Corporate efficiency through cultural narratives

Running Head: CORPORATE EFFICIENCY THROUGH CULTURAL NARRATIVES 1
Corporate efficiency through cultural narratives: A look at Southern Utah University’s corporate
structure
Quinn Thurman
Southern Utah University

CORPORATE EFFICIENCY THROUGH CULTURAL NARRATIVES 2
Introduction
The ability to be more productive, more efficient, and more “excellent” (Grunig 2000) in
a corporation is becoming highly valuable and is increasing. Organizational officials are
searching for any fact that might contribute to their numbers and effectiveness. Only recently
have people started to become aware that not only does a strong communication structure within
an organization yield rhetorical benefits, but has measurable tangible outcomes.
Corporate culture is a large portion of this effectiveness and too has a variety of
contributors. This study is interested in how corporate narratives in particular contribute to the
corporate culture and in turn effect the overall efficiency of the organization.
This study will contribute not only by determining how stories help in establishing a
culture that yields efficiency, but in what ways do their stories complete with certain
organizational needs.
Southern Utah University is a local school in Cedar City, Utah. It is valuable to study
because of the dynamic it has as both a place for education as well as a variety of large corporate
structures that it provides the community. As a university, many of its internal workings are very
rigid and clear and therefore is clearer to evaluate and research. Upon using the university, the
generalization may be extended to a larger sphere, keeping in mind that the particular
information that is found will only relate to this particular situation.
Provided is a contextual background of the current understanding of the idea in this
particular field. Following will be provided the procedure that is to be done to evaluate these
concepts. And finally the finding and their interpretation will be provided to shed light on this
particular area. It is anticipated that the information found here will allow for the beginnings for

future research to look at what stories must a corporation tell to achieve the most efficient
outcomes.

Review of Literature
Corporate culture is a relatively new concept emerging in organizational effectiveness.
Corporations and other organizations are beginning to evaluate their effectiveness in various
facets, which are more prevalently changing to communication concepts. In his book “Corporate
Culture and Organizational Effectiveness” Daniel Denison outlines four contributing factors that
layout the impact an organizational culture may have on effectiveness. They are; involvement of
the organization’s members, adaptability to new circumstances, a strong, clearly defined culture,
and a clear mission providing direction and meaning. These concepts rely heavily on how well
an organization can communicate its goals, tell their story, and establish a structure through
artifacts and routines, along with many other potential actions outlined in the book.
In the excellence study, led by J.E. Grunig, in pursuit of developing the excellence
theory, the “excellence team” as the came to refer to themselves was commissioned by the
International Association of Business Communications to research “How, Why, and to What
Extent Communication Contributes to the Achievement of Organizational Objectives”. They
outline a series of structures that show how internal communication needs to work horizontally
as well as it works vertically. They provide a series of four levels that an organization may look
through as lenses to evaluate their effectiveness. The ability to establish a culture that is both
recognized and understood by all of the organizations stake holders is one of these levels.
An organization must be capable of solidifying an interactive tone that will not only
govern the way that internal stakeholders address and work with one another, but will provide
structure and base for all situations when external and internal stakeholders alike interact with
one another. This structure will provide understandable routines and direction to carry out tasks

ranging from systematical productions to customer relations, all contributing largely to a
“measurable return of investment” (Grunig, 2006).
Ni Chen, author of the article titled “Internal/employee communication and
organizational effectiveness: A study of Chinese corporations in transition” utilized the excellent
studies to evaluate a series of Chinese corporations in comparison to western style corporations.
Amongst the many hypotheses he was looking to test, Chen made the argument that more than
just the public relation department, internal communication especially between employees and
CEOs as well as internally within the employee structure itself is essential to the effectiveness
and excellence of a corporation. Mentioning that depending on the size of an organization,
factors may differ slightly, but if the resources are available “two-way approaches, especially
symmetrical ones, do appear to warrant higher degree of employee job satisfaction, higher
national standing of the company, higher stocks prices, higher levels of trust and openness
between management and employees—all being indicators of organizational effectiveness”
(Chen 2008, p. 174). Both Chen and the excellent team found that “communication managers
should be involved in decision making at the highest possible level”. Chen took both qualitative
as well as quantitative approaches to test his hypotheses utilizing in-depth interviews of
communication departments, often just one person, within the organization, focus-group
meetings, and a sample survey.
There is in fact a measurable value in telling a corporate story and telling it well. These
studies show that the way organizations establish rites, rituals, routines, traditions, policy, etc.,
they are allowing for employees to be creative and independent but to have a structure that
provides base and unity to their actions both with one another and in external matters.

