A LITERATURE REVIEW OF STORYTELLING IN ORGANISATIONS

Abstract

The purpose of this research report was to offer a literature review of research concerned with storytelling in organisations published from 1990 to 2006. The review was not exhaustive, but attempted, nevertheless to be sufficiently comprehensive in order to identify key areas of research in the discipline of storytelling in organisations. In the summary the weightings of the literary genres surveyed for the purpose of this report are indicated as follows: published books (12%), interviews (1%), academic journal articles (63%), papers delivered at symposiums (1%), popular business articles (21%) and unpublished dissertations (2%). The main finding of this research was that extant research tended to focus on three key areas within the discipline: a) Storytelling Applications in Organisations, b) Storytelling as Research Methodology, c) Story Skills. The weighting of combined genres focusing on the three key areas identified within the discipline were found to be “Storytelling Applications in Organisations” at 53%, “Story Skills” at 37% and “Storytelling as Research Methodology” at 10%. Given that the weighting within the readings were dominated in percentage by the primary categories – “Storytelling Applications in Organisations” and “Story Skills”, these two primary categories were further deconstructed. No sub-categories could be derived from the categories “Change Management”, “Power and Politics” and the primary category “Storytelling as Research Methodology