The Role of Storytelling in Affecting Organizational Reality in the Strategic Management Process

This article analyzes the role of stories and storytelling in organizations, and in particular, develops propositions regarding how different types of stories might affect socially constructed reality in different ways, and thus may have different types and levels of utility in influencing the strategic management process. In analyzing stories, this paper develops a comprehensive model describing the different story types and their roles in impacting social reality in organizations. The story typology is developed based on time (i.e. story memorability and longevity), the level of story color, and the level of employee need fulfillment met by the story, and stories are categorized as descriptive, anecdotal, script, and epic.