In the study “Can Stories Breed Commitment? The influence of Mergers and
Acquisitions Narratives on Employees Regulatory Focus” Philip T. Roundy takes on the task to
evaluate how well narratives in relation to mergers and acquisitions, referring to the economic
decisions to either buy out another company and become one or to completely merge equally,
replacing all existing stock in the two companies with a new and combined stock. In this process
Roundy says, “There is also a ‘human side’ to M&As, which is laden with employee
consequences and can influence both the individuals and the organizations involved”, he
continues “including layoff, acclimation to new corporate cultures, and the introduction of new
forms of management and work roles” (Roundy, 2010). In his article Roundy continues to lay
out the importance of employee commitment to the organization as well as an understanding of
their own part in the large structure. In relation to mergers and acquisitions in particular, Roundy
specifies “mergers and acquisitions have a particularly strong, negative effect on employee
commitment” a term he defines as follows; “individuals’ emotional attachment to their
organization”. This is crucial to the organization’s effectiveness for many reasons however,
Roundy lists a few; “organization citizenship behavior, perceived organizational support, job
satisfaction, and job performance, and a negative influence on turnover and absenteeism.” Some
of these reasons were found again in Grunig’s study upon mentioning factors in measurable
return of interest. Often CEOs and other organizational leaders find making decisions in
changing policy can be difficult if based merely off rhetoric and research, they often need hard
numbers and tangible data to solidify making a large decision. This has been a factor that has
kept communication consultants at bay when clear changes in communication structure needed
to be changed. Grunig provides these factors of “measurable” return of investment to show that
there are ways to quantify the needed communication changes. A part from the few

aforementioned here, Grunig says “reduced costs of litigation, regulation, legislation, and
negative publicity” he adds as well “ reduced risks of making decisions that affect different
stakeholders; increased revenue by providing products and services needed”. It may be argued in
further study of this area that there is an even larger list of measurable returns of interest that
may be associated not only with strong communication structures but good corporate narratives
in particular, establishing stronger relationships with all stakeholders involved.
Jari Syrjala author of the entitled article “Narratives as a tool to study personnel
wellbeing in corporate mergers” states as well the interest to learn how a corporate integration is
experienced by those whom it affects most. She says “we were interested to learn how the
change affected their wellbeing and what conclusions might be drawn for the purposes of
practical HR strategy management.” She contextualizes her reasoning stating “people’s feelings
and experiences of wellbeing are a fundamental part of the texture of everyday life, which are
mediated and reflected by their personal stories.” Through interviews and in attempt to capture
the idea of a “socially-constructed reality” her study was able to analyze stories of three
personnel groups of the corporate integration process. In it they found that “there is no such thing
as a single, solid, unitary phenomenon of organizational change.” Depending on the personnel,
the group found different motives and underlying themes in the stories told. She concludes with
an acknowledgement of the importance of this type of research mentioning the first study
conducted on organizational stories by Gabriel in 1998 who did not attract a large audience and
was said to confuse researchers at the time (Czarniawska, 1997 ps. 55-5). She continues claiming
that her study “generated a large number of narratives, each of which provides a partial answer to
our research question by revealing how interviewees perceived the organizational change
situation” and leaves an opening for more research on the matter.

These are but a few studies that have begun to notice the impact of communication in
organizational effectiveness, and more the impact of corporate culture and narratives on that
efficiency. A clear opening has been created for a variety of new facets that research may
continue to develop. This study has particular interest in finding out what types of stories are
told, and how do they effect the organization as a whole. This leads respectively to the nature of
the narrative paradigm by Walter R. Fisher. Fisher summarizes, just as Jurgen Habernas in his
studies of persuasion “posits persons as arguer; I see them, including arguers as storytellers”
(Fisher, 1985 p. 353) Fisher makes several arguments that stories are being told both in the real
world as well as fictional ones, and that his paradigm allows for analysis of both. Fisher gives
two essential parts to evaluating a narrative. First, does the narrative “hang together”, to which
he gives a variety of titles, one being narrative probability, another more conclusive being
“coherence”. In this first area, Fisher indicates that one must be aware to the “formal features of
a story conceived as a discrete sequence of thought” (Fisher, 1985 p. 349). In other words does
the story’s parts work in relation to itself? The second concept given for evaluation is fidelity.
“Fidelity concerns the ‘truth qualities’ of the story, the degree to which it accords with the logic
of good reasons” (p. 349). This can be understood as the resonance or emotional connection the
story creates with its audience. Does the story connect with sound logic and resonate? These
concepts are intriguing and important, but Fisher also makes it clear that the narrative paradigm
“does not entail a particular method of investigation” (Fisher, 1984). The paradigm allows for “a
way of interpreting and assessing human communication that leads to critique”, and for this
purpose is valuable to this study. It also provides great importance and relevance to this
particular study showing the value of stories and their prevalence everywhere.

