THE POWER OF ORGANIZATIONAL STORYTELLING: THE STORY OF A COMPANY IN TIMES OF TRANSFORMATION

How to cite this paper: Khdour, N., Fenech, R., Baguant, P., & Wahid, F. (2023). The power of organizational storytelling: The story of a company in times of transformation. Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review, 7 (3), 204–210.


INTRODUCTION
Oral traditions and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy have their roots in storytelling, where cultural knowledge, myth, superstition, theological, and cosmological ideas were shared and passed down through word of mouth, legends, and stories. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, storytelling still has a very important role in representing and conveying complex and multi-dimensional ideation. Stories not only convey tacit and explicit knowledge but also convey emotion and context (Sole & Wilson, 2002). The purpose of this study is to explore the use of storytelling by a leading company in the telecommunications sector in the Middle East.
Storytelling in organizations has its opponents, as outlined by Wijetunge (2012), who writes that storytelling has been criticized for being subjective, biased, and a distraction from reality. On the other hand, storytelling is perceived differently by authors who write that stories are the language we use to explain the world and are a credible and efficacious way to improve service and promote transformation (Khdour et al., 2020). Rossiter (2002) looked at learning theories that help and encourage storytelling from different angles. The theoretical framework of this study is the narrative learning theory, which is part of the constructivist theory of learning. The learner learns from reflection on one's experience, which they give meaning to in narration. This theory of learning is applied to the organizational field as a strategic tool to bring about the desired transformations. Learning is fostered through stories told and stories heard, through the cognitive and affective responses they generate (Clark & Rossiter, 2008).
Researchers have been seeking to extract meaningful meanings from the symbolism of a person's behaviors that are communicatively significant. While earlier research has focused on organizational sense-making and the value of information exchange (Fraij, 2015), there are few studies on organizational storytelling as a method of sharing knowledge in organizations for strategic and transformational purposes (Khdour et al., 2020). The contribution of this research study is to fill a knowledge gap by researching the value of organizational storytelling in times of transformation, using a qualitative methodology.
The following Section 2 shows the most recent debate in the storytelling literature review, followed by Section 3 on the qualitative methodology that explores the complexities of organizational change in the light of storytelling strategy. Section 4 shows the outcomes of the interviews and Section 5 discusses these outcomes in light of the literature, and finally, Section 6 presents the primary findings.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Prior research investigates several facets of storytelling; for instance, Ottaviani et al. (2022) investigate the central importance of storytelling as a teaching tool in higher education, particularly in the context of the practice-based doctorate framework in design disciplines. (Nosrati & Detlor, 2022) investigate how municipal cultural organizations might make use of digital storytelling for impression management to improve public perceptions of a city. This research was conducted to determine how end-users are impacted by a city's cultural digital storytelling information system as well as the advantages of using such a system. Building on transformational leadership and the notion of leader-member exchange, Stark et al. (2022) investigate the viewpoints of both leaders and followers, with a particular emphasis on interaction-based moderators and emotional mediators of the impacts of storytelling. Hong et al. (2021) investigate whether consumers' brand storytelling results in increased positive brand evaluations and compare its effects on consumer cognition and emotions to those of a brand story generated by a firm. Additionally, the authors investigate whether consumers' brand storytelling leads to more favorable brand evaluations. Tercia et al. (2022) capitalize on the influence that storytelling has on invoking personal and historical memories as well as the feelings associated with those memories on the visitors' desire to visit dark tourism locations.
A number of organizations worldwide adopt storytelling as a technique for expressing company strategy (Auvinen et al., 2013). Myths and legends are frequently used to express organizational objectives, narratives, idols, and convincing communication. To reify organizations and their members as reliable and cherished community members, nuanced rhetorical principles and communicative instruments need to be utilized to generate affiliation, empathy, and outstanding events and experiences. Consequently, stories are frequently used to convey organizational messages. Stories are also used by data analysts to bridge the gap between data analysis and decision-making. Stories are perceived as a tool to communicate and share business analytics insights with a non-technical audience in order to inform, guide, and influence decision-making and business performance (Daradkeh, 2021).
