Stories of innovation: roles, perspectives, and players

Purpose

– This study aims to examine the roles of stories in the innovation process.

Design/methodology/approach

– An integrative literature review was used to identify and analyze studies that examined stories of innovation in various organizational settings. The conceptual framework of the review was based on three perspectives of organizational culture: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation.

Findings

– A typology of the roles of stories of innovation was synthesized from a review of the literature. The major roles in the typology included fostering a culture of innovation, managing product planning and project teams, facilitating idea generation and problem solving, and analyzing failed innovations. These roles were congruent with multiple perspective of organizational culture, including integration, differentiation, and fragmentation.

Research limitations/implications

– Additional research should be conducted to further explore and confirm the study's exploratory typology as a possible extension to the role of organizational narrative in the process of innovation.

Practical implications

– The study's conceptual typology can presently serve as a useful learning tool for HRD practitioners to facilitate an organization's understanding of the innovation process.

Originality/value

– The study presents a new approach to analyzing the roles of stories in innovation with perspectives of organizational culture and provides an initial base for further research that might extend understanding of the types of roles narratives play in innovation.

Finding Myth and Motive in Language: A Narrative of Organizational Change

Our article defines myth as “ideology in narrative form” and explores the role of myth in an organizational change story. Following Roland Barthes we show that when word meaning shifts from first- to second-order semiology the myth that develops within the second-order semiology of a discourse may become a determinant of change outcomes. Here we tell a story of a symphony orchestra that operated as a self-governing co-operative for its first 25 years but, influenced by the storying of second-order semiology, it undertook a radical change: it adopted a corporate style of governance. We explore this change as an example of a restructuring that was assumed to be managed rationally but was in part mythologically driven.