Critical Narrative Inquiry: Storytelling, Sustainability and Power

While organizations have become central for thinking and structuring contemporary social action, existing perspectives on what they are and how to deal with them are still rooted in modern ideas about the foundations of society. The chapters in this volume take critical narrative inquiry — inspired by postmodern or post-human approaches to organizations — as a broad range of research and development strategies that challenge the dominant perspectives prevalent in the organizational literature. The purpose of the volume is three-fold. Firstly, a critical reading of organizations foregrounding notions of power and ethics is presented. Secondly, a new framework for understanding and analyzing organizational action based on critical notions of storytelling and sustainability is unfolded. Thirdly, the framework is deployed through innovative concepts and learning methodologies for leadership, organizational, or community development. The authors engage in philosophical and theoretical reflections on the ways contemporary organizations work. They also present and analyze case studies of power, storytelling and learning in organizations. As a whole the book provides examples of what can be done to make organizations work in more appropriate ways in the future.