Strategy Retold: Toward a Narrative View of Strategic Discourse

Using narrative theory, this article explores strategic management as a form of fiction. After introducing several key narrative concepts, we discuss the challenges strategists have faced in making strategic discourse both credible and novel and consider how strategic narratives may change within the "virtual" organization of the future. We also provide a number of narrativist-oriented research questions and methodological suggestions.

[1]  T. Pollock,et al.  A Grammar of Motives. , 1945 .

[2]  Joseph Campbell,et al.  The Hero with a Thousand Faces , 1949 .

[3]  M. Mcnamee,et al.  A Rhetoric of Motives , 1951 .

[4]  Robert Scholes,et al.  The Nature of Narrative , 1966 .

[5]  Lee T. Lemon,et al.  Russian formalist criticism : four essays , 1968 .

[6]  G. Steiner,et al.  Top Management Planning , 1969 .

[7]  K. Weick The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[8]  Raymond Radosevich,et al.  Does planning pay? The effect of planning on success of acquisitions in American firms , 1970 .

[9]  Robert J. House,et al.  Where long-range planning pays off Findings of a survey of formal, informal planners , 1970 .

[10]  René Wellek Russian Formalism , 1971 .

[11]  David M. Herold,et al.  Long-Range Planning And Organizational Performance: A Cross-Valuation Study , 1972 .

[12]  Krystyna Pomorska,et al.  Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views , 1973 .

[13]  J. L. Bower,et al.  Business policy: text and cases , 1973 .

[14]  Aaron Wildavsky,et al.  If planning is everything, maybe it's nothing , 1973 .

[15]  M. Bakhtin Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics , 1973 .

[16]  B. E. Partridge,et al.  The Nature of Managerial Work , 1974 .

[17]  Delmar W. Karger,et al.  Long range planning and organizational performance , 1975 .

[18]  D. Norburn,et al.  Planning for Existing Markets: Perceptions of Executives and Financial Performance , 1975 .

[19]  Jacques Sarrazin,et al.  Decentralized Planning in a Large French Company: An Interpretive Study , 1977 .

[20]  Charles W. Hofer,et al.  Strategy formulation : analytical concepts , 1978 .

[21]  S. Chatman,et al.  Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film , 1979 .

[22]  G. Genette,et al.  Narrative Discourse Revisited , 1979 .

[23]  Robert Scholes,et al.  Language, Narrative, and Anti-Narrative , 1980, Critical Inquiry.

[24]  G. Genette,et al.  Narrative Discourse, an Essay in Method. , 1980 .

[25]  J. McCann Strategies for Change: Logical Incrementalism , 1980 .

[26]  S. Chatman Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film , 1980 .

[27]  M. Bakhtin,et al.  The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays , 1981 .

[28]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Tracking Strategy in an Entrepreneurial Firm1 , 1982 .

[29]  Fredric Jameson,et al.  The Political Unconscious. Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. , 1982 .

[30]  P. Hirsch,et al.  Ambushes, Shootouts, and Knights of the Roundtable: The Language of Corporate Takeovers , 1983 .

[31]  S. Barley Semiotics and the Study of Occupational and Organizational Cultures. , 1983 .

[32]  Robert A. Burgelman A Process Model of Internal Corporate Venturing in the Diversified Major Firm , 1983 .

[33]  Caryl Emerson,et al.  The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. , 1983 .

[34]  Rosabeth Moss Kanter,et al.  The Change Masters: Innovations for Productivity in the American Corporation , 1983 .

[35]  Danny Miller,et al.  The neurotic organization , 1984 .

[36]  S. Dakin,et al.  Management and Magic , 1984 .

[37]  W. Riggan,et al.  The Rhetoric of Fiction , 1984 .

[38]  Caryl Emerson,et al.  Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics , 1985 .

[39]  L. Smircich,et al.  Strategic Management in an Enacted World , 1985 .

[40]  Tom Fookes,et al.  New Books and Publications: What Happens to Innovative Thinking in Planning Offices? The Change Masters: Innovation for Productivity in the American Corporation, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983 , 1985 .

[41]  Alice R. Kaminsky The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act , 1985 .

[42]  Wallace Martin,et al.  Recent Theories of Narrative , 1986 .

[43]  J. Alexander,et al.  Images of Organization , 1988 .

[44]  David K. Hurst Why strategic management is bankrupt , 1986 .

[45]  Henry Mintzberg The Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy , 1987 .

[46]  Henry Mintzberg The Strategy Concept II: Another Look at Why Organizations Need Strategies , 1987 .

[47]  R C Coile,et al.  Visionary leadership. , 1988, The Healthcare Forum journal.

[48]  Ricardo Semler,et al.  MAVERICK: THE SUCCESS STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST UNUSUAL WORKPLACE , 1988 .

