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Abstract
This article states that the distinctiveness of business history and its convincingness can be improved by the concept of invented tradition and narrative. After a theoretical overview it suggests that the narrative approach explains the way leaders operate in practice. It argues that with a narrative approach one sees that history is used by business leaders in four different ways: as a source to create traditions and symbols as means of communication, as a way to understand and strengthen the identity of the organisation, as means to create corporate memory and as a tool to connect past, present and future. The examples are taken from a Dutch oral history project on management behaviour at multinationals.
1. Keulen and Kroeze, De leiderschapscarrousel, 13. Interview with J. van der Veer, CEO (2004–2009) and non-executive director (since 2009) of Royal Dutch Shell plc, Wassenaar, 11 January 2010.
2. Huizinga, ‘Over een begrip’, 150.
3. Keulen and Kroeze, De leiderschapscarrousel.
4. Kurkowska-Budzan and Zamorski, Oral History; Seldon and Pappworth, By Word of Mouth.
5. Neuhauser, Corporate Storytelling; Brown, Narrative, Politics and Legitimacy.
6. Maclean, Harvey, and Chia, ‘Sensemaking, Storytelling and Legitimization’.
7. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures.
8. Kocka, ‘Historisch-anthropologische Fragestellungen’.
9. Fridenson, ‘Business History and History’; Perks, ‘Corporations are People Too!’; Perks, ‘Roots of Oral History’; Keulen and Kroeze, ‘Back to Business’.
10. Tonkin, Narrating our Past; Maynes, Pierce, and Laslett, Telling Stories.
11. Keulen and Kroeze, ‘Understanding Management Gurus’.
12. Lorenz, Constructie van het verleden.
13. Rowlinson et al., ‘Social Remembering’.
14. Ibid., 83.
15. Jones and Khanna, ‘Bringing History (Back)’.
16. Tosh, Pursuit of History.
17. Morck and Yeung, ‘History in Perspective’, 358--9.
18. Morck and Yeung, ‘History in Perspective’.
19. Clark and Rowlinson, ‘Treatment of History’; Üsdken and Kieser, ‘Introduction’; Walton, ‘New Directions in Business History’. On the difficulties of this suggestion: Keulen and Kroeze, ‘Understanding Management Gurus’.
20. Harvey and Wilson, ‘Redefining Business History’.
21. Amatori, ‘Business History’.
22. Scranton, ‘Beyond Chandler’, 249.
23. Pierenkemper, Unternehmensgeschichte; Berghoff, ‘Wozu Unternehmensgeschichte’; Fridenson, ‘Business History and History’; Lipartito, ‘The Future of Chandler’; Walton, ‘New Directions in Business History’.
24. Clark and Rowlinson, ‘Treatment of History’, 331; Booth and Rowlinson, ‘Management and Organizational History’.
25. Rowlinson and Delahaye, ‘Cultural Turn in Business History’.
26. Evans, In Defense of History.
27. Ankersmit, ‘Narrative’, 78.
28. Partner, ‘Narrative Persistence’, 83, 86–7.
29. Taylor, Bell, and Cooke, ‘Business History and the Historiographical Operation’.
30. Partner, ‘Narrative Persistence’, 87.
31. Toms and Wilson, ‘Scale, Scope and Accountability: New Paradigm’, 17.
32. Lloyd-Jones and Lewis, ‘A New Paradigm of British Business History’, 103.
33. Toms and Wilson, ‘Scale, Scope and Accountability: A Response’, 109.
34. Taylor, Bell, and Cooke, ‘Business History and the Historiographical Operation’.
35. Toms and Wilson, ‘Scale, Scope and Accountability: New Paradigm’; Scranton, ‘Beyond Chandler’.
36. Ricoeur, Oneself as Another.
37. Toms and Wilson, ‘In Defence of Business History’, 112.
38. Ibid., 118.
39. Bevir, ‘Narrative as Form of Explanation’; Carr, ‘Narrative Explanation’.
40. Hannah, ‘New Issues in British Business History’, 166.
41. Ankersmit, Narrative Logic; Carr, ‘Narrative Explanation’.
42. Iggers, Historiography, 104–5.
43. Sieder, ‘Sozialgeschichte auf dem Weg’; Tosh, Pursuit of History.
44. Siegenthaler, ‘Geschichte und Ökonomie’.
45. Kocka, ‘Bodenverluste und Chancen’.
46. Scranton, ‘Beyond Chandler’, 249.
47. Coleman, ‘Uses and Abuses of Business History’.
48. Alveson and Kärreman, ‘Taking the Linguistic Turn in Organizational Research’.
49. Kahane and Reitter, ‘Navigating between “Reality” and “fiction”’, 116.
50. March, ‘Les mythes du management’, 6.
51. Koselleck, Futures Past, 222.
52. Leerssen, ‘Setting the Scene’, 71.
53. Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction’.