The two concepts aforementioned given by fisher will lead the evaluation of the cultural
stories at Southern Utah University to establish corporate efficiency or the lack of. This however,
will not be enough. Grounded theory, as will be discussed in the methods section will continue
the evaluation. This leads to a particular gap giving reason to this study and will be emulated in
the research questions that will be hereto provided.
RQ1: What types of stories are being told at Southern Utah University?
RQ2: Are these stories effective in establishing a culture that allows for efficiency?
RQ3: Why are the effective? Are the two provided concepts from Fisher valid?

Method
To more effectively evaluate the narratives being told at Southern Utah University, it has
been determined that not only the coherence of the story and its fidelity will contribute to the
organization’s effectiveness in establishing a corporate culture but the types of stories. What
themes are arising from the stories being told and do the envelope the key factors to establishing
a strong and coherent culture that governs actions, thoughts, ideas, and communication within
the organization. To do this it is anticipated that the study will utilize a grounded theory
approach.
Corbin and Strauss in their article “Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons, and
Evaluative Criteria”, explain that grounded theory “should explain as well as describe. It may
also implicitly give some degree of predictability” (p.5). Grounded theory provides several lists
of criteria to begin the methodology. Beginning with collecting data, the researcher must have
some idea of “potential indicators of phenomena” that may be later given labels and put into
categories. In summary, the authors are clear that from the beginning of data collection and even
prior, analysis is being done simultaneously. Through coding of the information provided in the
text being used, categories must be developed and related, given definition and “explanatory
power” (p. 8). After coded and categorized a series of comparisons and contrasts need to take
place to most effectively define the differences in the open coded themes. This will allow for the
most effective and descriptive final categories that will yield the most valuable results in the
study.
As the grounded theory is used this study will be more effective in evaluating how
cultural narratives provided within an organization, in this case a University, contribute to the

efficiency of said organization. Not only will the stories be evaluated upon the criteria provided
by fisher, but a series of categories will be established evaluating what types of stories are being
told at Southern Utah University and how they contribute and what is lacking. This will provide
a more in depth dynamic that will contribute more particularly to the field in finding a solidified
list of categories that eventually may be determined in what an efficient organization needs to
include in the stories they tell. In other words, this study is interested not only by determining
how stories help in establishing a culture that yields efficiency, but in what ways do their stories
complete with certain organizational needs.
To do this, a series of corporate stories needs to be contracted. At many universities there
exist a group, working under the department of recruitment services, that include a variety of
officers and councilors that travel and produce all recruiting paraphernalia. This group also
employs a group of over seventy-five students by the title of presidential ambassadors to which
are given an extensive yearlong training of stories to tell and ways to tell them to students in high
schools, as well as in tours on the campus itself. This group is most saturated in the actual stories
told by the organization and will be the subjects for creating valuable text to be evaluated and
categorized according to the grounded theory concepts given. As this is a pilot study a series of
five interviews of some of the group’s executive council will be interviewed. In these interviews,
a simple series of questions will be asked in order to receive some of the top stories that are both
taught to the ambassadors as well as most commonly told to prospective students. It is also
critical to evaluate whether or not these stories are being told, or re-told, to current students to
maintain the culture.
Through the recruitment office, and more specifically the presidential ambassadors that
they train, it will be best determined what stories are being told at the university to establish an

organizational or corporate culture. This is the best option for the stories told at this particular
organization because while other departments to tell corporate stories, over time any story told
elsewhere has migrated to this area of the corporation for its particular need. Other areas of the
organization have a need to tell stories, however in recruitment it is their highest priority. In
other words, simply by demand, the stories told by this group are being told most. This ensures
that not only are the best stories being told by the university are being evaluated, but also the
stories that are being told most commonly. Once the stories are collected, it may be assumed that
the text will be the most valuable available at the institution. A grounded theory evaluation will
then take place, first with open coding followed by an axial coding that will yield the categories
of stories being told. A discussion will then be provided on what potential organizational needs
these categories meet or do not meet. It will also be imperative to evaluate the stories told by
Fisher’s criteria, to determine if the stories themselves have initial face value as a story.

