Storytelling as a Qualitative Method for IS Research: Heralding the Heroic and Echoing the Mythic

Abstract

We all like a good story, but as researchers we too often dismiss a story as being tangential or superfluous. In this paper we review how early adventurous information systems researchers attempted to use organizational stories in their work, but in doing so may have used mere fragments of stories as an alternative method to gathering data for the design, development, or documentation of information systems. From a theoretical perspective formed by the use of the social construction of technology, we reexamine the purpose or functions of myths and relate these to the functions of stories (which can be experiential, explanatory, validating, and prescriptive) and illustrate how myths are similar to the stories (that are normative or descriptive, practical or philosophical) we hear in organizations today. We explore the elements of a story and show why researchers need to be aware of not just the purpose of the organizational story (through elaboration of the myth), but also the telling of the story (through vividness) and the order in which the story is told (through the use of episodes). A researcher gleans understanding through storytelling by reacting, matching, eliciting, and collaborating with organizational participants, but above all the researcher must appreciate the story as a whole. In this paper we develop a new research method based on storytelling. In doing so we aim to inspire IS researchers to realize the depth and richness found in organizational stories and to appreciate and use stories in their own work.

The story of the sixth myth of open data and open government

“…Underlying the idea of storytelling and narrative inquiry we find the assumption that individuals' sense making and construction of meaning can be captured through the stories they tell (Bailey & Tilley, 2002). Considering the need to unfold the organizational story (Kendall & Kendall, 2012) of the studied innovation competition, we therefore conducted this research as a case study (Yin, 1994;Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). The case concerns an innovation competition where citizens were invited to use open public data as basis for developing apps and external web-solutions (see section 4 for more details).…”

“…Following an interpretative tradition, we have chosen storytelling (Kendall & Kendall, 2012) as a way to study how the challenges of open public data are constructed from the perspective of the project group. Underlying the idea of storytelling and narrative inquiry we find the assumption that individuals' sense making and construction of meaning can be captured through the stories they tell (Bailey & Tilley, 2002).…”

“…The empirical material is based on a case study where we participated in arranging and following an innovation competition. The data is analysed using a storytelling approach (Kendall & Kendall, 2012) allowing for interpretations of how the project group constructs the challenges of open public data re-use.…”

Tales of IT Consultants: Understanding Psychological Contract Maintenance and Employment Termination

“…We therefore opted for a case study or, more precisely case studies based on storytelling with the stories documented in the form of narratives (Gabriel 2000) and an analysis using an approach inspired by grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967, Strauss and Corbin 1998, Locke 2001. Storytelling in combination with narratives is acknowledged as a valuable research approach in IS (Kendall and Kendall 2012).…”

Gender Imbalance in Management Consulting Firms – A Story about the Construction and Effects of Organizational Identity

“…Stories give a "voice to those traditionally marginalized (…and provide) a more complex and complete picture of social life" (Hendry, 2007, p. 490). It does not replace analytical thinking but can be used among other methods in qualitative research on new ground (Kendall & Kendall, 2012;Lewis, 2011), especially to foster change and innovation (Denning, 2000), two characteristics that management consulting firms in Germany could need for overcoming gender imbalances in their top management. Our story is used as a premise to ground the subsequent conceptual and interpretative argumentation of the paper.…”