Anti-dialogic positioning in change stories: bank robbers, saviours and peons

Stories people tell of going through change incorporate and react to others around them. Positions can be taken in stories that tend towards the monological, having a singular perspective and being somewhat sealed off from others. Alternatively, stories can tend towards the dialogical, a multiple, l...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nic Beech, Stacy A. MacPhail, Christine Coupland
Format: Default Article
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/14835
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Stories people tell of going through change incorporate and react to others around them. Positions can be taken in stories that tend towards the monological, having a singular perspective and being somewhat sealed off from others. Alternatively, stories can tend towards the dialogical, a multiple, less certain and more interactive mode. We explore multiple stories of an organizational change and analyse a paradoxical situation that emerges. We argue that although the stories may have the appearance of being dialogical, they can be seen as co-existing but self-sealing, or anti-dialogic. We introduce an interruption to the story and discuss a possibility for challenging anti-dialogic positioning in change stories.