Story telling

It is not common to see narratives in accounting and management research.  The paper from "Llewellyn, S. (1998), Narratives in accounting and management research" provides us a rich understanding on this methodology.

From this paper, we can see that narrative research involves story telling. Quoted from Reissman (1993, p.1) "Story telling, to put the argument simply, is what we do with our research materials and what informants do with us. The story metaphor emphasises that we create order, construct texts in particular contexts. The mechanical metaphor adopted from the natural sciences (increasingly questioned there) implies that we provide an objective description of forces in the world and position ourselves outside to do so." A narrative research emphasises the purpose and direction in a series of events and is used to evaluate the effects that plans can have on desired outcomes. Therefore narrative findings convey a particular message about purpose - the point of the story. The rhetorical power of narratives lies in the point of the story.

Narratives have plots. They also have temporal settings. Plots may be either a retrospective view of the past (as in Relevance Lost), a trajectory of the future (as in Relevance Regained) or be contemporary. Linked to the temporality of the plot is the intention of the author. Where the researcher is seeking to describe, explain or understand events retrospective or contemporary plots are the most common. Where researchers wish to strategize or prescribe they will write prospective accounts of the future. Many narratives will combine elements of all three sequences linking progressive, regressive and stability modes.

The narrative is a metastory as it depicts the interview quotes from a certain perspective, embedding them in the theoretical stance of the paper and/or relating them to strategic intent. Narratives are constructed from a plot orientation that links the key strategies, themes, characters and events that emerge from the interview material. The researcher embeds these key elements in a context by evaluating them from a certain perspective. This perspective constitutes the soul of the narrative (or what the point of the story is).

This paper also points out that the researchers should use narrative research as explanations. Narrative research configures characters, themes and events into a sequence that leads up to the phenomenon to be explained, or understood, and aims to render this phenomenon intelligible within the context presented in the narrative. Next, narratives should be used for argumentation. Through access to research narratives, organizational participants can use research to inform their own strategizing. Indeed narrative arguments are similar to management strategizing; narratives are useful in the same way that strategies are.

Personally, I think narrative research is interesting! It links with the identity of authors and convey messages to influence readers through story.

Reference

Llewellyn, S. (1998), Narratives in accounting and management research, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 12(2), 220-236.