Restorying the Organization

We need to construct the world we act into or, put another way, we like having a hand in building the stage that our story is played upon (Hopkinson, 2003). Hence the power of narratives to become the conversations that maintain and objectify reality for those in them (Humphries and Brown, 2002) and to express a reality accepted as the natural order of things. Organizationally, this world is one in which we have created an ideology to make right the dominant group and its impositions (Mumby, 1987). Through its ability to punctuate and sequence events, a certain reading of the world becomes privileged and a means to produce member’s consent (Brown et al., 2005).

To this point the discussion is sounding like our organizations have unstated agenda’s demanding our conformance to an unwritten set of standards. The organization doesn’t but the people in them do. The narratives of our organizations become excessive when the control they exercise prevent the organization from relating to the world in ways that are constructive to reaching its goals. Remember the “resistant-to-change rules or practices” of earlier? Their resistance will continue to grow until confronted. It is not a question if the organization’s narratives can control members, neither is narrative’s ability to create selves in doubt (Brown et al., 2005). What does remain unanswered is if the realities we’ve created present us the best chance of reaching our destination.