BBR Narrative Methods Summer Session 2024

These are the main slides from the BBR Summer Session 2024 on Narrative Methods

1. Summer Sessions 2024 Online Qualitative Methods Training Narrative Methods Dr Helen C Williams & Professor Katrina Pritchard School of Management, Swansea University

2. Our story… Advanced Qualitative Methods Leadership Teaching UG, PGT & MBA Gendered expectations as & at work Podcast: Prefer not to say… Inequalities In Entrepreneurship Negotiating Difference At Work

3. Online Summer Sessions 2024

4. What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple question Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start? Linguistic structural based analysis Dialogic narrative analysis Storytelling diamond Poststructuralish narrative analysis Key challenges This session: Narrative Methods

5. What is narrative?

6. “…stories, sagas, myths, fables, tales, legends, narratives of every kind are the yarn from which culture is woven. They are what gives people a past and a future, what celebrates their achievements, what gives meaning to their suffering, what organizes their experiences and, often, drives their actions” (Gabriel, 2018: 63) What is narrative? ”recounting things spatiotemporally distant” ( Toolan , 2013: 1)

7. Narrative analysis is widespread across organisation studies/management in areas of research such as: sensemaking identity and identity work (including professional) learning and knowledge leadership and strategy culture (and culture change) organisational change (including technology, M&A etc) diversity and inclusion What is narrative?

8. The answer depends on your ontological and epistemological positioning Different fields of enquiry have significantly different approaches (even though may use the same terms) Cultural traditions and historical perspectives are important to consider (see for example Chilisa 2020 on Indigenious Research Methodologies) What is narrative?

9. Part of everyday existence, how we all make sense of the world, the basis for knowledge (long before the scientific method) Basis for all qualitative data (visual, textual, material etc) Parts of our data that we as researchers identify in our data as comprising specific features An approach to analysing communication The outputs of our research (researcher as storyteller, production of metanarratives) What is narrative?

10. There are some similarities in perspectives around aspects such as: Narrative is more than syntax and linguistic composition Narrative is both grounded in a specific telling or performance but also (re)constructs wider understandings A wide variety of modes might (or might not) be enrolled depending on the context, narrative is situated but not necessarily bound Narratives are temporal and involve sequencing What is narrative?

11. There are significant differences relating to issues such as: Whether/how notions of ‘truth’ (and fiction) are relevant The roles of researcher and participant(s); teller and audience The analytic ‘crux’ of narrative including the material & digital Is there an end (coda) or are narratives continually unfolding? Interest in what holds narratives together vs how they fall apart ( antenarrative ) What is narrative?

12. What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple question Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start? Dialogic narrative analysis Storytelling diamond Poststructuralish narrative analysis Key challenges This session: Narrative Methods

13. Significant debate about the relation between narrative, story, discourse and rhetoric Emerging discussions about multimodal narrative and contemporary (often digital) narrative forms Some authors use terms interchangeably , some order them hierarchically whilst other differentiate completely – there is not a correct answer (but you need to position your own work appropriately) Narratives & other communicative modes

14. Narratives & other communicative modes

15. What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple question Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start? Linguistic structural based analysis Dialogic narrative analysis Storytelling diamond Poststructuralish narrative analysis Key challenges This session: Narrative Methods

16. Key authors: Labov (1967), Thornborrow (2023) Area: Linguistics Focuses on the structural or component analysis on monologue and polyphonic narratives; can become conversation analytical with the latter Analytic aspects: analytic attention to narrative construction by unpacking the form including (based on Labov : abstract, orientation, complication, resolution, evaluation, coda) others have added narrative aspects such as ‘conversational historic present tense’ (re-enactment) (see Thornborrow ) unpacking roles within polyphonic narratives including enrolment, support, challenge etc. Linguistic structural analysis

