Narrative Leadership Part 3

Myth and Narrative

Myths are the “story behind the story.” “They explain. They maintain solidarity and cohesion. They legitimize. They communicate unconscious wishes and conflicts. They mediate contradictions [and] are a narrative to anchor the present in the past” (Bolman & Deal, 2003, p. 251). Our pleasure at and need to live within imagination make myths “necessary constructions” (Tanasoiu, 2005, p.113) that “centers people” (Nelson, 1998, p. 412).

Myths become a paradigm through which we view our world and in narrative construction gain their potency due to being thought of as bearers of some essential truth. This truth is “cosmic” in its generation, that is, “neither real nor unreal but disposed according to the imaginary” and “social” in its breadth (Tanasoiu, 2005, p. 113). This makes myth privileged at least and possibly even sacral in its esteem as the revealer of the community’s “fundamental values” and guarantor of its “cohesion” (p. 113). For these reasons myth resists change: its explanations being “well protected against debate and argument” (Abma, 2000, p. 221) and its actions legitimated by the sacredness of its content.

Organizational narratives can be underscored with myths presented as “beliefs about what is important and why that is so” (p. 222). Bojea and Rhodesb (2005) relate the story of Ray Kroc, the former leader of McDonald’s Corporation, as a case in point. Mr. Kroc transformed McDonald's into a multi-billion dollar corporation spanning the globe based on “efficiency, predictability, calculability, and central control” (p. 9). From line workers to managers, all understood the McDonald’s way of consistency, timeliness, cleanliness, and quality. Stories of Kroc’s impromptu restaurant visits to verify that corporate values were in place abound and became the legend that was mythologized into immutable standards.

These standards served to guide McDonald’s after Kroc’s death and through the company’s reinvention as a fast-food restaurant that serves healthy meals. That McDonald’s did create new narratives of health consciousness, fitness, and environmental stewardship (Bojea & Rhodesb, 2005, pp. 10-11) indicates that myth, like the narrative it supports, is integral to our organizing. As the narrative leader seeks to learn the identity of an organization, discovering its myths and the narrative supported by them is critical.