Un‐entwining monological narratives of change through dramaturgical and narrative analyses

Abstract

The concept of a single reality view of social situations has been problematized and deconstructed in recent critical literature on organizations. However, much of the managerial literature promotes concepts and models of unity, and hence much managerial intent and action is still bounded by convergent and exclusive thinking, within a unified and unifying structure. In critically engaging with notions of unity and convergence in an organizational context, we seek to promote divergent thinking that accepts that organizational actors perceive multiple realities, and that these are not unstructured, but are framed by micro‐level structures that are both constraining of, and constructed within these realities. We apply dramaturgical and narrative analyses to elucidate and elaborate organizational actors' complex realities of the experience of change through tracing and deconstructing the various narrative lines which were intertwined in monological accounts that predominated in the organizational situation from which our illustrations are drawn.The illustrative examples for this paper are drawn from a series of longitudinal interventions within a large public sector organization, investigated through multi‐methods including consultancy projects, structured and unstructured interviews, questionnaires and participant observation. The material drawn from the various interventions has been subject to reflection and critical examination over time and from a number of perspectives.