Panel proposal: A Discourse Activist Perspective on Organizational Storytelling

In the panel diverse discursive approaches to storytelling are discussed with special attention on their potential to foster organizational reflexivity and change. We engage methodological - theoretical, analytical and philosophical - discussions and its implications for practice. For instance, discussions on key concepts and main understandings of aspects such as narratives, stories, dissent, discourse, power, ethics, organizational change together with the position of the involved discourse scholar. Hence, it contributes to the field of Organizational Discourse Studies (ODS), in which scholars are actively involved in dealing with local organizational challenges (cf. Grant & Iedema, 2005; Alvesson & Kärreman, 2011; Iedema, 2011). According to several discourse scholars narration and storytelling is viewed as important daily activities that (re)shape reality and identities with certain local and future consequences (Bager, 2015, 2016; Bamberg, 2005, 2011; Czarniawska, 2015; Taylor & Van Every, 1999; Cooren, 2015). Storytelling is understood as situated, plurivocal, multimodal and embodied interactional features that constitute discourses, identities and realities in a dialectical interplay between local and broader discursive dimensions (cp. discourse with respectively a lowercase d (discourse1) and a capital D (discourse2); Gee, 1999; Nicolini, 2009, 2016; Iedema, 2003). Storytellers co-author stories/narratives and discourses in local settings that involve a plurality of voices and often run counter to more crystallized narrative and discursive structures, such as political organizational and societal structures. (cp. Bakhtinian heteroglossia; Bager, et. Al, 2016, Bager, 2015; Bakhtin, 1982, 1993). The panel invites approaches that address the ‘smallness’ and the more unformal dimensions of organizational storytelling practices such as small stories (Bager, 2016; Bamberg, 1997, 2006; Bamberg & Georgakopoulou,, 2008), counter-narratives (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004, Boje et al, 2016; Frandsen, Kuhn, & Lundholt, 2016) ante-narratives (Boje, 2011; Boje et al, 2016; Svane, In press), dialectical Storytelling (Boje, 2016a, 2016b), performative storytelling (Arendt, 2003; Butler, 2015; Jørgensen, 2016, 2017), true storytelling and the like. Attention is paid to how discourse scholars can oscillate between diverse discursive organizational levels spanning from local here-and-now situations to broader organizational, political and societal spheres (Nicolini, 2009, 2016). The normative and ethical scope is to challenge organizational crystallized ways of saying and doing things together with the socio material and political practices that such activities are embedded in (cp. reflexivity in action; Cunliffe, 2003; Cunliffe & Coupland, 2011; and Butler’s reflexive undoing). The main objective is to foster dissensus-based (Deetz, 2001), democratic, egalitarian and multivoiced organizational and societal practices. Invited contributors and title of their presentations:Kenneth Mølbjerg, Professor, AAU, Dept. of Business and Management: Storytelling and the space of appearance in enacting Organizational ChangeMarita Svane, Associate Professor, AAU, Dept. of Business and Management: Storytelling and Performative Grounded TheoryAnn Starbæk Bager, Assistant Professor, AAU, Dept. of Communication and Psychology: Dialectical Discursive Storytelling in Organizational TransformationsLise-Lotte Holmgren, Associate Professor, AAU, Dept. of Culture and Global Studies: Recruiting who?: A narrative approach to studying organizational change Henrik Koll, Ph.d. scholar, SDU, Dept. of Language and Communication: Countering the ‘corporatization’ narrative: Exploring struggles for organizational hegemonyJens Larsen, Author and founding Partner at Old Friends Industries & Lena Bruun, Partner at Old Friends Industries: True Storytelling - Bridge the gap between ongoing changes and longing for meaning in the organizationAnders Horsbøl, associate Professor, AAU, Dept. of Communication and Psychology: Locally counteracting international crises: narratives of municipal agency References: Arendt, H. 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