Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
A Working Paper
The Role of Storytelling in HRD:
What We Learn from Literature?
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show the relevance of storytelling for HRD. This paper,
according to Creswell’s thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), provides a
literature based rationale for adopting organizational storytelling as a powerful and
effective HRD tool in which stories can help HRD practitioners to achieve HRD
purposes. In this paper, journal articles, written on storytelling, in English, were
reviewed. The gathered information from literature demonstrates several positive
applications of storytelling, e.g. as a tool for learning, training, motivation and
behavioral changes that are relevant to HRD and its purposes. However, a part of the
literature, considers negative and dark side of storytelling, e.g. concealing or
distorting the truth, and manipulating people actions and intentions. The paper argues
that storytelling should be a part of HRD’s toolkit and sugestes storytelling skill is a
sterategic skill that HRD practitioners should not neglecte it.
Keywords: Narrative, Storytelling, Human Resource Development, Literature Review
Introduction
Academic HRD research has been slow to interrogate and to theorize about the effectiveness of
storytelling. Although, HRD has been inspired by many fields, but has not yet fully realized the
potential of storytelling. A pity since storytelling and more generally narrative has a unique
communicative and motivational potential. May be time to give a literary turn to HRD. HRD is
both an area of professional practice and a multidisciplinary field of study, applying almost any
theory, practice or approaches that would serve the goal of enhance learning, human potential, and
high performance in organizations (Chalofsky, 2007). It has derived its conceptual focus from
three broad areas: organization theory, specifically systems thinking, economics and psychology
(Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999). According to Nadler (1970), from a “human resources”
perspective, “behavioral change” is the intended purpose of HRD activities (Hamlin & Stewart,
2011). But, despond on different underlying philosophical and theoretical perspectives, HRD
practitioners tend to focus on self-development, the productive capacity or performance of human
resource (Kuchinke, 1999), motivation, learning, investments in human capital and improving
organizational processes and change (Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999). HRD practitioners in
order to achieve these goals, play different roles and use various approaches and tools. For
example, they should remove barriers to self-development, create an open and trusting
environment, and transmit knowledge, skills, and the social and behavioral rules of the
organization (Kuchinke, 1999). It seems storytelling is one of the approaches that can serve these
1
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
goals. However, in recent years, there has been increasing attention by organizations and their
leaders to the role and value of storytelling as a standard managerial tool (Corvellec, 2015), this
powerful tool has been less attention in the HRD, insofar it might be said storytelling, in HRD, is
a lost art (Caminotti and Gray, 2012). The problem is that although there are almost many studies
on storytelling role and its contribution in neighbors fields of HRD, there was at the time of this
writing no enough research that discuss the role of storytelling in HRD. Except Tylor (2007) and
Beigi (2014), we could not find other research that had discussed the effectiveness of the
storytelling in HRD. Many researchers and scholars in different disciplines and field of studies,
that share some commonality and concerns with HRD, highlight the value of storytelling, but
there is a limited mention in HRD literature regarding to the use of storytelling as a powerful
tool to fulfill HRD purposes. In fields such as organization theory (Boje, 1991; Lerner, 1992;
Boje, 1995; Ewick & Silbey, 1995; Volker, Phillips & Anderson, 2011; Chen, 2012), change
management (Faber, 1998; Kirsch, 2004; Benjamin, 2006; Denning, 2008; Hansen, 2011; Carriger,
2011; Creed, DeJordy & Lok, 2014; Landau, Drori & Terjesen, 2014), organizational development
(Gephart Jr, 1991; Boje, 1994; Abma, 2003; Pässilä, Oikarinen & Kallio, 2013), training and
development (Vance, 1991; Phillips, 1995; Morgan & Dennehy, 1997; McKenna, 1999; Gold &
Holman, 2001; Zeelen, Wijbenga, Vintges and de Jong, 2010; Carr & Ann, 2011; Caminotti &
Gray, 2012; Boston, 2103; Robinson, 2013), knowledge management (Sole & Wilson, 1999;
Hannabuss, 2000; Swap, Leonard, Shields & Abrams, 2001; Küpers, 2005; Bhardwaj & Monin,
2006; Sax, 2006; Tobin & Snyman, 2008; Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges, 2011; Whyte &
Classen, 2012; Geiger & Schreyögg, 2012; Wijetunge, 2012; Adorisio, 2014; Rowlinson, Casey,
Hansen & Mills, 2014), organizational behavior (Boudens, 2005; Horsley, 2007; Ellis & Hibbert,
2008; McCarthy, 2008; Gill, 2014), organizational culture (Hansen and Kahnweiler, 1993;
Ledwell-Brown & Dias, 1994; Humphreys & Brown, 2002; Denning, 2004; Soin & Scheytt, 2006;
Loseke, 2007; Hyde, 2008; Rindfleish, Sheridan & Kjeldal, 2009; Boje & Baskin, 2011; Ohara &
Cherniss, 2012), strategic management (Barry & Elmes, 1997; Alkon, 2004; Denning, 2006;
Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven & Kroupa, 2006; Heil & Whittaker, 2007; Marzec, 2007; Fenton &
Langley, 2010; Carriger, 2010; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010; Hansen, 2011; Carriger, 2011; Ohara
& Cherniss, 2012; Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan, 2013; Chen, 2013; Baker, 2014),
leadership (Ewick & Silbey, 1995; Carreiro, 2005; Denning, 2006; Harris & Barnes, 2006;
Grisham, 2006; Boal & Schultz, 2007; Denning, 2008; McKenna, 2010; Carriger, 2010; Carr &
Ann, 2011; Maclean, Harvey & Chia, 2012; Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist, 2013; Kuran, 2013),
and human resource management (Syrjälä, Takala, & Sintonen, 2009; Powell, 2011), the
supportive role and relevance of the storytelling have been discussed. Maybe, one reason for this
great attention to the storytelling, is its potential power. “Stories fill our lives in the way that water
fills the lives of fish” (Denning, 2000). Organizations are immersed in stories. Despite the
traditional perspective, that look at storytelling, such as soft, fuzzy, squishy, emotional, fluffy,
anecdotal, irrational, fantasy, fairy stories, primitive, and childish (Denning, 2011, p. xii), the
storytelling has been recognized as an effective device in new management approaches (Boje,
1994; Boje, 2008; Denning, 2007; Denning, 2011). Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, was once
asked about the most important attribute he had. He said, ‘‘What really counts is that I’m Irish and
I know how to tell stories’’ (Brown, Denning, Groh, & Prusak, 2004, p. 5). Organizations are using
storytelling both on a strategic management level, and on an operational level in day-to-day
communication with employees (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 50). Story is a simple way of
conveying complex ideas. Stories are used to measure and change organization culture, mapping
2
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
knowledge, enhance eLearning environments, and advance decision support systems (Snowden,
2000). Tylor (2007), encourages HRD practitioners to add the storytelling to their box of tools.
But we belive before encouraging HRD practitioners to use storytelling in their functions, maybe
it is HRD scholars and researcher’s duty to ensure practitioners that the tool will be effective and
will help them to achieve their purposes. There is no doubt that HRD practitioners, as other
managers and practitioners in organizations, seek to achieve HRD purposes at the lowest cost and
highest effectiveness. However, the use of each tool in HRD, costs money and time. Therefore,
maybe HRD practitioners, according to the productivity logic in organizations, prefer the nonexpensive tools to achieve their purposes and goals. The question is whether the storytelling, as a
non-expensive powerful tool, is effective in achieving HRD purposes or not? One way to fill this
gap, is to mine in the literature. Because analysis and syntheses of existing literature, improve
evidence-based decision making (Challahan, 2014) and thereby help practitioners to act more
efficiently. This paper is interested in learning more about different roles of storytelling in
organizations, and understanding its potential relevance for HRD. There have been numerous
research and papers on the effectiveness of literature review in HRD (Torraco, 2005; Callahan,
2010; Daley & et al., 2010; Callahan, 2014). In this paper, based on gathering information from
literature written on storytelling in organization and management study, we are trying to answer
this question that what is the potential role or contribution of storytelling to HRD? In other words,
what we learn from literature about the potential effectiveness of storytelling on HRD? In order to
answer this question, the paper begins by providing theoretical background of the situation from
narrative approach. In nex section, we take a look at the previous studies on storytelling in
organization, to determine the status of this research in the literature. The last but not least, by
applying Creswell’s thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), we uses the literature to identify
themes and patterns in areas of research, and then we will discuss those themes to build a literature
based rational for HRD practitioners to gives some insight as to how HRD can use storytelling in
achieving to HRD purposes. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to strengthen HRD
practitioner’s toolbox by introducing storytelling as a potential effective tool. This paper is
important as it shows there are some information and evidences in the literature that support the
idea that storytelling can help HRD practitioners to play effectively their roles in order to reach
their goals.
