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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 August 2021

Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Anete Mikkala Camille Strand, Julia Hayden, Mogens Sparre and Jens Larsen

In accordance with Latour, this paper aims to respond to the call for a “down-to-earth” post-learning organization approach to sustainability, which is critical of Senge’s…

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Abstract

Purpose

In accordance with Latour, this paper aims to respond to the call for a “down-to-earth” post-learning organization approach to sustainability, which is critical of Senge’s conception of learning organization (LO).

Design/methodology/approach

“Gaia storytelling” is used to define a LO that is “down-to-earth”.

Findings

Gaia is understood through the notion of a critical zone, which foregrounds the local and differentiated terrestrial conditions in which life on Earth is embedded.

Practical implications

Gaia storytelling implies perceiving LO as a network of storytelling practices enacted and told by unique creative citizens. Such an organization sustains and grows through several entangled storytelling cycles that allow Gaia to shape learning.

Social implications

The article distinguishes five different storytelling cycles as a way to explore how the Gaia theater cycle connects to other cycles. The four other cycles are: Gaia thinking, explorative, creative and Gaia truth-telling.

Originality/value

A Gaian LO is a new beginning for LO.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 April 2020

Naser Khdour, Ra'ed Masa'deh and Atef Al-Raoush

This study aims to assess the impact of organizational storytelling on organizational performance by undertaking telecommunication companies located in the Middle Eastern nation…

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Abstract

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.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Yue Cai Hillon and David M. Boje

Calls for dialectical learning process model development in learning organizations have largely gone unheeded, thereby limiting conceptual understanding and application in the…

Abstract

Purpose

Calls for dialectical learning process model development in learning organizations have largely gone unheeded, thereby limiting conceptual understanding and application in the field. This paper aims to unify learning organization theory with a new understanding of Hegelian dialectics to trace the development of the storytelling learning organization. The “storytelling learning organization” is a conceptual framework presented along with criteria to evaluate different kinds of dialectical development claims in “storytelling learning organization” work that are bona fide instances of one or another dialectical ontology ranging from Marxian, to Hegelian, to Brierian, to Žižekian.

Design/methodology/approach

Ontological evaluation and critique of a variety of “storytelling learning organization” practices posit different dialectical ontology and consequences for theory and practice. Through a case example of business process reengineering (BPR) in a “public research university (PRU)”, the storytelling of “schooling” versus “education” ideas and practices, in a place, in a period and in material ways of mattering, never achieves synthesis. The dialectical development of resistance to implementation evolves toward transcendence into irreducible oppositions of ontological incompleteness – the essence of a learning organization.

Findings

This ontological analysis focuses on the use of ideas and practices by opposing storytelling agents and actants to uncover a learning organization’s dialectical development in its own storytelling, its narrative and counter-narrative enactments, and its attempts to unpack contradictions. The PRU under study has gone through a series of financial crises, and its learning organization responses were downsizing staff and faculty positions and implementing BPR in ways that worsened the situation. The process resulted in staff and faculty leaving even before the reorganization was completed and enrollment dropped dramatically, in great part due to the negative press and the excessive standardization of the curriculum that accompanies “schooling” displacing acts of “education” practices and ideations. Meanwhile, the administrators are still trying to manage the narrative and control it so as to forestall additional attrition.

Originality/value

The theory of “storytelling learning organization” is original. The question answered here has practical value because institutions have choices to make concerning the kind of dialectical narrative and counter-narrative development that is cultivated, and there are options for transforming or moving to an alternative narrative and counter-narrative development process. The analysis of the case also illustrates a pattern of intervention that is, on the one hand, unsuccessful in developing “higher” education and, on the other hand, successful in shutting down the efficacy of a PRU by centrist use of reengineering to accomplish more schooling, more downsizing and more installation of “academic capitalism” ideas and practices.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

Silvia Gherardi, Michela Cozza and Barbara Poggio

The purpose of this paper is to describe how organizational members became storywriters of an important process of organizational change. Writing became a practice designed to…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe how organizational members became storywriters of an important process of organizational change. Writing became a practice designed to create a space, a time and a methodology with which to author the process of change and create a learning context. The written stories produced both the subjectivity of practical authors and reflexively created the con/text for their reproduction.

Design/methodology/approach

A storywriting workshop inspired by a processual and participatory practice-based approach to learning and knowing was held in a research organization undergoing privatization. For six months, 31 organizational members, divided into two groups, participated in writing one story per week for six weeks. The written story had to refer to a fact that had occurred in the previous week, thus prompting reflection on the ongoing organizational life and giving a situated meaning to the change process.

Findings

Storywriting is first and foremost a social practice of wayfinding, that is of knowing as one goes. Writing proved to be an effective practice that involved the authors, their narratives and the audiences in a shared experience where all these practice elements became connected and through their connection acquired agency.

Originality/value

Narrative knowledge has been studied mainly in storytelling, while storywriting by organizational members has received less attention. This paper explores storywriting both as a situated, relational and material practice and as the process that produces narratives which can be considered for their content and their style.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Content available

Abstract

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2012

Enzo Caminotti and Jeremy Gray

As two doctoral students and adult learners, the authors strongly believe that story telling can be a great tool for educators working with adult learners. The purpose of this…

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Abstract

Purpose

As two doctoral students and adult learners, the authors strongly believe that story telling can be a great tool for educators working with adult learners. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of how effective storytelling can be for adult learners.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach of this paper is one of gathering information from literature written on storytelling and adult learning. The paper is designed to introduce storytelling as an effective tool for adult educators while also pointing out the different types of storytelling and its implications on e‐learning.

