Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research

‘The book is a unique and excellent introduction to postmodern narrative analyses’ – Organization Studies ‘[This book] should succeed in putting the metaphorical cat amongst just about every metaphorical pigeon that might imaginably take flight within the organization and communication research arenas. Story time will never be the same again, nor will interpretative research’ – Stewart Clegg, University of Technology, Sydney ‘Timely and first rate. It nicely stretches a reader’s thinking about the topic’ – Thomas Lee, University of Washington, School of Business ‘David Boje is a pioneering theorist in organization studies and management…[His book] is yet another example of Boje’s pioneering spirit and concern for exactitude.

[His] scholarly account of narrative and antenarrative methods is both corrective and exploratory of how stories must be understood in terms of their own internal dynamics, and not viewed as static entities. Boje’s book is a magnificent start…A book that breaks new ground in organizational analysis, this is a must-read for researchers and practitioners in the fields of organization and management studies’ – Adrian Carr, University of Western Sydney ‘Boje masterfully shows how to analyze texts and ideas before they are reduced and fitted into the dominant ideological frameworks of the day. [He] provides a powerful tool for achieving greater democracy in how we approach doing social science…[and] liberates our capacity to make meanings for ourselves’ – Paul Hirsch, Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management ‘This is an important book.

It is a major methodological contribution to critical, postmodern studies of organizations and management. It is essential reading for critical management scholars’ – Robert P. Gephart, Jr., University of Alberta School of Business ‘David Boje has emerged as the leading postmodern thinker in management theory and organization science.

His prolific output lights the path for others to follow in a field awakening to the challenge of postmodern critical theory. Updating and revising narrative theory for the prevailing “postmodern condition,” Boje masterfully reconstructs the concepts and methods of storytelling, as he subverts the dominant principles of modernist organization theory. He offers a subtle and complex notion of narrative…This impressive book should leave an indelible mark on management and organization studies’ – Steven Best, University of Texas, El Paso An essential guide for academics and researchers needing to look at alternative discourse analysis strategies.

As a research tool, narrative methods have become increasingly useful in organization studies, where much research involves the interpretation of ‘stories’ in some form. This methodology can be applied where qualitative story analyses can help to assess interview, newspaper or web document stories for research projects. In this book, Boje sets out eight analysis options that can deal with storytelling, recognizing that stories in organizations can be self-destructing, flowing, networking and not at all static.

In so doing, he shows ways in which narrative methods can be supplemented by ‘antenarrative’ methods, where fragmented and collective storytelling can be interpreted. A valuable resource that will be widely used in organizational or communications research, for graduate level qualitative methods seminars and by researchers wanting to do story analysis. David Boje is Professor at the New Mexico State University.

He is also on the editorial board of the journal Organization.