Tell me a story: Eliciting organizational values from narratives

A system for characterizing organizational cultures through their values is detailed, applied and discussed. Studies of organizational culture often seek to uncover key values on which communication and interaction are based. The unique values advocated in an organization can be elicited through narratives, revealing how members believe they ought to behave as participants in their unique organizational culture, and how they persuasively advocate those values through narratives. The set of values present in member narratives provided an understanding of one organization's culture. The organizational values found, however, not only revealed characteristic unifying values, but also inconsistent values clashing with one another, bringing to light key conflicts in the organizational lives of staff members.

Key concepts:

• Narratives
• story telling
• organizational culture
• values