Narrative Methods for Organizational & Communication Research

`The book is a unique and excellent introduction to postmodern narrative
analyses' - Organization Studies

`[This book] should succeed in putting the

metaphorical cat amongst just about every metaphorical pigeon that might

imaginably take flight within the organization and communication research

arenas. Story time will never be the same again, nor will interpretative

research' - Stewart Clegg, University of Technology, Sydney

`Timely and first rate. It nicely

stretches a reader's thinking about the topic' - Thomas Lee, University of
Washington, School of Business

`David Boje is a pioneering theorist in organization studies and management...
[His book] is yet another example of Boje's pioneering spirit and concern for
exactitude. [His] scholarly account of narrative and antenarrative methods is
both corrective and exploratory of how stories must be understood in terms of
their own internal dynamics, and not viewed as static entities.

Boje's book is a magnificent start... A book that breaks new ground in
organizational analysis, this is a must-read for researchers and practitioners
in the fields of organization and management studies' - Adrian Carr,
University of Western Sydney

`Boje masterfully shows how to analyze texts and ideas before they are reduced
and fitted into the dominant ideological frameworks of the day. [He] provides
a powerful tool for achieving greater democracy in how we approach doing
social science... [and] liberates our capacity to make meanings for ourselves'
- Paul Hirsch, Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management

`This is an important book. It is a major methodological contribution to
critical, postmodern studies of organizations and management. It is essential
reading for critical management scholars' - Robert P. Gephart, Jr., University
of Alberta School of Business

`David Boje has emerged as the leading postmodern thinker in management theory
and organization science. His prolific output lights the path for others to
follow in a field awakening to the challenge of postmodern critical theory.
Updating and revising narrative theory for the prevailing "postmodern
condition," Boje masterfully reconstructs the concepts and methods of
storytelling, as he subverts the dominant principles of modernist organization
theory. He offers a subtle and complex notion of narrative... This impressive
book should leave an indelible mark on management and organization studies' -
Steven Best, University of Texas, El Paso

An essential guide for academics and researchers needing to look at
alternative discourse analysis strategies. As a research tool, narrative
methods have become increasingly useful in organization studies, where much
research involves the interpretation of 'stories' in some form. This
methodology can be applied where qualitative story analyses can help to assess
interview, newspaper or web document stories for research projects.

In this book, Boje sets out eight analysis options that can deal with
storytelling, recognizing that stories in organizations can be self-
destructing, flowing, networking and not at all static. In so doing, he shows
ways in which narrative methods can be supplemented by 'antenarrative'
methods, where fragmented and collective storytelling can be interpreted.

A valuable resource that will be widely used in organizational or
communications research, for graduate level qualitative methods seminars and
by researchers wanting to do story analysis.

David Boje is Professor at the New Mexico State University. He is also on the
editorial board of the journal Organization.