54. Linnekin, ‘Cultural Invention’, 447.
55. Otto and Pedersen, ‘Disentangling Traditions’, 31; and see Mauzé, ‘On Concepts of Tradition’.
56. Motzkin, ‘Tradition, Time, and Memory’, 174.
57. Wiedenhofer, ‘Tradition–History–Memory’, 394.
58. Otto and Pedersen, ‘Disentangling Traditions’, 29.
59. Rowlinson and Hassard, ‘Invention of Corporate Culture’.
60. Gagliardi, Symbols and Artifacts; Owen Jones, Studying Organizational Symbolism; Alvesson and Berg, Corporate Culture and Organizational Symbolism; Czarniawska, Writing Management.
61. Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction’, 2, 3.
62. Ankersmit, Aesthetic Politics.
63. Wolpert, ‘Management van organisatievernieuwing’.
64. Interview with A.A. Loudon, Chairman of the Board of AKZONOBEL 1982–1994, The Hague, 18 June 2009.
65. Rowlinson et al., ‘Social Remembering’, 82; Olins, Wolff Olins Guide.
66. Interview with A.A. Loudon, Chairman of the Board of AKZONOBEL 1982–1994, The Hague, 18 June 2009.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. Czarniawska, Writing Management, 28.
71. Karsten et al., ‘Leadership Style and Entrepreneurial Change’.
72. Interview with W. Dekker, President and Chairman of the Board of Management (1982–1986) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board (1986–1994) of Royal Philips Electronics NV, Eindhoven, 17 September 2009.
73. Wolpert, ‘Management van organisatievernieuwing’.
74. Interview with A.A. Loudon, Chairman of the Board of AKZONOBEL 1982–1994, The Hague, 18 June 2009.
75. Ibid.
76. Wolpert, ‘Management van organisatievernieuwing’, 99.
77. Dellheim, ‘Business in Time’, 18.
78. Vaara, Tienari, and Sänti, ‘International Match’; Ullrich, Wieseke, and Van Dick, ‘Continuity and Change in Mergers’; Stanunstrup, ‘Nordic and Local’.
79. Wolpert, ‘Management van organisatievernieuwing’, 179.
80. AkzoNobel Corporate, ‘Identity’.
81. Rowlinson and Hassard, ‘Invention of Corporate Culture’, 306.
82. Dellheim, ‘Business in Time’, 10.
83. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures.
84. Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations; Bevir and Rhodes, Governance Stories; Bevir, ‘Narrative as Form of Explanation’.
85. Hansen, ‘Organizational Culture and Organizational Change’, 949.
86. Interview with W. Dekker, President and Chairman of the Board of Management (1982–1986) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board (1986-1994) of Royal Philips Electronics NV, Eindhoven, 17 September 2009.
87. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 177.
88. Rowlinson and Procter, ‘Organizational Culture and Business History’.
89. Jones and Cantelon, Corporate Archives.
90. Keulen and Kroeze, De leiderschapscarrousel, 176, 176. Interview with J. van der Veer, CEO (2004–2009) and non-executive director (since 2009) of Royal Dutch Shell plc, Wassenaar 11 January 2010.
91. Rowlinson and Hassard, ‘Invention of Corporate Culture’; Ravasi and Schultz, ‘Responding to Organizational Identity Threats’.
92. Karsten et al., ‘Leadership Style and Entrepreneurial Change’.
93. Booth, ‘Does History Matter in Strategy?’; Brunninge, ‘Using History in Organizations’; Hansen, ‘Organizational Culture and Organizational Change’.
94. Dellheim, ‘Business in Time’, 19.
95. Hansen, ‘Organizational Culture and Organizational Change’, 944.
96. Smit, De prooi.
97. Kosterman, ‘ABN AMRO: Rijkmans revolutie’.
98. Keulen and Kroeze, De leiderschapscarrousel, 196. Interview with R. Groenink, CEO of ABN AMRO (2001–2007), Amsterdam 31 August 2008.
99. Ibid.
100. Gabriel, Storytelling in Organizations, 169; Parker, ‘Contesting Histories’.
101. Keulen and Kroeze, De leiderschapscarrousel, 200. Interview with R. Groenink, CEO of ABN AMRO (2001–2007), Amsterdam 31 August 2008.
102. Ibid.
103. Eccles and Nohria, Beyond the Hype, 58.