Results
Upon interviewing the five participants in the presidential ambassador program under the
office of the recruitment services of the university, an open coding process led to seventy-five
potential themes that exist within the stories told at Southern Utah University. These open coded
themes may be potentially categorized in a variety of combinations of categories that would suit
this and other studies. In attempt to follow as closely as possible the guidelines set out in the
grounded theory research, the categories that were determined upon all relate to one another,
have contrasting details that set them apart from one another, and more or less encompass a large
majority of the open coded themes excluding few outliers. The categories created were as
follows; Activities/Events, experiential learning (the current intended perceived purpose of the
university), personal experiences/testimonials, student life, traditions, physical
characteristics/functional, and finally historical events. These categories are listed in the order of
their prevalence in the stories provided and will be commented about respectively.
Activities/Events
The first and most common of the categories involved stories based on activities and
events. Each of the participants told a minimum of ten stories that were related to activities and
events. Specifically they ranged from athletic nature to activities that took place in a particular
time or reason throughout the year. Monthly “bread and soup nights” to the annual “scream”
Halloween dance followed by weekly random planned activities by the university’s student
association. The list of activity related stories dominated the open coded themes satisfying a
variety of weekly events, seasonal activities, and particular themed events addressing “movie
nights”, to the very commonly told “casino night”. “Football games”, “tailgates”, and

“gymnastics” were all common terms or particular stories told that also may be categorized in
this area. This theme discusses the idea that a large portion of the stories told are related to the
fun that may be experienced at the university. They are rooted in the idea that there is much to
participate in and that if one desired they would never be without something to do.
Understanding that this is the most prominent of stories it may be inferred that a large portion of
time is being used to establish an energetic and lively tone for the university. Meaning and
reasoning will be determined as with all the categories in the following discussion section.
Experiential Experience
The next most dominant theme is categorized by the stories that included a portrayal of
receiving and education that was tied to an experience. Upon interviewing one of the participants
a story utilizing the term “experience more” protruded. This was defined as a message that had
been placed on a variety of campus paraphernalia, a clear message that the university
deliberately wanted to convey. These stories ranged from explanations of functional rooms in a
variety of departments on campus. A few of these included terms such as “kindergarten room” in
the education department utilizing a mock elementary styled classroom to allow the students a
real experience in their field. These experiences ranged from “outdoor recreational training
experience” to “investments lab” for finance students utilizing real money donated by the
department chair. Stories also included a “hospital room” for the nursing students all of which
were specific to giving students an opportunity to get experience in their field of study. Clearly
these are stories that the university has made a point to tell to ensure that their current purpose
and style is conveyed.
Personal Experience/Testimonials

Each of the participants spoke highly of stories that they know happened, whether to
themselves or to a close friend or relative that they use as a testimonial of the happenings within
the university. This theme is categorized by stories that did not fall into a category defined by a
certain area of campus but were specific things that they had experienced with their own studies
and life at school. One participant related a story of his professor right before a final test, during
a thanksgiving break, the professor met up on the holiday with a study group to go over the
material. Upon finishing the review, the professor invited the group to his house for the
particular holiday dinner. Another commented on the knowledge of his own name by the
professor within the first week. The list goes on all portraying no particular area or theme of the
university, simply their own experiences in general with some aspect of their life at the
university.
Student Life
This category was difficult to define. A variety of stories existed that didn’t fit in the
category of events or even personal experience. These are stories that were driven by a general
understanding of how a student’s regular day might look like at the university. Many stories
included available clubs on the campus and the events that they provide throughout the year,
including a monthly pizza and politics that one could go to for a free lunch. “Free dinner
Thursdays” may seem like an event, but as the participant continued, the event was held by a
local church that didn’t associate with the university. It was a story that simply was meant to
portray that a student could go and get dinner once a week with a local group. These stories
included the use of a “starving student card” allowing for particular deals around the community,
living status in certain on-campus housings, and classes available such as “scuba diving”,

