David M. Boje: Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. - book review

2001, London: Sage Publications. 152 pages.

In the dynamics of organizations, stories and narratives are salient phenomena. The patterns of communication, the rise of routines, the unfolding of networks, all can be seen as both the embodiment and the substrate of storytelling. As a result, narrative methods have become increasingly popular in organization studies. David M. Boje, professor of management at the New Mexico State University, has written an overview of methods to explore and describe the dynamics of storytelling. A central concern of his book is to address what he conceives as a major flaw, or at least a one-sidedness, of most narrative methods. With their focus on 'the story' and its structure ('plot'), linearity and coherence, they tend to overlook the ongoing processes of storytelling. As storytelling in organizational setting is non-linear, chaotic, multi-voiced and preliminary, narrative methods have to take account of these characteristics. This volume is a presentation and discussion of eight methods that seek to do this.

A key term that Boje launches is the notion of 'antenarrative'. His neologism has two connotations. First, 'ante' as 'before' refers to the complex, multi-voiced, fragmented, incoherent and ambiguous state before a well-aligned narrative can be said to exist. A narrative has the qualities of plot and coherence, and 'antenarrative' is the previous state of affairs. The second connotation is with speculation or gambling: ante is also a 'bet', for instance in a game of poker, or horse racing. Accordingly, the acts and moves of narrators are speculations in the ongoing narrative negotiations in organizations and, therefore, 'antenarrative'.

The book discusses eight possibilities or methods to study this ambiguous, non-linear, multi-voiced complexity: (i) deconstruction, (ii) grand narrative versus (iii) microstoria, (iv) network methods, analysis of (v) intertextuality, (vi) causality, (vii) plot and (viii) theme. The idea of 'method' is understood in a broad sense, and in many cases are rather approach perspectives.

The deconstruction approach is not new, of course, as all scholarly work seeks to unravel wholes into parts and explain their connections. The deconstruction of narratives usually relates to the urge to unmask ideological assumptions and to support the position of marginalized and disempowered groups. The fresh antenarrative angle, as Boje argues, is to follow the deconstruction that is already taking place in texts themselves and in organizational life in general. The analyst should build on the self-deconstructive nature of storytelling and follow the traces of self-deconstruction, such as the suppressed other voices or the implicit backstage.

In the second and third chapter Boje starts with Lyotard's famous diagnosis that 'grand narratives' have lost their moral dominance and have succumbed to the diversity of perspectives -- the postmodern condition. Yet, grand narratives still exist and exert force as dominant frames or 'regimes of truth' (Brown) in which local narratives have to find their way. 'In the interplay between grand and local narrative we can begin to recognize hegemony and posit the dynamics of the relationship' (p. 35) The Italian tradition of 'microstoria' addresses this challenge, and aims to unveil the web of stories in which the dominant organizational narrative appears. One may think of the unmasking of the dominant narrative of the CEO that conquers the world that ignores the stories of the 'little people' who do the work behind the stage and make the show happen. An important implication for organization studies is the notion of 'strategy' as a struggle between various stories, which raises questions about the authorship of t he dominant plot.

Story network analysis is introduced and discussed in the fourth chapter; it is a visually appealing method to explore and investigate the strong and weak ties (Granovetter) of people, themes, words and stories. Boje discusses the various ways to trace and represent networks and evaluates the pros and cons of software tools, such as Ethnograph, NUD*IST and NVivo. He is critical of the visual display techniques, as they suggest a linearity and simplicity, while 'the territory is messier than the map' (p. 65). A basic problem of network analysis is that any depiction of a network is static representation, while the antenarrative interest is in the storytelling dynamics. There is never a 'whole story' to consider. Another complicating factor is that story networks analysis has to consider two levels: the level of the unfolding and differentiation of multiple stories, and the level of the ties that produce and consume stories. 'It is in this boiling story assemblage and story disassemblage soup that network analy sis commences, as analysts add further assemblages to the concoction' (p. 65).

The last four chapters deal with the inherent characteristics of the stories in organizations, or rather the lack of them. The classic typology of plots, starting with Aristotle, is the romance (in which the hero transcends the conditions of the world), the satire (in which the hero experiences that an escape is illusory), comedy (in which a harmony is offered) and tragedy (in which the hero suffers, but with hope of a future liberation). The typology is misleadingly simple, as Boje underlines with an experiment in which students are asked to classify a Karl Marx text in terms of the classical plots. It appears that there is no definitive 'box' in the typology in which a text can be located. Again, Boje argues that such searches for patterns in the ongoing storytelling reduces and eventually ignores the richness of the storytelling dynamics. 'Taxonomy cells in narrative theory are little theme cages to entrap stories ... Beyond the cells of taxonomy is the messy plentitude' (p. 122). Instead, one should liber ate and do justice to the richness and the plenitude, and go against the established methods: 'narrative theme analysis degrades storytelling, the behaviour of the folk and the way they tell stories gets replaced by causal maps, themes and taxonomic charts, suitable for overhead display' (p. 125). As an alternative Boje discusses ways of using both deductive and inductive approaches, as well as a mixture of insider categories ('emic') or outsider categories ('etic') that are more appropriate.