Theoretical Background: Story and Storytelling
To begin this research, a few conceptual points need to be clarified. Most important, we need to
define what we mean by the terms “story” and “storytelling” and what is the distinction between
story, narrative, and other similar terms, such as tale, legend, myth, fiction and saga? Although
precisely addressing this issue can be considered in a separate paper, but it is necessary to establish
a theoretical basis for common understanding of the subject. To address this issue, we have no
choice but to engage in narrative theory. An underlying assumption of narrative theory is that
narratives create meaning and that meaning is socially constructed via symbolic interaction
(Hansen, 2011). The explicit interest in narrative in the social sciences can perhaps be traced back
to the early 1980s. This trend really gathered momentum in the early 1990s, when the journal
Narrative and Life History (now published as Narrative Inquiry) in 1991 and a series of edited
collections on The Narrative Study of Lives in 1993 were published (Elliott, 2005, p. 5). According
to Boyce, the foundation of organizational story and storytelling is rooted in works of folklorists,
anthropologists, sociologists, communication and organization theorists (Boyce, 1996). More
3
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
recently, the narrative approach in organizations has emerged as a prominent topic in the in
organization studies (Küpers, 2005). Narrative enters organization studies in at least four forms:
organizational research that is written in a storylike fashion; organizational research that collects
organizational stories; organizational research that conceptualize organizational life as story
making and organization theory as story reading; and a disciplinary reflection that takes the form
of literary critique (Czarniawska, 1997, pp. 13-14). In addition to these four forms, there are
organizational research that consider stories and narratives as a management tool (e.g., Kopp & et
al., 2011 and Wijetunge, 2012). This research placed in this last category.
According to the postmodern view of narrative, individuals and organizations are nothing more
than the stories that constitute them (Hansen, 2011). Narratives are related at the macro-, meso-,
and micro-/personal levels (Herrmann, 2011) and people by stories, make sense of themselves and
their surroundings (Boje, 1991; Hannabuss, 2000; Garcia-Lorenzo, 2010; Hansen, 2011; Maclean,
Harvey and Chia, 2012). However, besides the story and narrative, terms such as fable, saga, myth,
legend, tale and fiction have been entered in the practice and field of organization. But what they
means? Do they mean the same? To answer these questions, it will be helpful to look at the
Merriam-Webster Online dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, a story is “an
account of incidents or events”. Narrative is “a story that is told or written”. A fable is “a short
story that usually is about animals and that is intended to teach a lesson”. A saga is “a long and
complicated story with many details”. Myth is “an idea or story that is believed by many people
but that is not true”. A legend is “a story from the past that is believed by many people but cannot
be proved to be true”. Tale is “a story about imaginary events: an exciting or dramatic story” and
a fiction refers to “something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically: an invented
story”1. Beyond this basic definitions from the dictionary, academic literature has paid much
attention to the definition and differentiation of these terms. According to these debates, narrative
and story are not the same, although they are in interplay. Narrative provides a sense of time and
causality (Corvellec, 2015). Narrative is a whole telling, with the linear sequence of a beginning,
middle, and end (BME) based on a kind of coherency. Narrative is usually a retrospective gaze
from present and changes little over time (Boje, 2008, pp. 7-8). Narrative by providing a sense of
time and causality helps people make sense of the organizational life. It means that narrative can
expand or compress time and according to the notion of plot, moves one from one state of affairs
to another state of affairs (Corvellec, 2015). However, story is more apt to be dispersive (Boje,
2008, pp. 7-8). According to Ewick and Silbey (1995), narrative has three elements or features.
First, a narrative relies on some form of selective appropriation of past events and characters.
Second, within a narrative the events must be temporally ordered. This quality of narrative requires
that the selected events be presented with a BME. Temporality does not necessarily refer to
chronology but links elements together in time and indicates that events have a certain order
(Elliott, 2005). Third, the events and characters must be related to one another and to some
overarching structure. The temporal and structural ordering ensure both "narrative closure" and
"narrative causality". In other words, a statement about how and why the recounted events occurred
(Ewick and Silbey, 1995).
Saga, has come to mean a narrative of heroic exploits. An organizational saga is a collective
understanding of a unique accomplishment based on historical exploits of a formal organization,
offering strong normative bonds within and outside the organization. A saga is not simply a story
1
We choose the definitions that see the word as a noun. Also the first definition for each word was chosen.
4
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
but a story that at some time has had a particular base of believers (Clark, 1972). An organizational
saga, presents some rational explanation of how certain means led to certain ends (Clark, 1972).
Fable is described as the most controllable form of story. Fables are distinguished from myth by
their means of propagation, their length and the formality of their message. A fable is structured
so as to be told by a storyteller in such a manner, and with sufficient complexity, that the audience
is unable to repeat the story but remembers the message. Virus stories are used to disrupt negative
myths. Should not try and destroy a myth with fact because it won’t work; the myth has developed
despite the facts because people want to believe it. One combats or uses a story with a story. Virus
stories can also be used to reinforce and build valuable myths and endorse good practice (Snowden,
2000). Fiction is ‘a general term for something created by human mind. It has three aspects: (1)
Not a fact, but an invention of some kind, sometimes a fabrication or a lie. (2) Not fact, but still
part of reality; imaginative narrative, often part of literature. (3) A special kind of “fact”: a social
and cultural construct, such as a legal fiction that helps in the administration of law, and
geographical fictions like the Equator’ (MacArthur, 1992, p. 401). In the course of describing what
a story is and is not, Boje (2001) derived the concept of the “antenarrative”:
I give “antenarrative” a double meaning: as being before and as a bet. First, story is
“ante” to narrative; it is antenarrative. A “narrative” is something that is narrated, i.e.
“story”. Story is an account of incidents or events, but narrative comes after and adds
“plot” and “coherence” to the story line [...]. Secondly, ante is a bet, something to do
with gambling and speculation. Story is therefore ‘‘ante’’ to story and narrative is poststory (Boje D. M., 2001, pp. 1-2).
Each story has some elements. Message, conflict, plot and characters are four elements that make
up the core basic of storytelling. The central message, or premise of the story, is an ideological or
moral statement that works as a central theme throughout the story. A story with more than one
central message runs the risk of becoming messy and unclear. Conflict is the driving force of a
good story. No conflict, no story. When faced with a problem-a conflict- we instinctively seek to
find a solution. Conflict forces us to act and restore harmony. As storytellers, we get our message
across through conflict and its resolution. In order for the conflict to play out, the stories need a
cast of interacting and compelling characters. A story typically starts out with main character, or
hero, pursuing a goal. There is always an adversary who tries to work against the hero, thereby
establishing the conflict. In the case of an organization, the adversary could be unsupportive
structure for human resource development. Sometimes the adversary appears in the shape of a
villain. For example a boss that abuse of his or her organizational power. The resolution of the
central conflict is proof of the story's message. At last, the plot is flow of the story and its sequence
and progression of events (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, pp. 32-45). Bhardwaj & Monin (2006)
have defined story as a written and spoken experiences of employees in the social, psychological
and cultural context in which organization operates. These descriptions are in a continuous process
of being and becoming. They are narratives in the state of being and antenarratives in the state of
becoming (Bhardwaj & Monin, 2006). Storytelling is “systematic use of narrative” to achieve the
specific purpose (Corvellec, 2015). Organizational storytelling is about learning how to do that
effectively in the workplace (Marek, 2011, p. 2). According to Corvellec (2006), narration is “the
action of a narrator in telling a story or a part of story, either orally or by some other means”
(Corvellec, 2006). Gabriel suggests that all stories are narratives but not all narratives are stories
(Gabriel, 2000, p. 5). Finally, Denning, in his books, The Secret Language of Leadership (Denning,
2007) and The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (Denning, 2005), uses narrative and story as
5
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
synonyms, in the broad sense of an account of a set of events that are causally related. Denning
(2006), knows narrative as storytelling and does not distinguish between these two terms.