“kayaking”, and “bowling”. This theme differs in that its nature was not an event in particular
but a general idea of how a student might live on their own and what they might expect.
Traditions
This theme involved ideas that included any particular repeated action done by students
for a particular purpose. It encompasses both institutional originated traditions as well as student
originated traditions. A particular tradition that initially appeared to be categorized as an event
became clearly a new type of story when a participant made mention that it did not have to
happen on the particular night described by the other participants. “True t-bird night” was a story
told that refers to people kissing on a night around a statue at midnight to gain a title of “true t-
bird”. Again this may seem like an event, but as one participant made clear, this title was not
only available the one night but any night with an already made true t-bird. This story gives
reason to this theme and helps encompass a variety of other stories. These examples included the
rubbing of the head of a statue located in the university’s library for good luck. “Gunther rock”
was described as rock that hasn’t moved from its place in a long time that has been painted and
re-painted to advertise or simply portray a silly message. And finally an encompassing story for
some of the open codes that included stories established by the university itself was the story of
the “bell tower”. Three of the participants made reference to this story with the inclusion of the
universities past president and his purpose to create traditions that would allow for students to
have an emotional connection to their university experience.
Physical Characteristics
The next coded theme is physical characteristics. This means in particular stories that
made reference to the size, beauty, and demographics of the university. This is clearly a
functional approach in the stories nature including the stories that included language on buildings

in particular, relation to the community, location in the state, and the price. The availability of
“study rooms” was a story told about the universities library. One participant made reference to
a saying “private experience at a public price” referring to the functional nature of the schools
tuition. Another story was told in reference to the location of the university stating that one could
go “forty minutes north to go skiing and forty minutes south to go water skiing in the same day”.
This category, may come lower on the spectrum laid out in this section, but it is also very
important to recognize that amidst a larger number of potential categories this and the following
were all very close in relation to some of the previously stated in their prevalence in the stories.
Historical Events
Finally, the category yet to be described is one that encompasses another large portion of
the open coded themes provided by the stories. This theme involves stories based on aspects that
define the history of the institution. Every participant made reference to stories told of a statue
called “old sorrel”, a horse who traversed the mountain in the snow to finish the first building to
allow the school to become Southern Utah’s first college. Each participant also made reference
to a story about a building entitled “old main”. Some participants referred to stories utilizing
artifacts and emblems that may be found within this structure, and many made reference to
stories of historical changes at the university. It is also imperative to realize that many of these
stories were told not only to establish an idea of the universities history, but the nature of the
people and community involved, all intending to make a connection to the current nature of the
university, its constituents, and community.

Discussion
In relation to Fisher’s aspects of coherence and fidelity, after evaluation in this section, I
hope to prove how the stories all relate to needs of the university or do not do so and the effects
of that. It was asked, do these stories “hang together”, both within themselves and together for
the university. It is also important to look at whether or not the stories had an emotional
connection, the second aspect provided by Fisher. Did the stories achieve an impact on their
audience? Following that I will acknowledge what each category does for the university or
doesn’t do.
As we look at coherence, it is clear that simply from interviewing the participants, the
stories are making sense enough to be related from the university to its mouthpiece, the
presidential ambassadors. The stories are clear and have a purpose and thus are coherent.
Looking then at the fidelity aspect, it is harder to determine how much of an emotional impact
they have. This study does not include a survey or quantitative analysis. However, it may be
determined that through the growing number in the past few years of the university, a small
inference may be mad that the stories are or have been catching on. They are completing with
what Fisher describes in his narrative paradigm enough to recognize some retention in current
constituents at the organization as well as improving recruitment numbers.
It is interesting to acknowledge the different types of stories being told at Southern Utah
University. Each of the coded categories gives a particular connection to how the institution is
establishing its “corporate culture”. Here it will be determined what each of these categories may
or may not do for the organizations culture and how that may affect the efficiency or “excellence
of the corporate structure.

Upon evaluating the categories it was not originally anticipated but the categories
seemed to have more purpose then simply the theme that was given to them in axial coding.
After review another important aspect begun to arise that is talked about in a book entitled “A
Handbook to Public Relations” edited by Robert L. Heath. In her article published in this book
Bronn states that identity, image, and reputation are different aspects to an organizations
communication. Identity according to Bronn in her article titled “reputation, communication,
and the corporate brand” is what is “enduring about an organization and answers the questions
‘who are we?’, and ‘what are we’” (p.307). She continues to define image by stating that it is
explained in the question “what do we believe others think of us?” And finally, she specifies that
reputation may be illustrated by the question “what do others actually think of us”. As the
categories were analyzed not only was there found a particular reason for their inclusion on the
level of their theme, but each theme either contributed or did not to these aspects defined by
Bronn.
Activities and events being the most commonly used theme in the stories convey that
Southern Utah University is establishing a culture that is very dependent on what a student can
do while attending the university. This may infer several aspects about the structure. First the
university encourages participation and involvement, it also may come across as a “party
school”. There is a large placement of other forms of success, and a determination to achieve a
better-rounded student body. This being said, as this is the most common of the themes in the
stories, the university must be aware and fulfill with the stories they are conveying or they will
encounter the lack of fidelity in said stories, as well as cause confusion with all internal
constituents. This is clearly related to organizational effectiveness, if all internal communication
is telling a particular theme of stories that is intended to guide actions and are not completing