Corporations frequently use storytelling as a primary technique for conveying information (Boje, 2014). Organizational storytelling, according to the abovementioned, is founded on four components: hearing, understanding, telling, and visioning. Where "hearing" and "understanding" were mentioned as being particularly indicative of the storyteller's ability. Within talks about organizational storytelling, the concepts of "sense-making" and "sense-giving" are discussed as being important. Individuals' ability to derive meaning from their experiences is referred to as sense-making. In this context, a study found that narrative could help people make sense of things (Maclean et al., 2012). The study found that leaders' organizational tales include sense-making aspects that help them make sense of their work experiences.
The ability of a business to mold employee attitudes through storytelling was also mentioned as a sort of sense-making (Lashley et al., 2016). In a recent study aimed at empowering women (Skeiker, 2015), a more participative style of storytelling was noted, with employees being able to tell their individual stories. There are differing views on the type of organizational "story" that is capable of eliciting the largest changes in the workplace; these genres include humor, fantasy, tragedy, romance, and irony (O'Neill, 2016).
As a result, the value of story elements like "color" was emphasized as a strategy to boost organizational stories' memorability and emotional appeal. Employee need-fulfillment systems were also supposed to benefit from storytelling. For example, anecdotal narratives feature a lot of colors but little personal need-fulfillment. Stories are best when they meet both the color and need-fulfillment criteria. Narrative storytelling satisfies the standards of intelligence and related teaching and learning theories in a learning setting. Every corporation benefits from the expansion of multinational working associations also because they provide more color to their stories (Barker & Gower, 2010).
In the past, organizations were given considerable time to react to the changing business environment. However, as a result of technological development expectations of a faster organizational response to changing environments have risen (Abbey, 2010). Wilson (2019) writes about the importance of storytelling in times of change and transformation. Storytelling enhances understanding and clarity in times of change. The emotional component of stories in times of change is particularly important for engaging people in the change process. This is because stories are perceived to be non-threatening and to provide meaning also in times of crisis when people are particularly in search of meaning. Khdour et al. (2020) investigated the impact of storytelling on organizational performance in the Jordanian telecommunications sector. The findings showed that organizational storytelling has a positive and significant impact on organizational performance based on its factor. This study is one of the few in the same industry conducted with the purpose of examining the power of organizational storytelling with a more strategic focus.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study has applied a qualitative methodology to explore the complexities of organizational change in light of the storytelling strategy used within a single company in the telecommunication industry in the Middle East. Conducting interviews has become an accepted activity within organizational life and it is observed as a legitimate approach. The interviews have allowed for probing the narrated stories in the field, collected with the managers and employees of the company within which this study took place. The informal conversation with the employees is also helpful in augmenting interviews with broader organizational data.
The context of the current study is a company in the telecommunications industry facing several problems regarding network issues and slow internet service. The issues were critically scrutinized by the employees at the firm and several modifications were made. However, even after several modifications, employees were not able to respond to customer dissatisfaction in an appropriate manner. Therefore, delays were being faced by the customers. The delays further exacerbated the situation and the company encountered severe criticism. This did not demotivate the employees from working extra hours and giving their best to find a solution to this persistent problem. Through cooperation and hard work, employees resolved the issues, and the quality of their product was also enhanced. Furthermore, after resolving the obstinate issues, the company also developed strategies to modify its network by incorporating new technologies and introducing high-speed internet. The company further introduced devices in the market, which were helpful in extending the internet over a larger region, and also increasing the speed of the internet. This company was chosen for this research study as it used storytelling in achieving the transformations it set as its goals in times of crisis.
This paper employs a qualitative approach in order to achieve its stated objectives, which include determining how storytelling is perceived in this company during a period of transformation, examining how storytelling benefits both the organization and its employees, and identifying some managerial applications of this tool. This was owing to the exploratory, interpretative, and inductive character of this methodology.
