Discovering new worlds: the transformative power of narrative theories in management

Narrative theories are increasingly becoming popular in management studies. In recent years, there have been numerous attempts to employ narrative research to advance understanding of organizational life. For example, narratives have been used to explain how people manage change (transformative narratives), demonstrate resistance to authority (reactive narratives), or how they become enculturated into their organizations (integrative narratives). This paper maps out different narrative approaches, and argues that management scholars predominantly draw on constructivist theories. This is shown to be a real drawback, because significant management phenomena call for non-constructivist narrative approaches. The authors conclude with an invitation to discuss how the application of narrative theory in management can benefit from a closer dialogue with other disciplines such as philosophy, literature, media, and cultural studies.