Narrative Theory

Humans are by nature storytellers; all people tell stories and communication is narrative. This view of homo narrans—storytelling humans— fueled narrative theory, what Walter R. Fisher (1987) called the narrative paradigm. From this perspective, narration is a fundamental quality of humans. In other words, humans “experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles, and ends” (p. 24).

Human communication follows story formats, with characters engaged in a plot sequence. Thus, we should regard all communication as story, regardless of its form, because we interpret and fit it into our life stories. From this vantage point, says Fisher, “there is no genre, including technical communication, that is not an episode in the story of life (a part of the ‘conversation’) and is not itself constituted by logos and mythos” (1985, p. 347).

Essentially, we make sense of our lives by weaving stories, making discrete experiences into functioning wholes. That is, knowledge is narratively configured—we interpret our experiences and describe them to others through stories. Much collaborative work with others takes place in creating stories; thus, many narratives are shared creations, reflecting both our own and others’ views. Further, the processes involved in narrative construction and meaning making are not static; rather, several types of information processing and attribution are at work.

Mirroring the way that individuals come to understand and describe themselves to others through stories, organizations create and re-create narrated identities. Organizations tell stories about who they are, what their work is, who their stakeholders are, and who their enemies are—all of these crafting a particular identity or identities. Blake E. Ashforth and Fred A. Mael (1996) suggested that an organization's identity is crafted from “unfolding and stylized narratives about the ‘soul’ or essence of the organization” (p. 21).

Organizational members and public relations practitioners who understand an organization's identity, its publics, key stakeholders, and the internal and external challenges it faces are in preferred positions to serve as leaders and spokespersons, weaving narrative explanations and responses. Recognition of these factors is useful in collaborating with others in the co-creation of meaning, maintaining organizational stability, and achieving desired organizational change.