Larry Browning

Addressing both renowned theories and standard applications, Stories of Life in the Workplace explains how stories affect human practices and organizational life. Authors Larry Browning and George H. Morris explore how we experience, interpret, and personalize narrative stories in our everyday lives, and how these communicative acts impact our social aims and interactions. In pushing the boundaries of how we perceive narrative and organization, the authors include stories that are broadly applicable across all concepts and experiences.With a perception of narrative and its organizational application, chapters focus on areas such as pedagogy, therapy, project management, strategic planning, public communication, and organizational culture. Readers will learn to: differentiate and gain an in-depth understanding of perspectives from varying narrators; recognize how stories are constructed and used in organizations, and modify the stories they tell; view stories as a means to promote an open exchange of creativity. By integrating a range of theories and practices, Browning and Morris write for an audience of narrative novices and scholars alike. With a distinctive approach and original insight, Stories of Life in the Workplace shows how individuality, developing culture, and the psychology of the self are constructed with language—and how the acceptance of one’s self is accomplished by reaffirming and rearranging one’s story.

The discovery, just forty years ago, of vast oil and gas reserves in the Southwestern part of Norway, and more recently in the Arctic High North region, created an economic titan and posed a vast array of challenges for both the Norwegian government and the residents of this area. How to extract and transport all that oil and gas without despoiling the pristine environment? How to use this wealth in a socially responsible and sustainable way? How to prepare the rural High North citizens—traditionally fishermen and farmers—for a global, high-tech economy? Adopting an original narrative approach to qualitative research, this book tells the stories of 21 individuals either living or having a genuine interest in the High North, from mayors and entrepreneurs to farmers and fishermen. Through these first-hand meetings, it constructs an ethnographic study that reveals how petroleum and development have impacted on the regional economy and culture.This book will be of interest to all stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, and for students and scholars of organization studies, cultural and communication studies, environmental anthropology, natural resource management and sustainable development.

The discovery, just forty years ago, of vast oil and gas reserves in the Southwestern part of Norway, and more recently in the Arctic High North region, created an economic titan and posed a vast array of challenges for both the Norwegian government and the residents of this area. How to extract and transport all that oil and gas without despoiling the pristine environment? How to use this wealth in a socially responsible and sustainable way? How to prepare the rural High North citizens—traditionally fishermen and farmers—for a global, high-tech economy? Adopting an original narrative approach to qualitative research, this book tells the stories of 21 individuals either living or having a genuine interest in the High North, from mayors and entrepreneurs to farmers and fishermen. Through these first-hand meetings, it constructs an ethnographic study that reveals how petroleum and development have impacted on the regional economy and culture.This book will be of interest to all stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, and for students and scholars of organization studies, cultural and communication studies, environmental anthropology, natural resource management and sustainable development.

Addressing both renowned theories and standard applications, Stories of Life in the Workplace explains how stories affect human practices and organizational life. Authors Larry Browning and George H. Morris explore how we experience, interpret, and personalize narrative stories in our everyday lives, and how these communicative acts impact our social aims and interactions. In pushing the boundaries of how we perceive narrative and organization, the authors include stories that are broadly applicable across all concepts and experiences.With a perception of narrative and its organizational application, chapters focus on areas such as pedagogy, therapy, project management, strategic planning, public communication, and organizational culture. Readers will learn to: differentiate and gain an in-depth understanding of perspectives from varying narrators; recognize how stories are constructed and used in organizations, and modify the stories they tell; view stories as a means to promote an open exchange of creativity. By integrating a range of theories and practices, Browning and Morris write for an audience of narrative novices and scholars alike. With a distinctive approach and original insight, Stories of Life in the Workplace shows how individuality, developing culture, and the psychology of the self are constructed with language—and how the acceptance of one’s self is accomplished by reaffirming and rearranging one’s story.