Making sense of organizational change: Exploring different storytelling modes in the shift toward omnichannel retailing

Tiphaine Chautard Dardé (), Benoît Demil (), Guillaume Do Vale and Isabelle Collin-Lachaud ()
Additional contact information
Tiphaine Chautard Dardé: UA - Université d'Angers
Benoît Demil: LUMEN - Lille University Management Lab - ULR 4999 - Université de Lille
Guillaume Do Vale: IDRAC - IDRAC - Center of Applied Research - IDRAC Business school Lyon - Institut pour le Développement et la Recherche d'Action Commerciale - Université de Lyon
Isabelle Collin-Lachaud: TSM - Toulouse School of Management Research - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TSM - Toulouse School of Management - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: In addition to technological transformations, the increasing and pervasive digitalization of society requires firms to embark on major organizational change. Retailers are particularly concerned about this issue, as their survival depends heavily on their ability to become omnichannel. Therefore, this research investigates how middle managers make sense of organizational change in the shift toward omnichannel. In a multiple case study of five retailers undergoing this shift, we analyze the storytelling modes emerging from both individual interviews with middle managers and strategic internal documentation to better understand how they make sense of the change. Of the four modes (i.e., epic, romantic, tragic, and tragi-romantic) identified, epic storytelling is particularly predominant in effecting this change. The findings also reveal that managers' sensemaking is shaped by the use of the recent and distant past. Retailers need to reflect on their storytelling practices to grasp how their managers make sense of the change. An improved understanding of how managers – as primary storytellers – interpret the change is critical to ensure successful transformation across the whole organization.

Keywords: Distant past; Recent past; Omnichannel retailing; Organizational change; Storytelling modes; Sensemaking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2026, pp.101472. ⟨10.1016/j.scaman.2026.101472⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05662706

DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2026.101472

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().