Findings

The findings from the literature review completed confirmed the authors' view that storytelling is effective for adult learners.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the chosen research approach, a more comprehensive qualitative study should be completed to enhance the research on the effectiveness of storytelling on adult learning.

Practical implications

The paper gives insight as to how some organizations are using storytelling, types of effective storytelling for educators and also the implications of storytelling on e‐learning.

Originality/value

This paper provides resources and information for adult educators and organizations to enhance or implement another way of instructing adult learners. The focus of the paper is to get adult educators and organizations to use storytelling as part of the learning process.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 October 2023

Cary Snow, Valencia Gabay, Tamarah Danielle Brownlee and Trenae Thomas

Leaders need diverse talent to leverage organizational success; however, leaders must also develop inclusive working environments that meet the diverse needs of their employees…

Abstract

Leaders need diverse talent to leverage organizational success; however, leaders must also develop inclusive working environments that meet the diverse needs of their employees. This chapter seeks to support organizational leaders in using storytelling to foster a culture of inclusivity and drive inclusive leadership practices throughout their organizations. Dimensions of the inclusive leadership compass (ILC) model (embrace, empower, enable, and embed) are used to highlight organizational areas that are rich with opportunities to facilitate mindset shifts at the individual, team, and system levels. This chapter explores strategies and highlights methods leaders can use to effectively implement the powerful learning and communication technique of storytelling in each of the critical areas of the inclusive leadership model. Starting with self-knowledge, leaders can devise ways to embrace difference and expand their understanding of inclusivity to inspire others to do the same. The authors propose a phenomenological approach to advancing efforts toward an inclusive organization in a way that honors the lived experience of others. This chapter includes methods for developing psychologically safe environments and other storytelling criteria that amplify the power of storytelling in a healthy approach that will be received and reverberate throughout the organization and enhance the benefits of inclusive leadership practices.

Details

Inclusive Leadership: Equity and Belonging in Our Communities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-438-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2018

Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen

The purpose of the paper is to provide a framework for reflecting on how different ways of configuring spaces in higher education (HE) condition the possibilities of learning

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to provide a framework for reflecting on how different ways of configuring spaces in higher education (HE) condition the possibilities of learning. Second, the purpose is to construct a storytelling approach for the configuration of such spaces.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper’s conceptual purpose is achieved through a theoretical discussion of three concepts: performance, politics and storytelling.

Findings

Learning in HE needs reconsideration in terms of what kinds of learning are made possible through the discursive and material configuration of the spaces of research and teaching. In particular, the focus to some extent should move away from the management and control of learning toward what enables learning.

Practical implications

The literature on organizational learning and the learning organization comprise concepts, methods and tools that play different roles with regard to controlling, shaping and enabling learning. When the focus is on learning in HE, it is important to be aware of the tracks of learning these technologies enable.

Social implications

The interest in managing and controlling learning is often problematic in relation to the potential of HE to produce new and innovative forms of learning.

Originality/value

This paper introduces the term “spaces of performance,” which directs attention toward the material, discursive and relational conditions for learning. It also introduces a space of storytelling as a new principle for learning in HE.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1991

Charles M. Vance

Storytelling, which is widely recognised as having a powerfulinfluence upon learning in organisations, should be formalised topromote a more systematic, predictable individual…

Abstract

Storytelling, which is widely recognised as having a powerful influence upon learning in organisations, should be formalised to promote a more systematic, predictable individual learning and change process. The training function represents a natural arena where formalisation can take place. Four ways are described in which storytelling as part of formal training can contribute to more effective individual learning in organisations, which in turn may contribute to successful organisational change and performance.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 July 2021

Fariba Nosrati and Brian Detlor

This research responds to a growing interest among cultural organizations regarding how to use emerging digital technologies in the communication of cultural content. The need to…

Abstract

Purpose

This research responds to a growing interest among cultural organizations regarding how to use emerging digital technologies in the communication of cultural content. The need to investigate various aspects of digital transformation for cultural organizations has been heightened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper explores how city cultural organizations can utilize digital stories for impression management to enhance public perceptions of a city. The aim of this study is to understand how end-users are affected by a city cultural digital storytelling information system and the benefits of using such a system.

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretive case study was conducted on a digital storytelling initiative carried out by three cultural organizations in a medium-sized city in Canada. Data collection included 95 interviews with the general public, questionnaires and the gathering of documents.

Findings

Findings suggest that digital storytelling can be a viable tool to share city cultural heritage information and positively affect end-user perceptions of a city. The overall outcome of creating/maintaining a positive favorable impression is shaped through a layered experience of benefits by users. Through digital stories, users are first personally engaged and informed about a city's cultural heritage, and then they are influenced and inspired positively toward the city. Further, factors, such as leisure learning, cultural heritage information and cultural organizations, situate this context of use.

Originality/value

The study sheds light on how the art of storytelling in the digital age can serve as a powerful tool for conveying information effectively and influencing public perceptions. This paper provides a context-specific model to understand the use of digital storytelling by city cultural organizations for the purpose of impression management. Theoretical insights and practical recommendations are provided to explore the utilization of digital storytelling for raising interest and awareness in a city and managing public perceptions.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 35 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

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