According to Adorisio (2009), “scholars have strongly debated on story and narrative definitions:
basically every single author has his or her own interpretation of the topic, and uses the terms
narrative and story with different acceptations” (Adorisio, 2009, p. 10). So, in order to avoid
confusion in definitions, in this paper, we assume the “Denning’s board sense”, but our main
emphasis is on the story and storytelling.
Storytelling in Previous Studies
Before reviewing literature, in order to determine the status of our research in the literature, it is
necessary to discuss about previous studies that have addressed the role of storytelling in
management and leadership. Storytelling already plays an important role for organizations and
their leaders and many theorists and researchers highlighted the value of storytelling (Gill, 2014).
Management scholars have recognized story and narrative’s role in culture (Hyde, 2008;
Rindfleish, Sheridan and Kjeldal, 2009; Boje and Baskin. 2011; Ohara and Cherniss, 2012),
teaching (Phillips, 1995; Boston, 2103), sharing knowledge (Lerner, 1992; Sole and Wilson, 1999;
Tobin and Snyman, 2008), communication (Kirsch, 2004; Mittins, Abratt and Christie, 2011;
Herrmann, 2011; Carriger, 2013) motivation and inspiration (Harris and Barnes, 2006; Auvinen,
Aaltio and Blomqvist, 2013) and learning (Vance, 1991; Boje, 1994; Pässilä, Oikarinen and Kallio,
2013). In addition to research that has been considered storytelling as a management tool, some
research has been devoted to review storytelling literature. For example, Boyce (1996) uses social
constructivism, organizational symbolism, and critical theory to review storytelling literature.
Snowden (2000) is another example. He reviews storytelling literature and identifies four
approaches to the use of stories within an organizational context: stories as a research tool;
enhancing actual stories; embracing fiction; and traditional forms of story. The use of stories as a
research tool received increasing prominence with the growth of post-modernism and its emphasis
on the authenticity of narrative. The purpose here is to gain access to deeper organizational
realities, closely linked to their member’s experiences. A second group create or reflect on actual
stories from their companies and enhance or expand these to make a point. A third group freely
embraces fiction – seeing stories as seen a means of conveying meaning, stimulating a response
and enhancing understanding of complex issues. The fictional format allows indirect tackling of
issues. The final group is interested in stories per se; it includes folklorists, professional
storytellers, ethno-cultural specialists and others (Snowden, 2000). Other researchers, use
literature to demonstrate the effectiveness of storytelling in a specific activity or function. For
example Caminotti and Gray (2012) introduce storytelling as an effective tool for adult educators
by gathering information from literature written on storytelling and adult learning. Storytelling has
been recognized as an effective device inside organizations. According to Boje (1991), stories are
the blood vessels through which changes pulsate in the heart of organizational life. Storytelling
can contribute to more effective individual learning in organizations (Vance, 1991). Stories can be
used as a means of self-development. Managers tell stories in order to evoke leadership
characterized by motivation, inspiration, defusing conflict, influencing superiors, discovering a
focus and constructing trust (Auvinen, Aaltio, and Blomqvist, 2013). Story and narrative are also
6
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
used as a research tool (Ledwell-Brown and Dias, 1994; Boje, 1995; Boudens, 2005; Ellis and
Hibbert, 2008). Narrative can be the object of research, the method of research, or the product of
research (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). Until our research, only two studies were discussed storytelling
from the HRD perspective: Tylor (2007) and Beigi (2014). Also, Kopp & et al. (2001) are among
the scholars who have discussed the role of the storytelling by considering HRD and organizational
crisis management commonality. Tyler (2007), based on a naturalistic inquiry, investigates and
interviews whit the fifteen for-profit HRD practitioners, argues how HRD practitioners implement
storytelling in business settings as a business process and a tactical tool. The purpose of her study
was inform and better understand practitioners to implementing storytelling in service to
organizational goals. Tylor’s findings revealed three fundamental nonlinear points about the
mechanics of implementing storytelling processes in organizations: foundational activities and
concerns, performance concerns, and posttelling or strategic leverage concerns. Marketing
storytelling and locating and selecting stories are two foundational areas for practitioner decision
and action as foundational activities. Performance concerns refers to good and appropriate physical
storytelling environment and posttelling activities with the goal of maximizing strategic benefit
from the storytelling, have two elements: devoting time and attention to poststory reflection,
dialogue, and sharing of participant and disseminating the stories across the organization (Tyler,
2007). Kopp & et al. (2011), in a conceptual paper, considering that HRD and organizational crisis
management as disciplines have great commonality, propose that storytelling can be used as
HRD’s learning toolkit in leveraging human capital pre-, during, and postcrises. HRD practitioners
can also use fictional stories to facilitate training and development. According to Beigi (2014),
using fiction as a story source for training and development (T&D) purposes can improve
efficiency, provide a safe learning environment, avoid groupthink, remove negative attitudes
towards stories and increase access to varied stories. She calls HRD practitioners to use workplacerelated fictional stories, because she believes collecting stories from the organization itself, is not
always feasible. In her opinion work is a significant life domain, and published fiction mirrors
various domains of life. She suggests fictional stories provide HRD practitioners with rich
materials they can put into use for T&D purposes (Beigi, 2014). Tylor (2007) discusses how to use
storytelling in organizations by asking HRD practitioners, Kopp & et al. (2011) shows the
effectiveness of storytelling whit a conceptual reasoning and Beigi (2014) considers the
effectiveness of a particular source of story, i.e. fiction, in facilitating training and development.
This paper is going to discuss the effectiveness of storytelling to meet HRD purposes, by finding
some evidences from literature. Our research is similar to Caminotti and Gray (2012) research.
The aim of this literature review is not criticizing the storytelling literature, but we are looking for
finding some information and evidence to demonstrate the potential relevance of storytelling in
HRD. It is worth noting that we do not claim this research is a sort of integrative and
comprehensive literature review. In an integrative literature review, the researchers should critique
literature written on a phenomena (Callahan, 2014), but in this paper we are not going to critique
storytelling literature, rather, we seek to gather, analyze and synthesize information in the literature
to increase awareness of how effective storytelling can be for HRD practitioners. So, we can claim
that we have tried to see the relevant literature to our purpose of paper, as much as possible.
7
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Method: Data Collection, Data Analysis and Finding
In this section, we review the literature written on storytelling, as a means of determining support
for the use of storytelling in HRD. In the next section, we will see how HRD can get benefit
from bringing storytelling in its toolbox. As we mentioned in introduction, we use Creswell’s
thematic literature review (Creswell, 2008), to gather, analyze and synthesize literature written on
storytelling to introduce storytelling as an effective tool for HRD practitioners. A good literature
review is that it has a methodology that clearly answers the six important questions as components
of a literature review (Callahan, 2010). We will respond to any of these questions within the text.
Table 1. Components of a Literature Review (Callahan, 2010)
Components
Databases and search engines
Period of time
Search responsible
Keyword combinations
Data set
Selection criteria
The questions
Where the literature was found?
When the search was conducted?
Who conducted the search?
How the literature was found?
What number of articles appeared?
Why some articles were chosen for inclusion over others?
Data collection. Table 2 indicates the number of existing literature written on storytelling. The
table is obtained by the reviewing journal articles database and publication centers, including
Emerald, Wiley, Science Direct, Sage, Springer, Oxford and JSTOR digital library (Databases
and search engines). In order to access to relevant papers, one of the researchers, Ali Asghari
Sarem, at the Lund University, started download papers from databases and search engines (Search
responsible) in December 2014. Nevertheless, literature search was conducted without a certain
period of time and considered journal articles at all time (Period of time). The search was
conducted with some key words. Story, storytelling, narrative, organization, human resource,
human resource development (HRD) and human resource management (HRM) were the key words
in this searching (Keyword combinations). As it is clear in the table 2, 480 papers were
downloaded, but just 111 of them were relevant to our purpose (Data set).
