Managerial issues amenable to storytelling in organizations.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Stories are an effective and alternative basis for communication, which connect employees with one another, render their experience meaningful, and make characters come alive. This study aimed to understand the application of stories in business. It looked at business situations that are amenable to storytelling, categorizing these situations, determining if there are differences between South African and international managers and analysing the changes of the applications over a number of years. The literature review explored different themes in the application of stories and their impact on diverse aspects of the organization. Corporate culture, organizational change, knowledge management, brand management, leadership, transformation and HIV/AIDS were themes that stood out. A qualitative research paradigm was used for the study; it involved interpreting existing applications, analysing key themes and arriving at an assessment of what the findings meant in relation to appropriate knowledge. The population was the total number of MBA students who enrolled for the „Every leader a storyteller‟ elective over the period 2007 to 2013. The census comprised 202 assignments/manuscripts written by practicing managers. Findings showed that managers believe that several situations exist that are amenable to storytelling in organizations. The majority of these situations were categorized according to themes in the literature review. The financial crisis and transformation were more prominent in the international and South African pool of managers, respectively. An interesting observation was the absence of HIV/AIDS and labour unrest/strikes applications within the international context. A pattern of peaks and downturns was detected over the years under review and one of the recommendations was to study reasons for these changes over time. It was also recommended that South African managers use the application of stories in addressing other issues that are specific to their context