1st Edition
Stories for Management Success The Power of Talk in Organizations
We tend to assume that we may divide our activities into talk and action. In so doing we tend to suggest that talk is subordinate to action.
Taking issue with these presumptions, Stories for Management Success: The Power of Talk in Organizations argues that talk is central to what managers do. Indeed it argues that, for managers, ‘walking the walk’ necessarily implies ‘talking the talk such that storytelling is now central to managerial work’. Noting that managerial talk is increasingly located within an account of storytelling the book offers a critical review of the academic debates associated with telling tales at work and uses this critical reflection to shape and guide those who would realise the power of talk. Thus, the book concludes with six key questions designed to prompt both introspection and action on storytelling in an organized context. With reflections on the relevant management research, the author provides a scholar's digest to aid management thinking and practice.
This book offers an examination of the processes of organizational storytelling and has been designed to allow practitioners of management to recognise and in so doing to unleash the power of talk in organizations.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Managerial Work
3. Organizational Storytelling
4. Reports, Opinions and Proto-stories
5. Putting Stories to Work
6. Concluding Comments.
Bibliography
Index
Biography
David Collins is Professor in Management and Dean of the Suffolk Business School, University of Suffolk (UK). A graduate of the Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Essex, David is British by birth and Scottish by the Grace of God. This is his fourth book published by Routledge.
‘David Collins has succeeded where few others have. He has written a book on the power of storytelling in management that is readable, critical and provocative. It is a book that will enlighten and stimulate practicing managers, students and scholars. But the highest praise for the author is that in doing all this he has told a powerful story in its own right. And he has told it brilliantly.’ Yiannis Gabriel, Professor, University of Bath, UK
