BBR Narrative Methods Summer Session 2024

© 2023 Breaking Binaries Research. All rights reserved.
Summer Sessions 2024
Online Qualitative
Methods Training
Narrative Methods
Dr Helen C Williams &
Professor Katrina Pritchard
School of Management, Swansea University

Our story…
Advanced
Qualitative
Methods
Leadership
Teaching
UG, PGT &
MBA
Gendered
expectations
as & at
work
Podcast:
Prefer not
to say…
Inequalities
In
Entrepreneurship
Negotiating
Difference
At
Work

Narrative Methods (10/5/24) 10:00-11.30am
This session is designed for those with a basic understanding of qualitative methods but are new to narrative methods.
Research Interview Training (10/6/24) 10:00-11.30am
Designed for anyone conducting research interviews as part
of a qualitative research design, with the opportunity to
practice online interviewing.
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/j/97911259202?pwd=R2pHK1hvczFk
eG9UQTVESExYVXp6UT09
Meeting ID: 979 1125 9202
Passcode: 497380
Qualitative Data Coding and Analysis (12/6/24) 10:00-11.30am
Ideal if you have interview transcripts and are keen to learn the
basics of coding and analysis, with a focus on Reflective Thematic
approaches (Braun & Clarke, 2020). We will also demonstrate using
open-source macros to code your data.
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/j/95582303163?pwd=ejJFZVp4Y1NT
WXNJSTFkOFM5Um93UT09
Meeting ID: 955 8230 3163
Passcode: 845583
Online Summer Sessions 2024

What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple
question
Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes
 I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start?
• Linguistic structural based analysis
• Dialogic narrative analysis
• Storytelling diamond
• Poststructuralish narrative analysis
• Key challenges
This session: Narrative Methods

What is narrative?

“…stories, sagas, myths, fables, tales, legends, narratives of every kind are the
yarn from which culture is woven.
They are what gives people a past and a future, what celebrates their
achievements, what gives meaning to their suffering, what organizes their
experiences and, often, drives their actions”
(Gabriel, 2018: 63)
What is narrative?
”recounting things spatiotemporally distant”
(Toolan, 2013: 1)

Narrative analysis is widespread across organisation
studies/management in areas of research such as:
• sensemaking
• identity and identity work (including professional)
• learning and knowledge
• leadership and strategy
• culture (and culture change)
• organisational change (including technology, M&A etc)
• diversity and inclusion
What is narrative?

The answer depends on your ontological and epistemological positioning
Different fields of enquiry have significantly different approaches (even though
may use the same terms)
Cultural traditions and historical perspectives are important to consider (see
for example Chilisa 2020 on Indigenious Research Methodologies)
What is narrative?

Part of everyday existence, how we all make sense of the world, the basis for knowledge (long
before the scientific method)
Basis for all qualitative data (visual, textual, material etc)
Parts of our data that we as researchers identify in our data as comprising specific features
An approach to analysing communication
The outputs of our research (researcher as storyteller, production of metanarratives)
What is narrative?

There are some similarities in perspectives around aspects such
as:
 Narrative is more than syntax and linguistic composition
 Narrative is both grounded in a specific telling or performance
but also (re)constructs wider understandings
 A wide variety of modes might (or might not) be enrolled
depending on the context, narrative is situated but not
necessarily bound
 Narratives are temporal and involve sequencing
What is narrative?

There are significant differences relating to issues such as:
 Whether/how notions of ‘truth’ (and fiction) are relevant
 The roles of researcher and participant(s); teller and audience
 The analytic ‘crux’ of narrative including the material & digital
 Is there an end (coda) or are narratives continually unfolding?
 Interest in what holds narratives together vs how they fall apart
(antenarrative)
What is narrative?

What is narrative? Different views on a seemingly simple
question
Narratives, stories, discourse and other communicative modes
 I want to do narrative analysis – where do I start?
• Dialogic narrative analysis
• Storytelling diamond
• Poststructuralish narrative analysis
• Key challenges
This session: Narrative Methods

 Significant debate about the relation between narrative, story,
discourse and rhetoric
 Emerging discussions about multimodal narrative and
contemporary (often digital) narrative forms
 Some authors use terms interchangeably, some order them
hierarchically whilst other differentiate completely – there is not a
correct answer (but you need to position your own work
appropriately)
Narratives & other communicative modes

Vaara et al (2016):”narratives
are temporal discursive
constructions“ – narratives are
fragments of stories
Gabriel (2002, 2018): narratives
are sequences, but stories have
plots and impacts; stories are
fragile (they are a special type
of narrative)
Van Hulst & Ybema (2020/3):
situated narratives: tellability,
triggers, form and effect
Van de Mieroop (2020)
discourses provide resources for
narratives vs discourses are
grand narratives
Frank (2012) stories are made
up of fragments and are told
within dialogues; “Dialogue
begins in bodies before it is
expressed in symbols, and it
returns to bodies once those
symbols are expressed” (p.40)
Boje (2014) stories are living
constructions, narratives are
overarching, quantum
storytelling.
Narratives & other communicative modes