Table 2. The number of existing literature and relevant papers written on storytelling
Scientific data base
Emerald
Oxford
Sage
Science Direct
Springer
Wiley
JSTOR
Total
Number of downloaded papers
87
76
92
49
67
82
27
480
Number of relevant papers
57
2
22
7
5
6
12
111
Figure 1 shows frequency of the number of papers in their publication year. As the figure shows,
the interest in story and storytelling is in growing at recent years.
8
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Frequency of selected relevant papers
12
10
8
6
4
2
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
0
Figure 1. Frequency of selected relevant papers
Data analysis. Next step, after identifying these 111 related papers to the topic and purpose of this
paper, was to extract the themes. In order to achieving this aim, we concerned and analyzed the
results, findings and discussions of these papers. These papers discuss the role or contribution of
story and storytelling in different sort of management activities or organization process. They
argue that story and storytelling in work related situations or in organizations can be used in order
to achieving some kind of aims. In other words, common point of all these 111 papers is that they
have some implications for organization leaders, managers, and practitioners about the application
of story and storytelling in organization. Therefore, each of the 111 papers, in order to complete
an incomplete sentence, were considered and reviewed. In fact, completing the incomplete
sentence, was our main criteria in deriving and extracting themes from the results and finding of
relevant and selected papers. This incomplete sentence was: Story and storytelling has a role or
contribution in …. (Selection criteria). The blank in the sentence, were filled by the terms extracted
from the papers. Each term consists of a specific theme and also each term begins with an action
verb. Then, the action verb next to each specific themes, refers to the application of story or
storytelling in organization. The table A, in appendix, shows extracted themes from the selected
papers. This table indicates the use of storytelling as a tool for a range of organizational activities,
and different aspect of organization and management study. All 111 papers, in order to complete
the Table A, were reviewed. The result of this review, led to the extraction of 314 terms or phrases,
as shown in Table A.
Finding. After extracting the 314 themes, we tried to map them by categorizing. In order to
categorizing them, we code each of the extracted themes. We wrote each of the themes on a card
with its code. Then, started to put them together. We putted cards together based on the conceptual
relationship between them. Picture 1 shows the cards and putting them together in specific
categories.
9
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Picture 1. The cards and putting them together in specific categories.
Each card refer to a specific organizational concept, activity or processes. So we put the same cards
in same category. We did this activity in two different methods. First, we putted the card together
based on field of studies. This method highlights literature in each field of study, focusing on their
relevance to each area of study. Table 3, shows the categorizing literature written on storytelling
based on the field of study.
Table 3. Literature written on storytelling based on field of study
Authors
Gephart Jr (1991); Boje (1991); Vance (1991); Barry (1997); Faber
(1998); Kirsch (2004); Benjamin (2006); Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven &
Kroupa (2006); Denning (2008); Lapp & Carr (2008); Geiger &
Antonacopoulou (2009); Garcia-Lorenzo (2010); Kostera & Obło´
(2010); Hansen (2011); Carriger (2011); Kopp, Nikolovska, Desiderio
& Guterman (2011); Simpson (2012); Corvellec & Hultman (2012);
Creed, DeJordy & Lok (2014); Landau, Drori & Terjesen (2014)
Gephart Jr, (1991); Boje (1994); Abma (2003); Pässilä, Oikarinen &
Kallio (2013)
Boje (1991); Lerner (1992); Boje (1995); Ewick & Silbey (1995); Boyce
(1996); Volker, Phillips & Anderson (2011); Chen (2012)
Rentz (1992); Smith and Keyton (2001); Kirsch (2004); Mittins, Abratt
& Christie (2011); Herrmann (2011); Carriger (2013); Pässilä,
Oikarinen & Kallio (2013)
10
Number
Field of Study
20
Change
Management
4
7
7
Organization
Learning and
Development
Organization
Theory (OT)
Communication
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Authors
Lerner (1992); Sole & Wilson (1999); Hannabuss (2000); Swap,
Leonard, Shields & Abrams (2001); Küpers (2005); Bhardwaj & Monin
(2006); Sax (2006); Tobin & Snyman (2008); Escalfoni, Braganholo &
Borges (2011); Whyte & Classen (2012); Geiger & Schreyögg (2012);
Wijetunge (2012); Adorisio (2014); Rowlinson, Casey, Hansen & Mills
(2014)
Hansen and Kahnweiler (1993); Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994);
Humphreys & Brown (2002); Denning (2004); Soin & Scheytt (2006);
Driscoll & McKee (2007); Loseke (2007); Hyde (2008); Rindfleish,
Sheridan & Kjeldal (2009); Boje & Baskin (2011); Ohara & Cherniss
(2012)
Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994); Boje (1995); Boudens (2005); Soin &
Scheytt (2006); Ellis & Hibbert (2008); Middleton (2009); Syrjälä,
Takala, & Sintonen (2009); Escalfoni, Braganholo & Borges (2011);
Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan (2013)
Vance (1991); Phillips (1995); Morgan & Dennehy (1997); McKenna
(1999); Gold & Holman (2001); Abma (2003); Zeelen, Wijbenga,
Vintges and de Jong (2010); Carr & Ann (2011); Caminotti & Gray
(2012); Boston (2103); Robinson, (2013)
Barry & Elmes (1997); Alkon (2004); Denning (2006); Adamson, Pine,
Steenhoven & Kroupa (2006); Heil & Whittaker (2007); Marzec (2007);
Fenton & Langley (2010); Carriger (2010); Herskovitz & Crystal
(2010); Hansen (2011); Carriger (2011); Ohara & Cherniss (2012);
Bowman, MacKay, Masrani & McKiernan (2013); Chen (2013); Baker,
(2014)
Lloyd (2000); DeLarge (2004)
Ewick & Silbey (1995); Bradshaw (2002); Carreiro (2005); Denning
(2006); Harris & Barnes (2006); Grisham (2006); Driscoll & McKee
(2007); Boal & Schultz (2007); Denning (2008); Lapp & Carr (2008);
McKenna (2010); Carriger (2010); Carr & Ann (2011); Maclean,
Harvey & Chia (2012); Auvinen, Lämsä, Sintonen & Takala (2013);
Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist (2013); Carriger (2013); Kuran (2013)
Fonnesbaek & Andersen (2005); Klein, Connell & Meyer (2007);
Herskovitz & Crystal (2010); Merchant, Ford & Sargeant (2010);
Pulizzi (2012); BoUrdaa (2013); Hauff, Carlander, Gamble, Gärling &
Holmen (2014); Lee & Shin (2014)
Boudens (2005); Horsley (2007); Ellis & Hibbert (2008); McCarthy
(2008); Gill (2014)
Middleton (2009); Mittins, Abratt & Christie (2011); Gill (2014)
Number
Field of Study
14
Knowledge
Management
(KM)
11
9
Research
Methodology
11
Training &
Development
(T&D)
15
Strategic
Management
2
Design
Management
18
Leadership
8
Marketing
5
3
Tyler (2007); Kopp, Nikolovska, Desiderio & Guterman (2011); Beigi
(2014)
Syrjälä, Takala, & Sintonen (2009); Powell (2011)
11
Corporate
Culture
Organizational
Behavior (OB)
Organization
Image and
Reputation
3
HRD
2
HRM
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Overlapping researches are shown in Figure 2. This figure depicts a literature map written on
storytelling.
