Transforming Organizations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. The Narrative Approach to Transforming Organizations

   • Jacques Chlopczyk, Christine Erlach

   Pages 1-8

3. The Sun Is Still in My Eyes. Reflecting on the Constructiveness of Life

   • Wolfgang Tonninger

   Pages 9-19

4. Change and Transformation in the Storytelling Organization

   • Jacques Chlopczyk

   Pages 21-34

5. Six Perspectives on the Role of Story in Creating Flourishing Organisational Futures

   • Mary Alice Arthur

   Pages 35-54

6. Transforming Organisations Through the Re-authoring Lens and Practices

   • Chené Swart

   Pages 55-73

7. Developing the Future Stories of Companies: Open and Closed Story Worlds

   • Michael Müller

   Pages 75-88

8. Storywork: Facilitating the Transformational Power of Story in Brand and Organizational Development

   • Steph K. Bachmair

   Pages 89-102

9. Keeping Your Mythos Alive: How to Nourish and Nurture a Business’s Mythos Through Corporate Transformations

   • Silvia Zulauf

   Pages 103-120

10. Learning Histories: Re-authoring the Future in the Mirror of the Past

    • Rik Peters, Karin Thier

    Pages 121-136

11. Storytelling as a Guiding Leadership Principle: A Framework for Cocreating Narratives with Leaders

    • Jaana Rasmussen

    Pages 137-154

12. We Become What We Talk About: How Experimenting with Dialogue Can Change an Organization’s Culture

    • Jeffer London, John B. McGuire, Filipa Santos

    Pages 155-175

13. “Disruptive Story-Work” as an Intervention for Organizational Transformation

    • Yannis Angelis

    Pages 177-195

14. We Are All Chimeras: Promoting Unity, Diversity, and Ingenuity Through Metaphorical Storytelling

    • Brooke Hessler, E. D. Woodworth

    Pages 197-214

15. How to Look Up When You’re Facedown: The Rising Strong Process in Organizations

    • Katarina Veselko

    Pages 215-231

16. Re-authoring the Future of Travel and Hospitality: An Inquiring and Generative Re-authoring Practice in Tourism Flanders

    • Griet Bouwen, Marianne Schapmans, Chené Swart

    Pages 233-252

17. Re-authoring Careers: Changing the Narratives Around Work for Individuals and Its Impact on Organizations and Society

    • Marieke Genard

    Pages 253-270

18. The Magic of a New Beginning: A Personnel Development Department Reinvents Itself the Future of HR. Current Developments and a Methodological Approach to Narrative Transformation of HR Identity

    • Melanie Gabert

    Pages 271-285

19. Cultural Approaches Toward Time in Global Organizations

    • Joanna Sell

    Pages 287-301

Achieving true change and innovation depends on our ability to re-imagine and re-author the futures we want our organizations to have – and to open new perspectives and new ways of thinking, being and doing in the process. Narrative approaches and storytelling are powerful tools that can help us create a new future for branding and marketing, change, leadership, organizational learning and development.

Gathering contributions by scholars and practitioners from various disciplines, this book provides a unique overview of an emerging field of practice in organizations and communities. Rooted in a narrative conceptual framework, the respective papers describe a broad range of trans-disciplinary applications, tools and methods for effectively working with stories.

• Storytelling and Narratives in organizations
• Corporate communications with narratives
• Cultural approaches to management communication
• Metaphorical storytelling in companies
• Marketing by storytelling and naratives
• Corporate learning by storytelling
• Effectiveness of corporate videos
• Employee selection using narrative approach

• Zentrum für systemische Forschung und Beratung GmbH, Beyond Storytelling Partners, Mannheim, Germany

  Jacques Chlopczyk

• NARRATA Consult, Burscheid, Germany

  Christine Erlach

Jacques Chlopczyk is an organizational psychologist, systemic consultant, facilitator and author. He works internationally with profit and not–for–profit clients to ignite, facilitate and sustain change in their organizations and teams. He lectures on systemic consulting and change management at the Centre for Systemic Consulting and Research, The University of Trier (Germany) and other institutions. He is initiator and catalyst of the Beyond Storytelling Network and its conference, and is the editor of the book "Beyond Storytelling – Narrative Ansätze und die Arbeit mit Geschichten in Organisationen" (Springer, 2017) .


Christine Erlach studied psychology and systemic therapy. In her past experiences as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Munich (Germany) her studies dealt with power of narrative methods for finding and transporting tacit knowledge and cultural values and beliefs. For the last 20 years she has been using narrative methods to make implicit, experiential knowledge and beliefs tangible, and she advises organizations in knowledge transfer processes. 
She is founder of NARRATA Consult, a network that is specializing in narrative knowledge- and change management. She has authored numerous publications on narrative methods in organizations.

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