The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies
2006-12-13
Research Paper
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In this chapter, we discuss the use of narrative fiction and semi-fiction in organizational research and explore the strengths and weaknesses of these alternative approaches. We begin with an introduction reviewing the existing literature and clarifying what we mean by fiction and semi-fiction. We then present and discuss examples of fiction and semi-fiction focusing on how these approaches can be used in organizational research. We argue that fiction is more useful as a source of data and as a way of representing theory to an audience. Semi-fiction, on the other hand, provides a novel approach to the production and representation of theory. In both cases, researchers face a number of challenges, but also gain access to new and powerful techniques for developing insights into organizational topics.
- Z11 : Economics of the Arts and Literature
- M14 : Corporate Culture; Social Responsibility
- M : Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting
- F23 : Multinational Firms; International Business
- fiction
- semi-fiction
- narrative
- study
- organization studies
- narrative fiction
- research
- organization
- approach
- story
- management
- author
- example
- reader
- whiteman
- phillip
- method
- world
- theory
- journal