This organization was reached out to and asked to take part in this study. A letter was sent to the department of human resources. The researchers followed up with human resource managers through email and phone conversations to negotiate access. The company noted that the researchers are welcome to conduct interviews with its workers, supervisors, and managers.
Twenty total interviews were conducted at this company. Managers, supervisors, and employees were included in the interviews. The interviews addressed the two primary areas of the organization, namely human resources, and marketing.
Each interviewee was asked if they preferred to communicate in Arabic or English. It was totally up to the interviewee to talk in the language in which they felt most at ease and in which they could communicate and convey their views with ease. There were only six out of twenty interviews conducted in Arabic.
In each interview, the subject was asked whether or not a digital recorder may be used. All interviewees consented to the use of the recorder, and they replied freely and without reservation throughout the interview. Before conducting the interviews, the researchers assured that they would take place in a secure and comfortable location. Each participant was interviewed separately to prevent issues with perceptions of limitation or undue influence (Good, 1999).
The content of each interview was transcribed. The researchers were transcribing the interview exactly as it appeared on the audio recording. The few Arabic interviews were transcribed into Arabic and subsequently translated into English, but the English interviews were transcribed straight into English. Each interviewee received a copy of their transcription in order to increase the legitimacy of the interview and guarantee that the transcript accurately reflected their intended remarks (Nutt, 2002).
Importing the data into QSR NVivo software facilitated a content-level analysis. This is a specialized software program used to both classify and code any developing themes within a data set (Patton, 2001).

RESEARCH RESULTS
Participants commented that through organizational storytelling, employees from different socio-cultural backgrounds were provided the ability to interact coherently and share their views with regard to the current and future prospects of the company ("According to my point of view, storytelling is an art and it grabs the attention of the audience. I believe that if companies opt for storytelling as a means to express their views and concepts, then it would be much easier for the employees to understand the company's operations and motives"). The collective experience of engaging in storytelling effectively contributed to breaking barriers of communication between the individuals in the company ("I am a strong believer in the power of storytelling. It is of utmost importance to have such an approach in an organization so that communication is carried out in an effective and authentic manner. We are a model of the effectiveness of storytelling as part of the organizational culture"), thereby promoting excellent organizational team plays. This stands as an indicator of the importance of participatory learning as a means of facilitating employee growth.
On organisational transformation, participants commented that the need for storytelling was particularly felt in times of transformation ("I believe organizational storytelling is most beneficial when digital transformation initiatives are taken or when there is a need to introduce innovative ideas to our employees so that they are well informed about organizational operations").
Also in literature, organizational storytelling is considered to be a remarkable tool in times of change management (Boje, 1991;Kahan, 2006), design management (DeLarge, 2004), communication (Jones & LeBaron, 2002), organizational learning (Lämsä & Sintonen, 2006) and leadership (Driscoll & McKee, 2007;Grisham, 2006). Furthermore, it is important to keep a check on what is being added to a story. The level of detail should be carefully managed. The content of the story must emulate the highest possible degree of color ("Organizational storytelling is an extremely powerful tool. It evokes heightened emotions and visual images among employees") and employee need-fulfillment as possible so that employee attention is attracted and they are motivated to perform to the best of their capabilities ("I think organizational stories should include sensory details as a means to grab the attention of employees so that they can create a picture in their minds to follow along. But the details should not be too extensive as the main purpose is solely to engage their imagination").
Interviewees highlighted a story's color to be of primary importance in organizational storytelling. Without engaging content, a story is less likely to elicit employee attention and thereby fail to bring about the desired organizational change.