Key authors: Labov (1967), Thornborrow (2023)
Area: Linguistics
Focuses on the structural or component analysis on monologue
and polyphonic narratives; can become conversation analytical
with the latter
Analytic aspects:
• analytic attention to narrative construction by unpacking the form
including (based on Labov: abstract, orientation, complication,
resolution, evaluation, coda)
• others have added narrative aspects such as ‘conversational historic
present tense’ (re-enactment) (see Thornborrow)
• unpacking roles within polyphonic narratives including enrolment,
support, challenge etc.
Linguistic structural analysis

Key authors: Frank (2012), Smith (2016)
Area: Health psychology
Advocates ethnographic immersion, emphasises embodiment,
has an ambiguous relationship with the material (only people
tell stories)
• understanding the stories (Smith calls this ‘indwelling’)
• unpacking the resources and whom has access to these
• assessing narrative themes and structures
• mapping circulation and affiliation
• considering story implications
Dialogic Narrative Analysis (DNA)

Storytelling Diamond
Key authors: Boje (2018) Rosile (2018)
Area: Organisation studies
Proposes that antenarrative processes
are in-between the edges of the the
diamond
• Analytic aspects: offers guidelines on
locating as a reviewer and researcher
across the diamond rather than analytic
steps

Key authors: Boje, Jorgensen, Vaara, Gimenez (and others
who might prefer a label of discursive rather than narrative)
Area: Many!
Tends to focus on power relations, marginalisation and
emancipation through narrative, may also enrol embodiment,
space, materiality or align with ANT-type perspectives
• power relations, resistance, fractured and marginalised stories
• storied and re-storied subjects (and subjectivity)
• complex actors
• intertextuality and interdiscursivity; other forms of connectivity between
local and wider stories
Poststructuralish narrative analysis

Gimenez’s approach highlights narrative networks within a framework of Fairclough’s critical
discourse analysis
Poststructuralish narrative analysis

Clear ontological and epistemological positioning is critical
A thorough understanding of narrative concepts in the relevant
field is essential
Attach your work to an existing conceptual framework or
explain where you sit in relation to key conceptual frameworks
Narrative reflexivity – what is the researchers story?
Key challenges

Key challenges
Data One
Data Two
Data Three
Code
A
Code
A
Code
A
Much qualitative research begins with a process of
coding through which researchers search for patterns
across different data sources.
Many approach this as a search for topics, concepts or
meanings and so data is broken down in a search for
its constituent parts.
There is often little consideration of narrative at this
early stage and tools like Nvivo can drive this
fragmentation of data.
Whatever approach to narrative analysis you are
considering try to begin with this as a framework for
your analytic approach rather than retrofitting it onto a
basic thematic (topic) driven analysis

Key challenges

Boje, D. M. (Ed.). (2011). Storytelling and the future of organizations: An antenarrative handbook (Vol. 11). Routledge.
Cunliffe, A.L., Luhman, J.T. & Boje, D.M. (2004) Narrative temporality: Implications for organizational research. Organization
Studies, 25(2),261–286
Frank, A. W. (2002). Why study people's stories? The dialogical ethics of narrative analysis. International journal of qualitative
methods, 1(1), 109-117.
Gabriel, Y. (2018). Stories and narratives. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods:
Methods and Challenges. London: Sage, 63-81.
Gimenez, J. C. (2010). Narrative analysis in linguistic research. Research methods in linguistics, 1, 198-215.
Maitlis, S. (2012). Narrative analysis. Qualitative organizational research: Core methods and current challenges, 492-511.
Robert, D., & Shenhav, S. (2014). Fundamental assumptions in narrative analysis: Mapping the field. The qualitative report, 19(38),
1-17.
Rosile, G. A., Boje, D. M., Carlon, D. M., Downs, A., & Saylors, R. (2013). Storytelling diamond: An antenarrative integration of the
six facets of storytelling in organization research design. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 557-580.
Smith, B., & Monforte, J. (2020). Stories, new materialism and pluralism: Understanding, practising and pushing the boundaries of
narrative analysis. Methods in Psychology, 2, 100016.
Toolan, M. J. (2013). Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction. Routledge.
Thornborrow, J. (2023). Why narrative matters. The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis.
Vaara, E., Sonenshein, S., & Boje, D. (2016). Narratives as sources of stability and change in organizations: Approaches and
directions for future research. Academy of management annals, 10(1), 495-560.
Selected further reading

Research Interview Training (10/6/24) 10:00-11.30am
Designed for anyone conducting research interviews as part of a
qualitative research design, with the opportunity to practice online
interviewing.
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/j/97911259202?pwd=R2pHK1hvcz
FkeG9UQTVESExYVXp6UT09
Meeting ID: 979 1125 9202
Passcode: 497380
Qualitative Data Coding and Analysis (12/6/24) 10:00-11.30am
Ideal if you have interview transcripts and are keen to learn the basics of
coding and analysis, with a focus on Reflective Thematic approaches (Braun &
Clarke, 2020). We will also demonstrate using open-source macros to code
your data.
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/j/95582303163?pwd=ejJFZVp4Y1
NTWXNJSTFkOFM5Um93UT09
Meeting ID: 955 8230 3163
Passcode: 845583
Online Summer Sessions 2024

@ProfKPritchard
@HelenCWilliams
@BreakBinaries
helen.c.williams@swansea.ac.uk
k.l.pritchard@swansea.ac.uk

BBR Narrative Methods Summer Session 2024

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