Communication
Mittins & et al. (2011)
Design
Management
Organization
Image &
Reputation
Pässilä & et al. (2013)
Organization
Learning and
Development
HRD
Kirsch (2004)
Kopp
&
et al. (2011)
Gill (2014)
Change
Management
Gephart Jr (1991);
KM
Storytelling
Literature
Lerner
(1992)
Marketing
Boje (1991)
Middleton (2009)
OT
OB
Escalfoni
&
et al. (2011
Boje (1995)
HRM
Abma (2003)
Boudens (2005);
Ellis & Hibbert (2008)
Denning (2008);
Lapp & Carr (2008)
Adamson & et al. (2006);
Kroupa (2006);
Herskovitz
Hansen (2011);
&
Carriger (2011) Crystal (2010)
Ewick
&
Silbey (1995)
Research
Methodology
Strategic
Management
Bowman & et al. (2013);
Carriger (2013);
Syrjälä & et al. (2009)
Carr & Ann (2011)
T&D
Ohara
&
Cherniss
(2012)
Denning (2006);
Carriger (2010)
Leadership
Driscoll & McKee (2007)
Corporate
Culture
Ledwell-Brown & Dias (1994);
Soin & Scheytt (2006)
Vance (1991)
Figure 2. Storytelling literature map and overlapping researches
As it is clear in Figure 2 and table 3, the 16 fieldhave addressed the role of storytelling in
organizations. Change management (20 research), leadership (18 research), strategic management
(15 research) and knowledge management (14 research), have the greatest attention to the role of
storytelling in organizations. HRD, with just 3 research, is one of the fields that have the least
interest in storytelling. Figure 3 shows the frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the
fields of study.
12
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the fields of study
25
20
15
10
5
0
Figure 3. Frequency distribution of storytelling literature in the fields of study
In the second method, we tried to categorize extracted themes based on common managerial or
leadership activities. Table 4, shows categorized selective literature based on the second method.
In this table, extracted themes are in the same category based on managerial or leadership
activities.
Table 4. Categorized relevant literature based on common managerial or leadership activities
Card Code
163-255-55-63-228-212-92-96-1-6-46-8-177-1732-201-197-193-189-205-254-244-301-304
77-294-33-35-213
83-267-277-152-21-91-7-78-47-226-237-71-90-161
34- 178-179-18-22-64-122-118-272
9-208-123-70-209
15-13-175-270-310-203-269-268-56-73-200-311109-108-137-106-136-241-257-219-61-107-68-3799-97-253
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102-223-65-247-225-146-240-128-129-180-148-67
127-121-214-224-246-72-58-74-93-101-16-20-2549-19-159-88-274
13
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Creating, facilitating, understanding and
managing change
Teaching
Learning, training, development
Research tool: gathering, analyzing and
interpreting date
Helping organization in achieving its purpose
and improving performance
Gathering, recording, sharing, transforming and
managing knowledge
Remembering past, explaining present and
forecasting future
Promoting teamwork, creating collaboration,
Culture: sharing meanings, reflecting cultural
features, building and conveying norms and
values
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Card Code
149-120-170-119-60-12-50-117-198-230-131-141295-171-172-186-95
138-264-26-233-235-139
280-181-182-98-103-104-231-218-110-243-220234-133-147-142-289-291-89
145-38
283-285-174-245-132-300-282-130-134
57-140-184
135-251-293-281-250-252-5
158-259-306-85-296-194-48-202-3-221-86-125236-36-299-29-160
239
84-210-183-94-54-232-143-144-279-298-166-249215-81199-290-302-312-303-216- 211-116-165-115-114113-164-258-155
14-314-275
153-126-229-157-53-52-87-51-100-271-206-297207-156-248-17-43
260-176-238-150-151-40-45-273
66-105
42-80-41-154-222
185-217-313
4-309-59-308-307
192-23-28-188-30-32-112-31-167-39-276-286-204195-196-191-62-69-82-24-261-76
111-44-265-288-75
256-292-278-162-242-27-227-263-266-262
168-284
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Attracting and shaping emotions, intentions and
perceptions
Organizing, understanding and reflecting
structure features
Communicating and conveying messages and
ideas and creating dialogue
Socialization
Motivating, inspiration, influencing
Building and fostering trust and commitment
Leading
Sense making to various aspect of organizational
life
Recruiting people
Shaping and influencing identity
Marketing internal and external costumers, and
branding
Demanding responsibility and accountability
Facilitating strategic management
Manipulating peoples and their ideas
Helping to design management
Planning and decision making
Reinforcement of corporate reputation
Shaping and influencing organizational memory
Studying postmodern issues of organization:
understanding and influencing reality, power,
diversity, gendered situations, marginalized
voices
Controlling
Creativity and Innovation
Defusing conflict and diversity
Discussion
“The most fundamental issue is not to be seduced by a good story, but to establish a
purpose and use Story as a tool, not as an end in itself” (Snowden, 2000).
According to Denning (2006), “it needs to be kept steadily in mind that storytelling is a tool to
achieve business purposes, not an end in itself”. For HRD practitioners, storytelling is a powerful
tool and self-development, performance, change and learning (Kuchinke, 1999; Garavan, Heraty,
& Barnicle, 1999; Hamlin & Stewart, 2011) are the end. HRD is a process or system within the
larger organizational and environmental system. The three critical application areas of HRD
include human resource management, career development and quality improvement (Swanson,
2001). According to Swanson and Holton, the purpose of HRD is to focus on the resource that
humans bring to the success equation—both personal success and organizational system success
(Swanson & Holton, 2009, p. 4). So, HRD serves the organization’s purposes, even when HRD is
14
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
itself a satellite organization (Watkins, 2000). Based on Hamlin and Stewart’s targeted literature
review on human resource development and study 24 definitions of HRD, four “core purposes” of
HRD are:
 Improving individual or group effectiveness and performance;
 Improving organizational effectiveness and performance;
 Developing knowledge, skills and competencies; and
 Enhancing human potential and personal growth (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011).
“HRD is any process or activity that helps or enables individuals, groups, organizations or host
systems to learn, develop and change behavior for the purpose of improving or enhancing their
competence, effectiveness, performance and growth” (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). HRD is linked to
organizational change; it is strategic and affects company performance through individual, team
and organizational development, change and learning (Kuchinke, 1998). Human resource
developers use learning and change to improve individual and organizational performance
(Watkins, 2000). According to the above definitions and frameworks, it can be argued that HRD
is a field of practice and study that seeks to improve organizational performance through the
promotion of learning, improving the ability to change and individual performance of human
resources. The literature reviewed in this paper robustly supports the concept that storytelling has
an effective role to play as a powerful and none-expensive organic tool for fulfilling HRD
purposes. Storytelling is effective for HRD and maybe “in certain situations, nothing else works”
(Denning, 2011, p. 5). As it is clear in the table 2 and the figure 2, storytelling in different field of
studies, is used in order to achieve various aims and purpose. Stories serve a variety of purposes.
According to HRD definition, context and model (Mankin, 2001; Swanson, 2008), HRD is linked
with many field of studies that are mentioned in table 3. Swanson and Holton define HRD as “a
process of developing and unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving individual, team,
work process, and organizational system performance” (Swanson & Holton, 2009, p. 4). The figure
4, shows HRD definition, components, applications, and contexts (Swanson, 2008).
Figure 4. HRD: Definition, Components, Applications, and Contexts (Swanson, 2008)
Also according to Mankin’s model (2001), HRD as a concept that comprises a variety of activities
and processes, has great commonalities with human resource management, strategy and structure,
15
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
and culture (Mankin, 2001). As it’s clear from table 2 and the figure 2, the literature reviewed in
this paper supports the effectiveness of storytelling in these field.
Figure 5. The HRD model (Mankin, 2001)
In summary, many of the contained concepts in the field of studies such as change management,
knowledge management, organizational training and development and training, are intimately
linked with HRD. Also, many of the activities listed in the table 4, such as facilitating change,
teaching, learning, training, development, motivating, inspiration and so on, are the parts of HRD
practitioner’s functions or objectives of HRD. For example, according to Boje (1991), in the
storytelling organization, stakeholders and consultants perform stories that make sense of and
influence change. He believes story performance and change are intertwined. In this process,
stories are created, old stories are remembered, some are revised, and stories about the future are
performed in the collective dialogue among organizational stakeholders as they make sense of and
even affect organizational change (Boje, 1991). Change is an important purpose in HRD
(Kuchinke, 1998; Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999; Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). It is worth noting
that the story performance is not limited only to the internal environment of the organization.
