Abstract
This paper approaches the nexus of metaphor and story from a novel angle, one that underlines the varying dynamics of metaphoric utterances (metaphors in segments of speech) within stories on organization. Drawing on Bakhtin's theoretical contribution, it examines the dialogism in metaphor, illustrating it with material from different stories that discuss the same inter-organizational relationship. The paper sets out simultaneous contradictions inherent in four metaphorical utterances (‘cash cow’, ‘dragging a child kicking and screaming’, ‘big brother/Big Brother’ and ‘family’). It illustrates how the same metaphoric utterance can be used in different stories to generate different effects (the double voice and intonation in metaphor) or to yield different meanings altogether (the polysemy in metaphor). The paper forwards an ongoing interrelationship between story and metaphor: metaphoric utterances serve as a means of surfacing value judgments and illustrating both resonance and dissonance in organizational stories, while stories define the meaning and the significance of a metaphoric utterance.
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