This article suggests that by regarding the semantics of storytelling, we are able to explore how dominant stories influence and may contribute to organizational inertia. Using data from two change projects in large Scandinavian companies, it is shown that in the negotiation of meaning those stories that display semantic fit with the dominant story are perceived as more convincing, while those stories that lack this attribute appear oxymoronic and fail to have an impact. As a result, the organization is only able to change in a manner congruent with the dominant story and becomes inert in other respects. We suggest that a dominant story fixes not only the meaning of events, but also the meaning of the labels available for sensemaking. By this appropriation of language, the dominant story circumscribes sensemaking and storytelling possibilities, and thereby restricts organizational flux.
Aaltio-MarjosolaI (1994) From a ‘grand story’ to multiple narratives?Journal of Organizational Change Management7(5): 56–68.
2.
AllcornSGodkinL (2011) Workplace psychodynamics and the management of organizational inertia. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal21(1): 89–104.
3.
BakhtinMM (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
4.
BakhtinMM (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
5.
BakkenTHernesT (2006) Organizing is both a noun and a verb: Weick meets Whitehead. Organization Studies27(11): 1599–1161.
6.
BojeDM (1991) Consulting and change in the storytelling organization. Journal of Organizational Change4(3): 7–17.
7.
BojeDM (1995) Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-land’. Academy of Management Journal38(4): 997–1035.
8.
BojeDMOswickCFordJD (2004) Language and organization: The doing of discourse. Academy of Management Review29(4): 571–577.
9.
BoyceME (1995) Collective centering and collective sensemaking in the stories and storytelling of one organization. Organization Studies16(1): 107–137.
10.
BrannenMY (2004) When Mickey loses face: Recontextualization, semantic fit, and the semiotics of foreignness. Academy of Management Review29(4): 593–616.
11.
BrownAD (2004) Authoritative sensemaking in a public inquiry report. Organization Studies25(1): 95–112.
12.
BrownAD (2006) A narrative approach to collective identities. Journal of Management Studies43(4): 731–753.
13.
BrownADGabrielYGherardiS (2009) Storytelling and change: An unfolding story. Organization16(3): 323–333.
14.
BrownADHumphreysM (2003) Epic and tragic tales: Making sense of change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science39(2): 121–144.
15.
BrownADStaceyPNandhakumarJ (2008) Making sense of sensemaking narratives. Human Relations61(8): 1035–1062.
16.
BuchananDDawsonP (2007) Discourse and audience: Organizational change as multi-story process. Journal of Management Studies44(5): 669–686.
17.
ClairRP (1993) The use of framing devices to sequester organizational narratives: Hegemony and harassment. Communication Monographs60(June): 113–136.
18.
CurrieGBrownAD (2003) A narratological approach to understanding processes of organizing in a UK hospital. Human Relations56(5): 563–586.
19.
DawsonPBuchananD (2005) The way it really happened: Competing narratives in the political process of technological change. Human Relations58(7): 845–865.
20.
FaircloughN (1992) Discourse and text: Linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis. Discourse & Society3(2): 193–217.
21.
FordJD (1999) Organizational change as shifting conversations. Journal of Organizational Change12(6): 480–500.
22.
FordJDFordLW (1995) The role of conversations in producing intentional change in organizations. Academy of Management Review20(3): 541–570.
23.
GabrielY (1995) The unmanaged organization: Stories, fantasies and subjectivity. Organization Studies16(3): 477–501.
24.
GabrielY (2008) Seduced by the text: The desire to be deceived in story, memoir and drama. Tamara: Journal for Critical Postmodern Organization Science7(2): 154–167.
25.
GeigerDAntonacopoulouE (2009) Narratives and organizational dynamics: Exploring blind spots and organizational inertia. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science45(3): 411–436.
26.
GilbertCG (2005) Unbundling the structure of inertia: Resource versus routine rigidity. Academy of Management Journal48(5): 741–763.
27.
GioiaDAChittipeddiK (1991) Sensegiving and sensemaking in strategic change initiation. Strategic Management Journal12(6): 433–448.
28.
HernesTMaitlisS (2010) Process, sensemaking, and organizing: An introduction. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 27–37.
29.
HumphreysMBrownAD (2002) Narratives of organizational identity and identification: A case study of hegemony and resistance. Organization Studies23(3): 421–447.
30.
HumphreysMUcbasarenDLocketA (2012) Sensemaking, storytelling and the legitimization of elite business careers. Human Relations65(1): 17–40.
31.
JordanSMitterhoferH (2010) Studying metaphors-in-use in their social and institutional context: Sensemaking and discourse theory. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking and Organizing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 242–274.
32.
LangleyATsoukasH (2010) Introducing ‘Perspectives on process organization studies’. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking and Organizing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1–26.
33.
LearmonthM (2009) Girls’ working together without ‘teams’: How to avoid the colonization of management language. Human Relations62(12): 1887–1906.
34.
MartinJFeldmanMSHatchMJSitkinSB (1983) The uniqueness paradox in organizational stories. Administrative Science Quarterly28(3): 438–453.
35.
MurgiaAPoggioB (2009) Challenging hegemonic masculinities: Men’s stories on gender culture in organizations. Organization16(3): 407–423.
36.
O’LearyM (2003) From paternalism to cynicism: Narratives of a newspaper company. Human Relations56(6): 685–704.
37.
Peirano-VejoMStableinRE (2009) Constituting change and stability: Sense-making stories in a farming organization. Organization16(3): 443–462.
38.
PyeA (2002) The changing power of ‘explanations’: Directors, academics and their sensemaking from 1989 to 2000. Journal of Management Studies39(7): 907–925.
39.
RobichaudDGirouxHTaylorJR (2004) The metaconversation: The recursive property of language as a key to organizing. Academy of Management Review28(4): 617–634.
40.
SchwarzGM (in press) The logic of deliberate structural inertia. Journal of Management, doi:10.1177/014920630936120610.1177/0149206309361206.
41.
ThatchenkerryTJ (2001) Mining for meaning: Reading organizations using hermeneutic philosophy. In: WestwoodRLinsteadS (eds) The Language of Organization. London: SAGE, 112–131.
42.
TripsasMGavettiG (2000) Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: Evidence from digital imaging. Strategic Management Journal21(10–11): 1147–1161.
TsoukasHHatchMJ (2001) Complex thinking, complex practice: The case for a narrative approach to organizational complexity. Human Relations54(8): 979–1013.
45.
Van der SteenM (2007) Inertia and management accounting change: The role of ambiguity and contradiction between formal rules and routines. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal22(5): 736–761.
46.
Van DijkTA (1995) Discourse semantics and ideology. Discourse & Society6(2): 243–289.
47.
WeickKE (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations. London: SAGE.
48.
WeickKESutcliffeKMObstfeldD (2005) Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science16(4): 409–421.
49.
WhittleAMuellerF (2012) Bankers in the dock: Moral storytelling in action. Human Relations65(1): 111–139.
50.
WhittleAMuellerFManganA (2009) Storytelling and ‘character’: Victims, villains and heroes in a case of technological change. Organization16(3): 425–442.
51.
YinRK (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Applied Social Research Methods). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
52.
YuleG (1996) The Study of Language, 2nd edn.New York: Cambridge University Press.