Participants spoke about crises and how stories were used to lower the levels of stress and anxiety among the employees. In times of crises employees listened to stories ("In such a complex environment, employees listen to whoever makes sense and whoever tells the best story. Therefore, the goal of the story is to let your facts in", "The better storytelling process, the more motivated the employees are. The management should be robust and impartial, which is responsible for maintaining the level of enthusiasm and motivation in the office") and this helped trigger the transformation ("A story consists of a plot, some characters and the characters playing their roles. Thus, storytelling can result in convincing outcomes which can shape the organizational changes") desired by the company (Kopp et al., 2011). Again, this is a way of meeting the need-fulfillment systems of employees.
Employee productivity was also mentioned as an important result of storytelling ("Organizational storytelling is an effective way of increasing the productivity of the employees and it further promotes the feeling of satisfaction among employees"). The storytelling technique is also portrayed in literature as having lasting effects on the work of the employees, their feelings toward their managers, and the organization (Short, 2016). The positive impact on productivity is when stories make sense and deliver meaning to the employees. Participants believe that managers employing the use of storytelling need to utilize it in a way that motivates employees ("Sometimes the employees are faced with the same problem several times, which demotivates them and lowers their morale. However, storytelling boosts them and encourages them to give their hundred percent to the company"). This may be done through the use of anecdotal stories or personal narratives of one's organizational journey toward success. In this way, employees will gain insight into the empirical means through which success may be gained within an organization. In fact, the hallmark of a good story lies in its empiricism. Similarly, Zhong et al. (2017) claim that individuals are more likely to listen to and follow a story if they know it real and lived experience.
Healthy organizational cultures can be developed with the help of organizational stories, which have several implications on the motivation, training, and development of the employees (Colon-Aguirre, 2015). In line with this research, participants viewed storytelling as a great tool in developing co-operative, as opened to competitive, organizational cultures ("Organizational stories should be told to motivate the employees and not to advertise the success of a single person. The stories must be narrated to increase cooperation among employees and to create a sense of revenge or rivalry among them").
Participants noted that storytelling utilized effective messages to inspire and stimulate change among the employees as well as bring about an evolution in the growth of the company ("It is essential to keep a check on past instances in order to monitor employees' performance and to work in accordance to improve in areas that lack professionalism. Moreover, functional perspectives ensure more productivity in employees so that they produce good quality of work").
The functional perspective of organizational storytelling is discussed in the literature review, whereby its efficacy in targeting employee growth through the utilization of effective motivational messages is elaborated. The views of participants corroborate existing research conducted on the functional perspective of organizational storytelling. Participants claim that it is extremely crucial that employees should be given criticism in a constructive manner to enable their professional and personal growth. Storytelling is an effective technique through which such constructive criticism may be provided ("In terms of my perspective, it is important to encourage employees and instead of demotivating them, try to point out their mistakes in such a manner that they look forward to overcoming them. Additionally, good communication between employees helps employees deal with obstacles faced in projects being worked on. We have a famous story that is our consistent 'pillar of support and strength' that is narrated within the organization. Most certainly, storytelling plays a vital role in this regard as it ensures employees stay motivated and guides them in right possible manner").
Organizational storytelling provided an effective way to develop swift communication between employees and the organization ("I believe, storytelling as a means to develop swift communication, tends to build mutual understanding with the employees and moreover, can result in motivating them that can further result in benefiting the organization", "According to my perception, organizational stories tend to serve a persuasive communication function for any organization in terms of representing interpersonal, personal, and corporate perspectives").
A minority of participants also discussed storytelling from a critical perspective stating that the primary aim of organizational storytelling is to create and maintain the organizational hierarchy. As such, the main objective of such an approach is to provide clarity, as to the dominance of one group over the other (Weick et al., 2005). It means that employee behavior is often the crux of organizational storytelling built on the critical perspective ("I believe from a very young age we have been told to do as the higher authority states. The same goes for any workplace environment. And for this, the critical approach of organizational storytelling would ensure maintenance of dominance in an organization in terms of guiding employees on how to behave properly in accordance with their position", "It is beneficial for the higher authority but it could also result in deteriorating employee's ability to perform well and could compromise the innovative growth of an organization").

