cim

Boje (1995) investigated Walt Disney World and the storied accounts based on the organisation. The storied accounts reveal a darker side of the organisation, in comparison to the “artful and managed construction of Disney” (Boje, 1995:997). Walt Disney portrayed the organisation to be “one, big happy family”, however, this is falsely portrayed as Boje revealed that Walt Disney was an authoritative figure who “rarely allowed any voice other than his own to be heard” (1995:1020). One storied account portrays the negative image of working at Disney world, when 1000 workers picketed against the working conditions, due to the “unfair salaries, poor working conditions and a parochial code of behaviours” (1995:1014). In order to maintain the positive image of the company, Walt fired 20 strikers in an attempt to scare other workers; this had a negative effect with employee engagement. This strike is not recorded in the official Walt Disney World documents, which emphasises the dominant role Walt Disney had in silencing the voices of employees. Hiley (2004) argues that organisations exclude the voices of some individuals, which allows them to maintain the idealised identity of the organisation.

However, organisational change communication should be polyphonic (Langer and Thorup, 2006); whereby all employees’ voices are heard. By facilitating and coordinating all employees’ voices into a harmonic environment, enables a positive change process, as all employees are involved. By adopting a hegemonic narrative, organisations create an “invisible prison to those who are subject to it, which restricts their ability to voice alter-narrative accounts to define their existence” (Browns and Humphreys, 2003:137-138), thus the ideal reality is mai...

... middle of paper ...

...isation can be revealed, compared to the idealised portrayal of the organisation from a corporate stories perspective. Stories have always been a part a human life, it is an important way in which we make sense of situations, and therefore it could be questionable as to the extent storytelling can be ignored within organisations. Through using storytelling a connection between management and employees can be achieved, leading to increased levels of motivation and engagement which in turn will allow the organisation to implement changes without resistance due to employees feeling engaged with the organisation, thus higher motivation from employees impacting upon higher productivity. To conclude storied accounts from employees and organisation enable a deeper insight into how individuals make sense of their world, through which the complex identities can be explored.