The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies

Gail Whiteman and Nelson Phillips

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: In this chapter, we discuss the use of narrative fiction and semi-fiction in organizational research and explore the strengths and weaknesses of these alternative approaches. We begin with an introduction reviewing the existing literature and clarifying what we mean by fiction and semi-fiction. We then present and discuss examples of fiction and semi-fiction focusing on how these approaches can be used in organizational research. We argue that fiction is more useful as a source of data and as a way of representing theory to an audience. Semi-fiction, on the other hand, provides a novel approach to the production and representation of theory. In both cases, researchers face a number of challenges, but also gain access to new and powerful techniques for developing insights into organizational topics.

Keywords: Narrative fiction; Organizational studies; Semi-fiction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 M M14 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-12-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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