A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies

From setting up the fieldwork to writing up the research, this volume takes readers through the narrative approach to qualitative research with a focus on organization studies. Inspired by the work of Bakhtin, Eco, Rorty and Silverman, the author demonstrates that narratives are still the main carriers of knowledge in all societies.

The latest volume in the Qualitative Research Methods series, A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies presents a specific approach to organization studies and provides illustrations of its use. Inspired by the works of Bakhtin, Eco, Rorty, and Silverman, author Barbara Czarniawska asserts that narratives are still the main carriers of knowledge in modern societies. Drawing on more than 25 years of field organization studies undertaken throughout Europe and the United States, Czarniawska takes the reader through the narrative approach, from positioning one′s self in the field to writing up the research. A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies will be an invaluable research tool for researchers in management, public administration, sociology, anthropology, education, and political science.

Barbara Czarniawska (formerly known as Barbara Czarniawska-Joerges) (born in 1948 in Bialystok, Poland) is an organization theorist, best known for her contributions to constructivism theory in management studies as well as storytelling and narrative analysis in anthropology of organization.

At present, she holds a Research Chair in Management Studies at Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business, Economics and Law at Göteborg University, Sweden.[1] Her research takes a constructionist perspective on organizing, most recently exploring the management of overflows, for example in news agencies. She is interested in methodology, especially in fieldwork techniques and in the application of narratology to organization studies.