DISCUSSION
Findings from this research study reveal that in challenging times and in times requiring transformation storytelling serves to reduce barriers between people and provide a collective experience. This leads to both employee and organizational growth. In times of crisis, the individuals participating in this study were in search of direction and meaning; storytelling helped provide such meaning and direction. Motivation to perform was also a result of storytelling which met the needs of employees during challenging times. The stories being presented were engaging enough to support employee well-being during a crisis. The stories met both the emotional and cognitive needs of employees leading to better productivity.
The findings in this research study are similar to those found in the literature. Stories are used as a tool to communicate, inform, guide, and influence decision-making and business performance (Daradkeh, 2021). Employee attitudes are molded through storytelling (Lashley et al., 2016) which also empowers employees (Skeiker, 2015). This is particularly true in times of change and transformation, as noted by Wilson (2019).
A possible interpretation of such findings is that during times when the company is experiencing difficulties that may threaten its existence employees find storytelling and stories a way of collectively coming together to make meaning of the situation and find inspiration to improve performance, productivity, and collegiality, notwithstanding the external threats. Another interpretation may be that it is the same crisis that is experienced that adds value to the power of stories. The skeptics of storytelling who state that it is a tool used to manipulate, bias, and steer employees remain. However, as in the case of many tools, the truth lies in the way it is used and whilst acknowledging that it is a tool that may be abused, it is also a tool that is very effective in meeting people's emotional and cognitive needs.

CONCLUSION
The main conclusion from this qualitative study is that storytelling is overall perceived positively by company employees adopting this tool. In times of crises and transformation, this tool contributes to change, a collective culture, communication, unity, employee well-being, and productivity. Storytelling was an effective tool during times when the organization, within which this research was carried out, needed the loyalty of its employees and the collective force to overcome its challenges. Storytelling is given a positive role in the growth and development of the organization. The company's stories are a symbolic representation of organizational success and triumph in times of transformation. Such stories send out a strong inspirational message to every employee, are a pillar of support in a complex and difficult time, and help reach the company's objectives.
Several managerial implications may result from this study. As was highlighted, elements of "color", "need-fulfillment", "sense-making", and "sense-giving" are of critical importance within organizational storytelling. It is the responsibility of managers to incorporate these elements within their stories as a means of motivating their employees and transforming their respective organizational cultures. Here, it is suggested that managers need to discover the fine ground between "color" and "need-fulfillment" as a means of meeting their sense-making and sense-giving objectives. For instance, anecdotal stories offer high color and low need-fulfillment; conversely, descriptive stories may offer little color and need-fulfillment. Stories that are based on empiricism and lived experiences are most likely to elicit attention from employees. Thus, managers seeking to transform their organizations through storytelling need to focus primarily on the perceptions of their employees and transform them in a way that reflects a vision of organizational growth and development.
Practical recommendations from this study are many, for example, business leaders in strategy need to integrate storytelling elements in their change management interventions. Storytelling provides understanding and clarity in times of change. The cognitive and emotional components of such stories are critical demanding a multi-disciplinary approach to storytelling that takes into consideration the business, social and psychological elements. Storytelling is an art and a science that requires both training and practice. For this reason, another recommendation is to integrate storytelling into the training and development strategy of an organization. Documenting stories that have both an emotional and memorability appeal is not an easy task. However, once mastered, such documentation enriches the knowledge management of the organization. Another recommendation is for business analytics to incorporate storytelling as a bridge between data analysis and decision-making. Such stories add meaning to employees who may not be very proficient at interpreting and understanding quantitative analysis of data.
Further research may be conducted to make up for the limitations of this research study. This study uses a qualitative methodology which is well suited for an in-depth analysis of people's experiences, notwithstanding it is recommendable to use a mixed methodology to reduce the subjectivity that may result from the use of only qualitative data methodology. Another recommendation is also to analyze the stories documented in companies and to identify patterns of cognate and emotional components that are most effective.