Rather, the range of possible organizational actions depends on societal narratives (Corvellec &
Hultman, 2012). Stories in some cases, have been change the main dialogue in some fields and
professions. For example, marketing now recommended the brand story rather than the brand
image, i.e. a strong brand represents a story (Salmon, 2010, p. 13; Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010,
p. 50). Managers and practitioners in organization can use storytelling, as a natural entry point, to
understand and intervene in the culture(s) of an organization (Boyce, 1996). Maybe, this ability of
storytelling, in some cases can causes bad effects on the organizational members. A part of
literature reviewed in this research Indicated that application of story and storytelling in
organizations, despite its positive effects, have a dark side and can be used as a tool in distortion
of the facts and manipulating people believes and actions (Boyce, 1996; Bradshaw, 2002;
16
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
DeLarge, 2004; Driscoll and McKee, 2007; Lapp and Carr, 2008; Geiger and Antonacopoulou,
2009; Auvinen and et al., 2013). As Dick (1978) mentioned:
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you
can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the
words” (Dick, 1978).
Stories happen in the world of language and words, so they can be the source of distortion. For
example, Auvinen and et al., (2013) identified the four types of manipulation through storytelling:
humorous, pseudo-participative, seductive and pseudo-empathetic. They discuss the issue of ethics
and storytelling in their article. Geiger and Antonacopoulou (2009), believe that sometimes
narratives limit the organization’s ability to “see” new perspectives or “listen” to other voices and
prevent the organization from questioning the principles underlying its past success. Lapp and Carr
(2008), argue storytelling can be seen as a form of seduction based on emotional response. Driscoll
and McKee (2007), suggest leaders can use stories to alter the values of their followers. Therefore,
beside the advantage aspect of narratives and stories, they also have been see from critical stance.
Salmon, in his book, “Storytelling, Bewitching the Modern Mind”, critiques the application of
storytelling and warn about their risks. He argue in this book that, “narratives are explicitly used
to conceal or distort the truth, and to manipulate states and public opinion” (Salmon, 2010, p. ix).
Boyce, challenge the application of storytelling in theory and practice of organization. He use
social constructivism, organizational symbolism, and critical theory to critique past research about
storytelling. He argues that research and application of story and storytelling processes presents
scholars, managers and practitioners with ethical/philosophical challenges. He notes that
storytelling is an example of a process that can nurture and create meaning or reinforce control
and manipulate meaning (Boyce, 1996). Bradshaw (2002) argues the presence of a powerful story
in organization and suggests that the danger of a powerful story in an organization is that it can
become hegemonic. Leaders can use stories to alter the values of their followers (Driscoll &
McKee, 2007) and through this, they can manipulate their followers’ actions and goals.
Sometimes, stories and storytelling appear in form of seduction based on emotional response and
thereby preventing a change process within the organization (Lapp & Carr, 2008). In this role,
stories and storytelling construct a self-sustaining frame of reference, preventing the organization
from questioning the principles underlying its past success. So, they can limit organization’s ability
to “see” new perspectives or “listen” to other voices (Geiger & Antonacopoulou, 2009). Some
authors have challenged the effectiveness of stories in the communication. For instance, according
to Carriger (2013), story is not simply effective at limiting the negative behavior impact of bad
messages news in organizations. He identifies that the delivery of bad news need for both accurate
facts and figures and a well-crafted narrative. In short, although most of the literature sees
storytelling as a positive, supportive and effective tool, but as we mentioned, this management tool
can also appears as negative or non-supportive tool.
Implications
Stories can help HRD practitioners in some situations where it is difficult to find ways to
communicate effectively (Beigi, 2014). HRD is about making a difference in the lives of people
and of organizations (Watkins, 2000). Organizational storytelling can be seen as a kind of
organizational learning discourse. Storytelling is a collective dynamic that scripts, sways and
disciplines organizational learning (Boje D. M., 1994), so stories and storytelling are a good and
effective tool in opening this dialogue and creating this change. Some researchers and authors,
17
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
have provided a sort of guidelines for helping practitioner to use storytelling in different situations
an in order to get different goals that we think they are useable for HRD practitioners. For instance,
Denning present a handy menu that lays out the uses of the various types of stories to achieve the
objectives like sparking action, communicating who you are, transmitting values, communicating
who the firm is-branding, fostering collaboration, taming the grapevine, sharing knowledge, and
leading people into the future. In this handy menu, the nature of story, how to tell a story, and some
possible phrases, as a starting sentence of story, are presented (Denning, 2011, pp. 17-19).
Storytelling circulation (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010), as shown in figure 4, is another way in
applications of storytelling in organizations. In order to establish a storytelling circulation, the
organization faced with five phases:
1. Searching: finding and gathering stories.
2. Sorting: listing the stories based on their depth and relevance for the objective.
3. Shaping: making the stories tellable by casting or placing them in the four elements of
storytelling.
4. Showing: communicating the stories to employees in the different forms.
5. Sharing: ensuring that the stories are told continuously and in the relevant context (Fog,
Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 156).
Sharing
Searching
Showing
Sorting
Shaping
Figure 4. Storytelling circulation (Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010)
HRD practitioners, by using the storytelling circulation, can take advantage of this effective tool
in achieving the HRD goals. They can use various vehicle for storytelling in organization.
Experiences, role play, case studies (Caminotti & Gray, 2012), novels and fiction (Beigi, 2014)
and film (Kirsch, 2004), are some of them. Stories are maps (Wilkins, 1984), they can help HRD
practitioners to shape human resource’s perception of "who they are" and "what they stand for"
(Fog, Budtz, & Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 132). Employee, by using this maps, learns certain ways of
thinking and acting. These maps that employees have in their heads are what they use to decide
how to act (Wilkins, 1984). When hearing or reading a story, the human resources are pulled into
the scene and feels the emotions the characters feel. They drawn back to a similar experience or
setting that has personal meaning (Morgan & Dennehy, 1997). HRD practitioners, by telling
18
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
positive, supportive and good stories (Wilkins, 1984) or altering the existing negative and none
supportive stories, can influence or deal with these employee maps and challenge the level of their
skills, knowledge, ability and competencies and by pulling them into new and supportive stories,
make them to improve and develop their level of development. According to Fog and et.al (2010),
strengthen the culture of organization and showing employees how they should behave in certain
situations, are two purposes for using storytelling as a management tool (Fog, Budtz, &
Yakaboylu, 2010, p. 133). Both of these goals, can helps HRD practitioners to facilitate the
development of human resources in organizations.
Technological development and new digital possibilities and media, provides new opportunities
for HRD practitioners to use stories fast and efficient. For example, according to Kirsch (2004),
the best means to tell a good story nowadays is on film. HRD practitioners, should be better
storyteller. As a story is a powerful and free technology that doesn’t need expensive hard/software
or experts (Wijetunge, 2012), HRD practitioners should improve their storytelling skill and take
advantage of these inexpensive, but powerful and effective tool. Although offering a cook book
recipe for that is a simplistic idea, but there are some guidelines to help HRD practitioner to
become better storytellers (Morgan & Dennehy, 1997; Wilkins, 1984; Harris & Barnes, 2006). We
claim that storytelling skill, is a one of the important skills that HRD practitioners need to add it
to their skill set. Nevertheless, HRD practitioners, in using the stories, must be careful about two
fundamental points. First of all they should aware that the components or content of a story do not
constitute the meaning of a story. The meaning is situationally created and a story has no meaning
a part from the occasion so fits telling or "performance" (Boje D. , 1991). Stories are always told
within particular historical, institutional, and interactional contexts that shape their telling, its
meanings and effects (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). It means that the meaning of a story depends on
the context of the telling; in particular the narrator and intended listeners of the story (Gephart Jr,
1991). HRD practitioners can tell stories for a variety of reasons, to a variety of audiences, with a
variety of effects with particular interests, motives, and purposes (Ewick and Silbey, 1995). Then,
a good story in a specific situation and with specific goal, may be regarded as a bad and nonproductive story in another situation. HRD practitioners, in searching, sorting, shaping, showing
and sharing stories, must consider the each specific context and purpose. The second point is that,
they should be careful about the dark side of stories and storytelling in the organization. This point,
points out the moral and ethical responsibility of HRD practitioners towards their employees.
