Storytelling and management.

[摘要] The concept of storytelling and management / organisation throughout the World hasbeen intensively researched in recent years. For instance, Blunt and Jones, 1991;Lessem, 1989, 1993, 1994; Christie, 1993; Chown, 1994; Mbigi, 1993; Zemke, 1990;O'Reilly. 1985; Wilkins, 1984 and many more, have made a significant contributiontowards storytelling and management.This report was aimed at providing a partial answer to the following question:At the level of management style or in their technique, areSouth African managers inspired storytellers or detachedanalysts?The fundamental aim was to establish whether storytelling forms an important part ofthe South African manager' s leadership repertoire. In conjunction with this aim, theproposition made by Lessem (1994) that storytelling competence is an importantsubset of communal management, was tested.Propositions for this research were as follows:Storytelling is an important competency for South African managers.• Storytelling is used consciously by South African managers to achievespecific aims.• South African managers can identify the characteristics of good, healthystories and good storytellers in organisations.• South African managers can identify specific examples ·of stories used in theirown organisations.• South African managers can identify other managers who use storytelling aspart of their leadership repertoire.The research was confined to organisations operating within the PWV boundaries.the method of snowball sampling was utilised to collect the data, wherebytelephonic contact was made with individual members of' executive teams inorganisations. These individual managers were asked if they could identify anypersons within the executive team whom they would characterise as using stories aspart of their leadership repertoire. (Abbreviation abstract)

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand