This book is the story of how four busy executives, from different backgrounds and different perspectives, were surprised to find themselves converging on the idea of narrative as an extraordinarily valuable lens for understanding and managing organizations in the twenty-first century. The idea that narrative and storytelling could be so powerful a tool in the world of organizations was initially counter-intuitive. But in their own words, John Seely Brown, Steve Denning, Katalina Groh, and Larry Prusak describe how they came to see the power of narrative and storytelling in their own experience working on knowledge management, change management, and innovation strategies in organizations such as Xerox, the World Bank, and IBM.

 

Social scientists are increasingly invoking ‘narrative’ in their theory and research. This book explores the wide range of work in sociology, psychology and cultural studies where narrative approaches have been used to study meaning, subjectivity, politics and power in concrete contexts.

Towards a "Natural" Narratology makes an intervention into ongoing debates in literary theory and criticism. Monika Fludernik argues for a new narrative theory which builds on insights from conversational narrative while touching on key issues for poststructuralists. Drawing on insights from cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis and structuralist narratology, the author examines narrative structures as they have developed from oral storytelling to the realist novel and beyond.