Conclusion
Although Storytelling is an old-fashioned tool, but that’s exactly what makes it so powerful
(Monarth, 2014). The notion that stories are just for kids, would be a simplistic idea. Stories are
not for children, they belong to human. Humans are storytelling animals (Corvellec, 2015).
Narratives and stories are working all the time in the all levels of social and private life. People
and organizations make sense of the world via narratives and stories (Boje, 2008, p. 5). Then, in
today's world of organizations, the presence of stories and storytelling in organizations is
undeniable. Storytelling is both an art and a science (Snowden, 2000). HRD activities should
promote motivation, learning, performance, change ability (Garavan, Heraty, & Barnicle, 1999),
knowledge, skills and competencies (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). The findings from the literature
review in this research, confirmed our idea that storytelling is effective for HRD practitioners. So,
they must improve their storytelling knowledge and skills. Stories can be a source of inspiration,
motivation, and learning. We claim that HRD practitioners can and maybe should use this kind of
19
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
stories in their organizations. We believe they can challenge competencies and capabilities of
employee in organization by telling stories. They can create willingness and tendency in people to
move them toward improving their skills, knowledge and competencies and cope with problems
and difficulties in this way. We think storytelling can be seen as an effective organic tool in
creating of “development thirst”. For example, hearing success stories of others, despite their
difficulties and limitations, creates a sense in listeners and readers which motivate them to rethink
and reflect about their skills, knowledge, and competencies. So, they assess their level of
development and probably take steps to improve it. According to Brain Boyd, storytelling is a kind
of “cognitive play” (Austen, 2014). HRD practitioners can start a cognitive play in organization
member’s minds in order to challenge their development level. For example, if HRD practitioners
tend to engage employees in HRD programs, or would like to inspire and motivate them to improve
their competencies, storytelling is one of the powerful tools in fulfilling these goals (Harris &
Barnes, 2006). In conclusion, although this research supports effectiveness of storytelling in
organizations, but maybe our claims and propositions in this paper, must be tested empirically in
some future studies. In such a way, the story of storytelling in HRD will continue …
Appendix
Table A. Extracted themes from the selected papers.
Source
Gephart Jr (1991)
Boje (1991)
Vance (1991)
Rentz (1992)
Lerner (1992)
Hansen &
Kahnweiler (1993)
Ledwell-Brown &
Dias (1994)
Boje (1994)
Ewick & Silbey
(1995)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
To understand organizational change management
Creating change
Make sense of events
Connecting individual memories to institutional memory
Gaining political advantage
Introducing change
Effective learning
Facilitating change
Contributing to organizational performance
To use the past to explain the present
Anticipating the future
Capturing attention
Keeping precise record of events
Enabling the company to be more responsive
Sharing knowledge
Conveying organization’s interpersonal norms
Understanding the dynamics of corporate relationships
As a interview tool
Knowing certain organizational beliefs and expectations
Understanding culture
Organizational learning tool
Research tool
To re-veal truth
Unsettling power
Reflecting the cultural features of the context
Reflecting the structural features of the context
Providing openings for creativity and invention
20
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Boje (1995)
Phillips (1995)
Boyce (1996)
Barry (1997)
Morgan &
Dennehy (1997)
Barry & Elmes
(1997)
Faber (1998)
Sole & Wilson
(1999)
McKenna (1999)
Lloyd (2000)
Hannabuss (2000)
Swap, Leonard,
Shields & Abrams
(2001)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Reshaping the social world
As a tool in theorizing phenomena like organization
Revealing the marginalized voices
Showing dark side of organizations
Liberating organization people
As a tool for Teaching and study management
As a source of data
A resource in embellishing papers and presentations
Expressing the organizational experience of members or clients
Confirming the shared experiences and shared meaning
Orienting and socializing new organizational members
Amending and altering the organizational reality
Developing, sharpening and renewing the sense of purpose held by
organizational members
Preparing a group (or groups) for planning
Implementing plans and decision making
Co-creating vision and strategy
Reinforcing control
Manipulating meaning
Facilitating organizational change efforts
Training managers
A tool for interpreting behaviors
Understanding the organization’s culture
Capturing emotion
Conceptualizing strategic management
Highlighting the discursive, social nature of the strategy project
Linking strategy to cultural and historical contexts
Making organization’s identity
Creating change
Sharing experiences
Building trust
Cultivating norms
Facilitating unlearning
Generating emotional connections
Sharing knowledge
Identifying the gap between what an organization say and what do
understanding managerial complexity and paradox
As a methodology
As a mechanism in the development of a common language
As a useful indicator of good design
Aiding people to construction of social agreements
Eliciting tacit knowledge
Leveraging of the knowledge of an organization
To build core capabilities of an organization
Building critical skills of employees
Building norms and values
21
Code
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Smith & Keyton
(2001)
Gold & Holman
(2001)
Humphreys &
Brown (2002)
Bradshaw (2002)
Abma (2003)
Denning (2004)
Alkon (2004)
Kirsch (2004)
DeLarge (2004)
Küpers (2005)
Carreiro (2005)
Fonnesbaek &
Andersen (2005)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Carrying knowledge
Informing employees about organizational cultures
As an internal control device
Illuminating underlying issues about organizational relationships and
power distribution
As a teaching tool
Mediating the process of learning and action
Facilitating reflection
Enabling managers to address and solve a problem of their choice
Promoting self-awareness
Understanding of others
Promoting self-development
Encompassing Identity, both individual and collective
Make scenes of word
Reading meaning of life
Creating a vision of the future
Giving people a sense of direction, shared memories, and a definition of
community
As a source for social negotiations and conversations
As a learning tool
Fostering organizational learning
Designing change
Refocusing the organization’s culture
Informing the identities of individuals and groups
Shaping people’s perceptions of the circumstances in which their actions
take place
Creating a shared understanding of organizational change
Recording the lessons learned
Communicating the experiences
Knowledge creating
Refining strategy
Building cultural awareness
Promoting teamwork
Conveying lessons learned
Strengthening communications
Enhancement of design practices and relationships with clients
Transferring of implicit knowledge
Access, stimulate and re-arrange pre-existing implicit knowledge
Conveying a lot of non-explicit information
Conveying emotional knowledge and meta-knowledge
Communicating complex multi-dimensioned ideas
A location of organizational control
Reinforcing the distribution of power in organization
Increasing the perceived value of the product for buyers
Making product more attractive
22
Code
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Boudens (2005)
Soin & Scheytt
(2006)
Denning (2006)
Adamson, Pine,
Steenhoven &
Kroupa (2006)
Harris & Barnes
(2006)
Bhardwaj & Monin
(2006)
Sax (2006)
Grisham (2006)
Benjamin (2006)
Driscoll & McKee
(2007)
Heil & Whittaker
(2007)
Marzec (2007)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Injecting emotional value about products
Increasing the size of company’s target group
Examining the experience of emotion in organizations
As a data collection method
Identifying sequences of emotion
Connecting emotion to events
Developing our understanding in cross-cultural research
As a methodology
A tool to achieve business purposes
Making listeners familiar and comfortable with the future
Inserting meaning into memory
Understanding strategy in personal level
Crystallizing common values and beliefs
Building stronger teams
Building stronger sense of community
Creating a context for work aspirations
Making employee feel more valued
Making company happier
Communicating important messages in a memorable way
Creating inspirational culture in organizations
Developing effective relationships between leader and followers
Code
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
To visible tacit dimension of knowledge
136
Organizing vast and confusing amounts of information
Consecrating principles and rules
Organizing experience
Building trust
Demonstrating empathy
Communicating more effectively
As a tool for defining, securing and shaping people’s existence
Ensuring one’s survival in today’s continually changing global
environment
Transferring organizational culture to members
Connecting members to a larger community and a higher purpose
Helping leaders to communicate
Building a community
Influencing ethical thinking, attitudes, and behavior
Altering the values of followers
Shaping peoples thinking and actions