[49]  D. Polkinghorne Narrative knowing and the human sciences , 1988 .

[50]  W. Iser,et al.  Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology , 1989 .

[51]  David Jones,et al.  Corporate strategy , 1989, Nature.

[52]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Tracking Strategy in an Entrepreneurial Firm , 1990 .

[53]  S. Clegg Modern Organizations: Organization Studies in the Postmodern World , 1990 .

[54]  W. Olins,et al.  Corporate Identity: Making Business Strategy Visible Through Design , 1990 .

[55]  Tim Smithin,et al.  Mapping Strategic Thought , 1991 .

[56]  Jack Ingram,et al.  Corporate identity: making business strategy visible through design , 1991 .

[57]  D. Boje The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. , 1991 .

[58]  J. Porras,et al.  Organizational Vision and Visionary Organizations , 1991 .

[59]  Body and soul : profits with principles, the amazing success story of Anita Roddick & the Body Shop , 1991 .

[60]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  Upgrading New Zealand's Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[61]  David Barry,et al.  Managing the bossless team: Lessons in distributed leadership , 1991 .

[62]  J. E. Post The Twilight of Corporate Strategy: A Comparative Ethical Critique , 1992 .

[63]  J. B. Quinn,et al.  Intelligent Enterprise: A Knowledge and Service Based Paradigm for Industry , 1992 .

[64]  Ming-Jer Chen,et al.  Nonresponse and Delayed Response to Competitive Moves: The Roles of Competitor Dependence and Action Irreversibility , 1992 .

[65]  Richard Shusterman,et al.  The Interpretive Turn: Philosophy, Science, Culture , 1992 .

[66]  M. Elmes,et al.  Mystification and Social Drama: The Hidden Side of Communication Skills Training , 1992 .

[67]  L. Smircich,et al.  Afterward/After Words: Open(ing?) Spaces , 1992 .

[68]  Linda L. Putnam,et al.  The Politics of Emotion: A Feminist Reading of Bounded Rationality , 1992 .

[69]  THEORY DEVELOPMENT FORUM: NEW INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT THEORY. , 1992 .

[70]  Mary Ann Hazen,et al.  Towards Polyphonic Organization , 1993 .

[71]  Gustavo Stubrich The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , 1993 .

[72]  Julian Rappaport,et al.  Narrative Studies, Personal Stories, and Identity Transformation in the Mutual Help Context , 1993 .

[73]  M. Bowles The Gods and Goddesses: Personifying Social Life in the Age of Organization , 1993 .

[74]  H. Igor Ansoff,et al.  Optimizing profitability in turbulent environments: A formula for strategic success , 1993 .

[75]  M. Hazen Multiplicity and Change in Persons and Organizations , 1994 .

[76]  Paul Jeffcutt,et al.  THE INTERPRETATION OF ORGANIZATION: A CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE* , 1994 .

[77]  Emery Roe,et al.  Narrative policy analysis , 1994 .

[78]  Barbara Austin,et al.  The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning , 1994 .

[79]  D. Barry MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE: USING ANALOGICALLY-BASED-METHODS TO SURFACE THE ORGANIZATIONAL UNCONSCIOUS. , 1994 .

[80]  J. Dutton,et al.  Advances in strategic management , 1994 .

[81]  Shaping the external environment: A study of small business influences on public policy , 1995 .

[82]  C. Casey,et al.  Work, Self and Society: After Industrialism , 1995 .

[83]  David M. Boje,et al.  STORIES OF THE STORYTELLING ORGANIZATION: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS OF DISNEY AS "TAMARA-LAND" , 1995 .

[84]  J. March The Future, Disposable Organizations and the Rigidities of Imagination , 1995 .

[85]  R. H. Waterman,et al.  In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-run Companies , 1995 .

[86]  In the Future: Transacting with Strangers and Not-So-Strange Machines , 1995 .

[87]  Global Organization: From Imperialism to Ethical Vision , 1995 .

[88]  Ellen S. O’Connor Paradoxes of Participation: Textual Analysis and Organizational Change , 1995 .

[89]  K. Weick FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[90]  T. Watson,et al.  In Search of Management: Culture, Chaos and Control in Managerial Work , 1996 .

[91]  Charles Lester,et al.  Narrative Policy Analysis: Theory and Practice . By Emery Roe. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994. 199p. $39.95 cloth, $15.95 paper. , 1996, American Political Science Review.

[92]  D. Barry Artful Inquiry: A Symbolic Constructivist Approach to Social Science Research , 1996 .

[93]  Robert P. Gephart,et al.  Postmodern Management and Organization Theory , 1996 .

[94]  D. McAdams The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self , 1997 .

[95]  Barbara Czarniawska Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity , 1997 .