Battling with Swords and Shields: a Semantic Analysis of the Paradox of Belonging and Performing in a Cooperative

Bruno Felix

doi:10.1590/1984-92302021v28n9903en

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to understand how the semantic analysis of the process of (re)construction of organizational narratives can help a cooperative to manage paradoxical goals. We performed a single case study based on in-depth interviews with 47 employees, non-participant observations, and document analysis in a Brazilian credit cooperative. Our results showed that individuals may tell stories to influence others’ sensemaking of “what is going on here.” When such stories show semantic fit with the linguistic organizational context, they become able to shape others’ sensemaking. As different and competitive stories can coexist, they can reflect both polarized (e. g., “we are financial-centered” versus “we are social-centered”) and paradoxical self-definitions (“we are financial-and-social-centered”). Thus, the semantic element of organizational narratives not only highlights the dialogical nature of organizations but also their paradoxical nature.

Highlights

Given the challenges that traditional business models are facing in generating value in the context of postindustrial societies, cooperatives have been presented as an alternative that has increasingly demanded the attention of academics and practitioners (Spear, Cornforth, & Aiken, 2009)
Given that organizing is performed by language, a semantic analysis of the stories that permeate the process of managing the paradoxes in an organization can enable relevant theoretical and practical advances related to the micro aspects of organizational sensemaking (Näslund & Pemer, 2012)
We studied the case of a cooperative, employing the narrative approach and seeking to analyze how understanding the process for constructing and reconstructing organizational narratives can help a cooperative to manage paradoxical, social, and financial goals

Summary

Introduction

Given the challenges that traditional business models are facing in generating value in the context of postindustrial societies, cooperatives have been presented as an alternative that has increasingly demanded the attention of academics and practitioners (Spear, Cornforth, & Aiken, 2009). Despite the undeniable contribution of these studies, there is an opportunity to clearly understand this process by adopting a narrative perspective of organizations, in which they are viewed as discursive spaces (Brown, 2006) or storytelling systems (Colville, Brown, & Pye, 2012) This choice, which is adopted in the present study, allows us to explore how a cooperative is (re)constructed based on the use of narratives and the words used to tell stories (Boje, 1995; Brown, 2006). Given that organizing is performed by language, a semantic analysis of the stories that permeate the process of managing the paradoxes in an organization can enable relevant theoretical and practical advances related to the micro aspects of organizational sensemaking (Näslund & Pemer, 2012)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion