Storytelling and the Future of Organizations

Storytelling is part of social action and interaction that actually shapes the future of organizations. Organization and management studies have overwhelmingly focused to date on rational narrative structures with beginnings, middles, and ends, where narrative has proved to be a handy concept in qualitative studies. Far less attention is given however to the more spontaneous and 'non-staged' storytelling that occurs in organizations. Storytelling and the Future of Organizations explores the science and practice of 'antenarrative' because that is how the future of organization is shaped. Antenarrative is a term invented by David M. Boje in 2001, and is defined as a 'bet on the future,' as 'before' narrative linearity, coherence, and stability sets in. Antenarrative is all about 'prospective sensemaking,' betting on the future before narrative retrospection fossilizes the past. Antenarrative storytelling is therefore agential in ways that traditional narratology has yet to come to grips with. This handbook contribution is bringing together a decade of scholarship on 'antenarrative.' It is the first volume to offer such a varied but systematic examination of non-traditional narrative inquiry in the management realm, organizing and developing its approach, and providing new insights for management students and scholars.

David Boje is Bill Daniels Ethics Fellow, and Professor at New Mexico State University. His focus is organization storytelling and ethics. He has published 17 books (e.g. Storytelling Organizations, 2008, Sage; Critical Theory Ethics..., 2008 Information Age Press) and 124 articles (in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, etc).

Introduction to Agential Antenarratives that Shape the Future of Organizations. David M. Boje, Ph.D. Part I: Individual, Gender, and Group Antenarratives 1. Ante Narrational Presuppostitions: A Philosophical Reflection on Responsible use of Power and (Ante)narrative. Frits Schipper 2. Antenarratives of Negotiated Diversity Management. Jawad Syed and David Boje 3. The Tesseract Antenarrative Model: Mapping Storytelling to Multi-dimensional Factor Lattices in Mathematics. Diane Walker, ABD 4. The Antenarrative of Ethics and the Ethics of Antenarratives. Grace Ann Rosile, Ph.D. 5. The Creative Spirit of the Leader's Soul: Using Antenarratives to Explain Metanoia Experiences. Kevin Grant, Ph.D. 6. Understanding Legal Antenarratives. Majella O'Leary and Kim Economides Part II: Organization and Writing Antenarratives 7. Living Story and Antenarrative in Organizational Accidents. Jo A. Tyler, Ed.D. 8. Antenarrative and narrative: The Experiences of Actors Involved in the Development and Use of Information Systems. Lynette Drevin and Darren Dalcher 9. Strategy as Antenarrative Complexity. Yue Cai-Hillon, Ph.D., David Boje, Ph.D., and Clarinda Dir 10. Antenarratives, Strategic Alliances, and Sensemaking: Engagement and Divorce without Marriage between Two Brazilian Air Carriers Firms. Sergio Luis Seloti Jr., MSc and Mário Aquino Alves, Ph.D. 11. Visual/Picture as Antenarratives: Sketching the Research Process. Teppo Sintonen, Ph.D. and Tommi Auvinen, Lic. 12. Narratives: A Love Story. Anna Linda Musacchio Adorisio Part III: Antenarratives and Organization Change 13. Survival Toolkit for Socio-Technical Project Complexity. Steve King 14. Narratives, Paradigms, and Change. Gerhard Fink and Maurice Yolles 15. Antenarratives of Change in Mexican Innovation Networks. Enrique Campos-López, Alena Uridales-Kalinchuk, and Hilda G. Hern 16. Connecting Antenarrative and Narrative to Solving Organizational Problems. Nicholas Snowden 17. Antenarrative Writing-Tracing and Representing Living Stories. Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen 18. Tales of Merger Survivors. Daniel Dauber and Gerhard Fink Part IV: National and Globalizing Antenarratives 19. Storytelling Narrative Marginality - On Becoming a Global Human. Jeff Leinaweaver, Ph.D. 20. The Hijacking of Environmental Rhetoric: Antenarrative Analysis. William L. Smith 21. Well-Timed Stories: Rhetorical Kairos and Antenarrative Theory. Richard Herder 22. The "Evolutive" and Interactive Actor Polygon in the Theatre of Organizations. Henri Savall, Véronique Zardet, Michel Péron Postscript: An Antenarrative Theory of Socio-Economic in Intervention Research. David Boje