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Story World to Real World and Back Again: Narrative in the Business School
- 1. Story World to Real World and Back Again: Narrative in the Business School Carolyn Reed 1 December 2011
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- 21. Story World to Real World and Back Again: Narrative in the Business School Carolyn Reed 1 December 2011
Editor's Notes
- I’m going to talk today about the types of narratives you are likely to find in the business school setting as well as their functions – what is highlighted/emphasized – and how these create a value system and a knowledge base for the part-time students from matriculation to graduation and simultaneously at their full-time jobs.
- Now this of course is an ethnographic endeavor – I conducted participant observation in classes at the business school and attended four information sessions for prospective students as well as one graduate school information session to get a comparison of the two. I also interviewed one current student and members of the admissions staff to get their take on my observations and the patterns I was seeing.
- The patterns I’m presenting draw on DeborahSchiffrin’s 2009 article in which she gives a taxonomy of the functions of oral history narratives. We have an illustrative function which presents an instance of a larger experience. We have an explanatory function which connects a change over time. And we have a larger performative function in which the narrative is designed for an audience.
- And we will see each of these different functions operating throughout the student’s time in the program. Initially as a full-time employee, to the point where they are a prospective student, and finally when they are balancing full-time work and part-time school. And we will see that the types and functions of narratives at each of these intervals varies.
- The students I worked with are described as type A, confident, outgoing and competitive, and they decided to join the program for a variety of reasons: some were academically interested in the field of business, some wanted higher level management training and some simply wanted a higher salary at the end of the game.
- But what they all have in common is a minimum of three years of work experience which means they’re coming in with a set of stories and experiences already and this is important for them to contribute to the discussion, and manage a consistent identity and trajectory all the way to graduation and further into their career.
- The info sessions gave the institution a chance to define itself and to present its expectations for the identity of its students. They describe their students as bright, ambitious, hard working and NICE – they make “MBAs for others” “people who will not get voted off the island.” They also define their program as a marathon, not a sprint,” “rigorous, but predictable” and coming from a tradition of excellence.
- The first person narratives told at the info sessions come from current students and serve an illustrative function – “I had trouble getting across the Key Bridge in time for class, so I had to arrange with my boss to leave work early.”
- They also serve an explanatory function when they connect changes or events over time – “I was originally in marketing, but I met and connected with various students and faculty who pointed me to the job I have now.” So these connect the students’ trajectories through the program.
- The second person narratives are similar to the current students’ stories, but they’re told by the administration as a way to create a future story world in which the prospective students can imagine themselves. So they say things like “you will encounter” “you’re gonna get” “you will meet” to get students in the mindset of a current student and to encourage them to apply. According to the admissions staff, qualified statements such as “should you be admitted, then you will…” deter students from applying and a high quantity of applicants is their ultimate goal.
- Third person narratives are relatively non-existant in the info session and this makes sense. If you’re trying to put students in the mindset of a current student you want them to hear about a story world where they or tangible people like them are the protagoninst.
- Now we’re to the point where the student has been accepted and this is where the stories really merge and case studies are brought in on Monday to solve a work problem and experiences at work are taken to class to ask a question, give an example, or propose a solution. This instant gratification from what’s learned in class is highlighted by students and faculty as a perk of the program.
- First person narratives in the classroom primarily serve an illustrative function as students connect their work and school experiences. “In my work we did this, this is what happened, and this is why it worked or didn’t work.” These are the narratives most central to the students’ and the group’s identity and value formation as they are using each other to learn.
- The students also construct second person “imagined narratives” particularly in organizational management classes as a way to address a situation that they may already have in mind, but from which they wish to distance themselves.
- Now because these narratives are intended to be questions they are typically without any sort of resolution. That is expected to be filled in by either the professor or students with first or third person narratives.
- Finally, we have the third person narratives which are featured largely in the form of case studies reproduced orally by the students or professor, or textually through their readings. And they range in functions from illustrative to explanatory depending on the context.
- Now case studies are the key to the business school curriculum and form the basis for classroom discussion. They are also the way in which first person narrative become third person narratives, and as they continue to be told, become part of this body of texts around which we have a community.
- A community knows themselves to be a community by virtue of the things they share and what they share is this set of stories. Now this is different from the way readers of the Bible or Star Trek form a textual community because the relevant set of texts in the business school are always in flux.
- Students are constantly going back and forth between their work and school, adding new stories to this collection of knowledge, creating and maintaining the memory of the business school and are ultimately identifying with each other as business people based on the types of stories they tell and their intended function.