with said actions, conflict in its many forms portrayed by Grunig will arise. It would also appear
that this category is contributing to the universities identity. The university is defining who and
what they are and want to be.
The next category of experiential examples being its own by theme appears to be doing
the same thing in relation to the university’s identity. More important than the theme in this
particular situation is the underlying tone. The university may change its intended perceived
purpose, but if they continue to tell stories that relate to that purpose, they will be completing
with an organizational need, the establishment of their identity. So this theme could be different
after looking at the university in several years.
Looking then at the following categories of coded themes it is clear that although they are
separate by nature of the stories told and were categorized the way they were, they too are
working to establish one of these three areas described by Bronn. To avoid removing value from
the coding, each of the following categories can still be looked at individually in accordance to
the value it gives to the organization as well. For example the stories told that fit into student life
give the constituents an idea of what to expect if they come be a part of the organization,
strengthening the corporate culture and the individuals knowledge of how and where they fit in
the big picture. Traditions provide for the emotional connection that the narrative of the
organization as a whole should provide according to Fisher. Historical events give a placement
for the university in time, governing current and future decisions and direction. And finally
physical characteristics, allowing for a functional approach to guide the organizations actions in
accordance to its structure. These all give individual contributions to the universities culture, but
what is intriguing is all of these categories may be seen in light of the previous two mentioned,
an intention to establish different parts to the organizations identity.

The only category not mentioned previously, was theme number three; personal
experiences or testimonials. Reason being that although this code too contributes its own
valuable piece of information as to what is imopartant to the university, being reality and
sincerity established through true stories of those involved. This category also fulfills with
Bronn’s description of reputation, what others actually think of us. However, it is incomplete.
Meaning the university has room to improve, which is clear for most organizations. The stories
being told are of internal constituents, only maintaining one side of the reputation as mentioned.
For more success, the organization could go out and obtain stories from external audiences to see
what people actually think of them.
As a final idea provided by the results, the area described by Bronn as “image” did not
seem to be addressed. In all the categories provided by the stories given, none of which
addressed what idea of what the organization thinks people think of them. This may be on
purpose and may have been neglected, there is not enough information to determine which.
However it may be speculated that if included, this information may not be supportive of the
university. It also may be inferred that stories and discussion of this may have taken place in
order to establish the stories and decisions being made initially. Again this is an area not covered
by this study.

Conclusion
To conclude, it is clear that there are many contributing factors to an organization’s
effectiveness. Corporate culture must be established to help govern actions, decisions, ideas, and
other organizational needs and to do so cohesively. Stories are a way to help establish a
corporate culture and for them to be effective they must include coherence and fidelity.
Southern Utah University’s corporate culture is being effected by its stories being told.
Those stories were categorized into seven different themes that were able to contribute to the
culture in different ways. It was also found that the categories fit into a larger system provided by
Bronn that exemplified how a corporation defines itself. It may be seen that there is value in a
corporation’s communication structure.
This study’s intent is to shed light on the stories that a corporation tells to establish its
culture and in turn how that affects the efficiency of the organization. Future research may begin
to build upon this information to evaluate what categories, what stories should be told to
establish a well-rounded corporate culture to yield the highest results.

References
Bronn, P. (2001). Reputation, Communication, and the Corporate Brand. In R. Heath
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Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons, And
Evaluative Criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13(1), 3-21.
Fisher, W. (1984). Narration As A Human Communication Paradigm: The Case Of Public Moral
Argument. Communication Monographs, 21, 1-22.
Fisher, W. (1985). The Narrative Paradigm: An Elaboration. Communication Monographs, 52,
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management function. Journal of Public Relations Research, 18(2), 151-176
Grunig J. E., Grunig, L. A., & Dozier, D. M. (2006). The excellence theory. In C. H. Botan, & V.
Hazelton (Eds.), Public relations theory II (pp. 21-62). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
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narratives on employees regulatory focus. Journal of Behavioral & Applied
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developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Syrjala, J., Takala, T., & Sintonen, T. (2009). Narratives as a tool to study personnel wellbeing in
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Corporate efficiency through cultural narratives

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