Human Relations

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Currie, G.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, A. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Human Relations, Vol. 56, No. 5, 563-586 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726703056005003
© 2003 The Tavistock Institute

A Narratological Approach to Understanding Processes of Organizing in a UK Hospital

Graeme Currie

graeme.currie{at}nottingham.ac.uk

Andrew D. Brown

andrew.brown{at}nottingham.ac.uk

This article outlines a narratological approach to understanding how middle managers and senior managers in a UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital made sense of the introduction of a series of interventions, led by senior managers. The research contribution this article makes is fourfold. First, it illustrates the role of individual and group narratives in processes of collective sensemaking. Second, it discusses the importance of work narratives in the efforts of individuals and groups to define their shared identities. Third, it outlines a view of organizations as storytelling milieux in which group narratives play important hegemonic and legitimatory roles. Finally, our focus on narratives, and the plurivocal understandings of actions and events they often encompass, is, we maintain, one useful means by which polysemy can be read back into case study research.

Key Words: identity • legitimacy • middle managers • narrative • NHS • sensemaking


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
J. M. Bartunek, Zhi Huang, and I. J. Walsh
The development of a process model of collective turnover
Human Relations, January 1, 2008; 61(1): 5 - 38.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
OrganizationHome page
N. Beech
On the Nature of Dialogic Identity Work
Organization, January 1, 2008; 15(1): 51 - 74.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
C. Hoon
Committees as strategic practice: The role of strategic conversation in a public administration
Human Relations, June 1, 2007; 60(6): 921 - 952.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
P. Myers
Themed article: Sexed up intelligence or irresponsible reporting? The interplay of virtual communication and emotion in dispute sensemaking
Human Relations, April 1, 2007; 60(4): 609 - 636.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
M. Kornberger and A. D. Brown
`Ethics' as a discursive resource for identity work
Human Relations, March 1, 2007; 60(3): 497 - 518.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Discourse StudiesHome page
J. Motion and B. Doolin
Out of the laboratory: scientists' discursive practices in their encounters with activists
Discourse Studies, February 1, 2007; 9(1): 63 - 85.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
SociologyHome page
R. McDonald, J. Waring, and S. Harrison
At the Cutting Edge? Modernization and Nostalgia in a Hospital Operating Theatre Department
Sociology, December 1, 2006; 40(6): 1097 - 1115.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
H. Hansen
The ethnonarrative approach
Human Relations, August 1, 2006; 59(8): 1049 - 1075.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
OrganizationHome page
M. Alvesson and M. Robertson
The Best and the Brightest: The Construction, Significance and Effects of Elite Identities in Consulting Firms
Organization, March 1, 2006; 13(2): 195 - 224.
[Abstract] [PDF]