17. Key authors: Frank (2012), Smith (2016) Area: Health psychology Advocates ethnographic immersion, emphasises embodiment, has an ambiguous relationship with the material (only people tell stories) Analytic aspects: understanding the stories (Smith calls this ‘indwelling’) unpacking the resources and whom has access to these assessing narrative themes and structures mapping circulation and affiliation considering story implications Dialogic Narrative Analysis (DNA)

18. Storytelling Diamond Key authors: Boje (2018) Rosile (2018) Area: Organisation studies Proposes that antenarrative processes are in-between the edges of the the diamond Analytic aspects: Analytic aspects: offers guidelines on locating as a reviewer and researcher across the diamond rather than analytic steps

19. Key authors: Boje , Jorgensen, Vaara , Gimenez (and others who might prefer a label of discursive rather than narrative) Area: Many! Tends to focus on power relations, marginalisation and emancipation through narrative, may also enrol embodiment, space, materiality or align with ANT-type perspectives Analytic aspects: power relations, resistance, fractured and marginalised stories storied and re-storied subjects (and subjectivity) complex actors intertextuality and interdiscursivity; other forms of connectivity between local and wider stories Poststructuralish narrative analysis

20. Gimenez’s approach highlights narrative networks within a framework of Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis Poststructuralish narrative analysis

21. Clear ontological and epistemological positioning is critical A thorough understanding of narrative concepts in the relevant field is essential Attach your work to an existing conceptual framework or explain where you sit in relation to key conceptual frameworks Narrative reflexivity – what is the researchers story? Key challenges

22. Key challenges Data One Data Two Data Three Code A Code A Code A Much qualitative research begins with a process of coding through which researchers search for patterns across different data sources. Many approach this as a search for topics, concepts or meanings and so data is broken down in a search for its constituent parts. There is often little consideration of narrative at this early stage and tools like Nvivo can drive this fragmentation of data. Whatever approach to narrative analysis you are considering try to begin with this as a framework for your analytic approach rather than retrofitting it onto a basic thematic (topic) driven analysis

23. Key challenges

24. What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple question Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start? Linguistic structural based analysis Dialogic narrative analysis Storytelling diamond Poststructuralish narrative analysis Key challenges This session: Narrative Methods

25. Boje , D. M. (Ed.). (2011).  Storytelling and the future of organizations: An antenarrative handbook  (Vol. 11). Routledge. Cunliffe, A.L., Luhman , J.T. & Boje , D.M. (2004) Narrative temporality: Implications for organizational research. Organization Studies, 25(2),261–286 Frank, A. W. (2002). Why study people's stories? The dialogical ethics of narrative analysis.  International journal of qualitative methods ,  1 (1), 109-117. Gabriel, Y. (2018). Stories and narratives.  The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods: Methods and Challenges. London: Sage , 63-81. Gimenez, J. C. (2010). Narrative analysis in linguistic research.  Research methods in linguistics ,  1 , 198-215. Maitlis , S. (2012). Narrative analysis. Qualitative organizational research: Core methods and current challenges, 492-511. Robert, D., & Shenhav , S. (2014). Fundamental assumptions in narrative analysis: Mapping the field. The qualitative report, 19(38), 1-17. Rosile , G. A., Boje , D. M., Carlon , D. M., Downs, A., & Saylors , R. (2013). Storytelling diamond: An antenarrative integration of the six facets of storytelling in organization research design. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 557-580. Smith, B., & Monforte, J. (2020). Stories, new materialism and pluralism: Understanding, practising and pushing the boundaries of narrative analysis. Methods in Psychology, 2, 100016. Toolan , M. J. (2013).  Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction . Routledge. Thornborrow , J. (2023). Why narrative matters.  The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis . Vaara , E., Sonenshein, S., & Boje , D. (2016). Narratives as sources of stability and change in organizations: Approaches and directions for future research.  Academy of management annals ,  10 (1), 495-560. Selected further reading

26. Online Summer Sessions 2024

27. @ProfKPritchard @HelenCWilliams @BreakBinaries [email protected] [email protected]