely, that it would save their organization from inevitable bankruptcy).Research limitations/implicationsThe author relied on a family relative to introduce the author to and gain entry into this workplace. One potential consequence is biased interpretations of data. To address this, the author constantly revisited the data and compared the author’s interpretations with interviewees' words (i.e. “grounded” theory).Originality/valueThis study provides empirical and theoretical contributions to organizational storytelling scholarship.

The impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance within Jordanian telecommunication sector

Purpose This study aims to assess the impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance by undertaking telecommunication companies located in the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative design has been adopted to identify the impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance, recruiting 460 employees at managerial levels from three telecom companies (Umniah, Zain and Orange). A step-wise regression analysis has been applied to analyze the data collected using a close-ended structured questionnaire. Findings A total of 284 male and 176 female employees took part in the study. The study has found a positive and significant impact of organizational learning, change management, corporate culture, training and development and leadership and indicated that these determinants positively related to organizational performance. Findings showed a positive and significant impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance based on its components. Practical implications This study has contributed to identifying the impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance in the telecommunication sector in Jordan. Originality/value This study is among the few to analyses the impact of organizational storytelling based on training and development, change management, corporate culture, organizational learning and development and leadership on the organizational performance of telecom companies in Jordan.

Spinning Stories: Communicating Internationalization Through Organizational Storytelling

Despite the positive outcomes often associated with internationalization, internal stakeholders do not always welcome the changes it brings. This reaction is echoed in the numerous studies highlighting the problematic relationships between international and local students and the critical to resistant reactions among faculty members. In response to these challenges, this study explores organizational storytelling as a method for communicating internationalization within universities. Organizational storytelling has been found to be a powerful tool for sensemaking, reducing resistance, and generating support during organizational change processes. This study follows how a university taskforce employed three story templates—the Principle Story, the Approval Story, and the Unexceptional Story—to communicate about and implement a large-scale internationalization project in a diverse and change resistant university environment. Although sharing similarities, these storylines were given different “spins” by storytellers depending on their position and the intended audience as well as influenced by the university culture.

Imprese e storytelling

Telling one’s identity is a strategy on which public and private companies have begun to invest for a long time. If storytelling has always been understood as a means of interpreting and transmitting the corporate values, we are now moving to storytelling intended as a tool for realizing the identity of the company itself, and this identity is read as a fluid narrative that develops through the stories of its employees and stakeholders. Besides, storytelling is the oldest form of communication between individuals, and it can date back to the origin of our social life: humanity has always made meaning through narration. This paper, starting from theoretical studies on storytelling and the narrative thinking, investigates some samples of organizational storytelling in order to understand what are the advantages of a narrative approach over the reality of those who do business.

Telling a success story through the president’s letter

Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of storytelling and impression management (IM) through the president’s letter in legitimizing the practices of an electricity company with regard to controversial issues during a period of change. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a qualitative case study, this paper examines annual report letters from 1995 to 2013 using a methodological interpretative approach. Findings By promoting a success story using IM, the presidents give sense to particular actions related with controversial issues and attempt to influence expectations on strategic changes. The findings demonstrate that organizational actors use the flexibility of the president’s letter to tell the story and emphasize its self-laudatory nature. The study highlights that storytelling in these documents can be used to alleviate the tensions created by the inherent contradictions of social structures. Practical implications This research is useful for regulatory authorities, users of annual reports and academic researchers, making them attentive of the narratives companies may adopt to protect their legitimacy. The findings shed light on the need to evaluate the credibility of accountability mechanisms and can help stakeholders to develop a more critical view of the president’s letter. Originality/value This paper makes a contribution to research on communication issues by expanding literature on accounting and organizational storytelling. By demonstrating how presidents use sensegiving as a means of legitimacy-claiming, this study adds to the literature on legitimating accounts. In doing so, this paper bridges the gap between theories about organizational legitimacy, storytelling and IM. To sum up, the findings serve as an incremental step toward understanding the nature of accountability reporting.