Helping participants develop situated skills
As a tool in strategic management
Building and understanding relevance business decisions
Helping employees appreciate the customers they serve
Helping employees
Realizing the business strategy
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
23
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Boal & Schultz
(2007)
Klein, Connell &
Meyer (2007)
Loseke (2007)
Horsley (2007)
Hyde (2008)
Denning (2008)
Tobin & Snyman
(2008)
Lapp and Carr
(2008)
Ellis & Hibbert
(2008)
McCarthy (2008)
Middleton (2009)
Syrjälä, Takala &
Sintonen (2009)
Geiger &
Antonacopoulou
(2009)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Shaping the evolution of agent interactions
Constructing the shared meanings
Coalescing the past, the present, and the future of the organization
Fostering organizational learning adaptation
Achieving innovation
Achieving Change
Changing client knowledge
Persuading clients
Creating identity at all levels of human social life
Challenging negative stereotypes and assumptions
A tool in exploring conflict and diversity
A vehicle to raise the women’s self-confidence
Conveying meaning and emotion into organizational life
Illuminating and obscuring, drawing attention towards certain matters
and away from others
Drawing attention to aspects of organizational life
Stimulating desire for change
Inspiring people enthusiasm for change
Code
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
Sharing knowledge
175
As a form of seduction based on emotional response
Preventing a change process
As data source
As a research method
Understanding collaboration
Conveying values and complex messages
Carrying messages and meaning
Fostering identity awareness
Fostering commitment
Studying and understanding corporate reputations
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
Mediating and reflecting People’s feelings and experiences
186
Constructing a self-sustaining frame of reference
Preventing the organization from questioning the principles underlying
its past success
Influencing and constructing organizational dynamics
187
Creating self-reinforcing mechanisms
190
Blinding spots: selective/competitor perception
191
Limiting the organization’s ability to “see” new perspectives or
“listen” to other voices
Limiting the capacity of organizations to engage in fundamental change
Sense making tool
Understanding the gendered situation
24
188
189
192
193
194
195
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Rindfleish,
Sheridan & Kjeldal
(2009)
Merchant, Ford &
Sargeant (2010)
Garcia-Lorenzo
(2010)
Fenton & Langley
(2010)
Carriger (2010)
McKenna (2010)
Herskovitz &
Crystal (2010)
Kostera & Obło´j
(2010)
Zeelen, Wijbenga,
Vintges & de Jong
(2010)
Volker, Phillips &
Anderson (2011)
Mittins, Abratt &
Christie (2011)
Hansen (2011)
Carriger (2011)
Herrmann (2011)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Understanding perceptions of inequity
Creating real cultural change
Code
196
197
Influencing and attracting emotions and intentions
An effective tool for attracting donations
To transmit and/or challenge existing collective knowledge
To cope with change
Sense-making
Transmission of experience
To re-create and re-enact reality
To cope with ambiguity and uncertainty
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
Contributing to a better understanding of strategy as practice
206
Making strategy persuasive and memorable
To inspire followers to achieve business goals
Linking actions in a causal sequence to business outcomes
Shaping Managers’ identities about what a manager should “be’’
207
208
209
210
To successful branding
211
Managing change
212
As a form of informal education
213
To avoid mistakes in cultural description
214
Influencing the firm’s identity
Influencing corporate brand
Influencing reputation
A form of internal organizational communication
An important source of information for management
To communicate the mission, values and strategic intent of the firm
Making sense of organizational context
Guiding action and decision making
Revealing the team’s collective understanding
Helping create the organizational culture and strategy
Coordinating team members
Empowering people to act intelligently
Improving Improvisation: flexible, fast, proactive
Enables change
As an effective tool for creating, disseminating and executing corporate
strategy
To access emotion
Conveying complex ideas
Developing Organizational and individual identity
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
25
229
230
231
232
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Carr and Ann
(2011)
Boje & Baskin
(2011)
Powell (2011)
Escalfoni,
Braganholo &
Borges (2011)
Kopp, Nikolovska,
Desiderio &
Guterman (2011)
Ohara & Cherniss
(2012)
Maclean, Harvey &
Chia (2012)
Whyte & Classen
(2012)
Simpson (2012)
Corvellec &
Hultman (2012)
Geiger &
Schreyögg (2012)
Pulizzi (2012)
Chen (2012)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
As an organizing principle
As communication tool
As a organizing process
As a sense making process
Code
233
234
235
236
As tools used in coaching for leadership development
237
Encouraging enchantment or disenchantment within the organization
238
As a key resource for recruiting members
Sustaining members participation
To capture, organize, and share organizational knowledge
239
240
241
Identifying innovation factors in organization
242
A communications tool
To reduce the stress and anxiety of organizational members during a crisis
Leveraging human capital pre-during, and post-crises
To foster a deeper understanding of the company culture
To unite employees across the organization
To help launch a new business strategy
To help launch a new brand identity
As a vehicle for self-legitimization and (re)framing leaders success
Justifying leaders position to themselves and others
An effective vehicle for legitimacy-claiming
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
Eliciting tacit knowledge
253
Understanding change and complexity
Conceptualizing change management
254
255
Ordering new activities, or new ways to organize old activities
256
To sharing knowledge
257
To attract and retain customers
258
Promoting consideration of agency and meaning-making
As a tool for combating disenchantment
Infusing organizational rationality
Charismatizing the routine
Inspiring listeners to imagine possibilities not covered by rules or
conventions
Staving off bureaucratic ritualism
Clarifying the boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate
activities
Encouraging a range of actions over coercive restrictions
A tool for Adult Learning
259
260
261
262
26
263
264
265
266
267
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Caminotti & Gray
(2012)
Wijetunge (2012)
Bowman, MacKay,
Masrani &
McKiernan (2013)
Auvinen, Lämsä,
Sintonen & Takala
(2013)
Chen (2013)
Robinson (2013)
Auvinen, Aaltio &
Blomqvist (2013)
Carriger (2013)
BoUrdaa (2013)
Pässilä, Oikarinen
and Kallio (2013)
Kuran (2013)
Boston (2103)
Hauff, Carlander,
Gamble, Gärling &
Holmen (2014)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
Code
To communicate and implement knowledge and wisdom
268
As a method of tacit-knowledge transfer management tool
Capturing knowledge
Conceptualizing Scenario planning
269
270
271
AS a conceptual lens for analyzing data
272
As a manipulation tool
273
Familiarizing organizations with members’ perspectives and interests
As a mechanism for demanding accountability
As a tool for recognition and voice
Facilitating organizational learning
Making people become critical and reflective thinkers
To develop or refine a professional identity
To transform people assumptions about knowledge
To evoke leadership
To Motivate
As a tool in inspiration
Defusing conflict
Influencing superiors
Discovering a focus
Constructing trust
As a tool for limiting the negative behavior
A means for a leader communication
To engage people in productions
To create dialogue
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
Shifting problem in a positive way
To leading people
To teaching and learning
292
293
294
Purchasing intention
295
To bring more meaning, focus and productivity on work and workplace
296
To engage and align employees around strategic planning efforts
297
Shaping people identities
Informing practices and choices
Animating people capacity for action
Providing a basis for agency for organizational change
To engage customers
To achieve customers loyalty
298
299
300
301
302
303
Baker (2014)
Creed, DeJordy &
Lok (2014)
Lee & Shin (2014)
27
Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
Source
Landau, Drori &
Terjesen (2014)
Adorisio (2014)
Rowlinson, Casey,
Hansen & Mills
(2014)
Gill (2014)
Storytelling has a role/contribution …
As a part of internal contestation over legitimation of change
To deal with the possibilities of organizing the selection and
interpretation of the past
Connecting meaning and events across different times
Shaping organizational memory
Code
304
305
306
307
To remember
308
Making organizational memory
309
Creating new knowledge
310
Consigning other knowledge to oblivion
311
Improving employee engagement and internal loyalty to the corporate
brand
Strengthening internal and external corporate reputation
Adding value to corporate social responsibility (CSR)
312
313
314
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Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
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Ali Asghari Sarem
PhD Candidate in Human Resource Management at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Visiting Researcher at Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Research Seminars, February 25, 2015
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