Carol D. Hansen

Storytelling: An Instrument for Understanding the Dynamics of Corporate Relationships

An important aspect of corporate culture is its ability to influence relationship dynamics. This article examines how organizational stories can be used to study often unstated and perhaps unconscious codes for resolving conflicts, approaching decision-making, determining perceptions of positive and negative organizational forces, guiding role behavior, and the like. Stories are also defined, prior research is described, and the advantages and disadvantages in using this technique are discussed. We explain how our methodology can uncover comparative relationship patterns for human resource development professionals and business leaders in Fortune 500 companies.

A Model for Organizational Identity: Exploring the Path to Sustainability during Change:

Mergers and other change events dramatically transform organizational life, often altering an organization’s essential nature—its identity. In an effort to more effectively manage the change process, it is important to understand the impact of change and those aspects that, ifchanged, put the organization’s identity at greatest peril. This study qualitatively explored these issues by examining the content of identity and the effects of change in a commercial aviation company that was undergoing a merger. Drawing upon Albert and Whetten’s definition of organizational identity, a model of organizational attributes emerged that consisted of core attributes and application attributes. The data illustrate that the organization’s core attributes—its central purpose and distinctive philosophy—constitute organizational identity. The second category of application attributes—priorities, practices, and projections—have varying degrees of fluidity and may be altered without losing the central, distinctive, and enduring essence of the organization. The article concludes with propositions for future research.

Cultural Myths in Stories About Human Resource Development: Analysing the Cross-Cultural Transfer of American Models to Germany and the Cote D'Ivoire

This exploratory study examined the cross-cultural transferability of occupational assumptions, in the form of work myths, to a foreign setting. The research followed the premise that occupations are culturally framed by certain myths which are shaped by national socio-cultural referents. The reaction of the German and Ivorian business communities to the myths that shape American human resource models of employee and organisational development formed a descriptive basis for practice and theoretical implications. The data were derived from the myths contained in informant stories about the need for human resource development (HRD) interventions. Societal differences in individualistic and collective orientations as well as historical variance in business development and approaches to management were reviewed in an attempt to explain disagreements in cultural assumptions. Highlighted was the need for all occupations to be cognisant of the ethnocentrism of their work myths.

Organizational tension and occupational scripts: Stories from HR professionals and top executives

Abstract This study compared the biases and beliefs of top executives and HR professionals in Fortune 500 companies. The studys findings and theoretical framework were derived from the analysis of story components (e.g., heros, villains, turning points) of informant-generated tales of work place experiences. The findings indicate that the two informant groups differ with respect to values, beliefs, casual attributions, and priorities. Our work suggests that these differences may create a competitive undercurrent and communication breakdowns between top executives and the functions reporting to them. Implications for HR roles along with suggestions for theory development and further research on occupational scripts are offered.

The Effect of Gender on Thetransfer of Interpersonal Communication Skills Training to the Workplace: Three Theoretical Frames:

Scholarly interest continues to grow in the complexities of training transfer, resulting in new models and instrumentation. New models enable expanded research efforts into the variable of individual differences and its effects on motivation to transfer. One individual difference that may influence subsequent transfer for certain types of training, such as inter-personal communication skills, is sex-typed thinking. This article links sex-typed thinking to current transfer models and examines the origin of sex-typed thinking and its possible effect on transfer by integrating three theoretical frames: cultural orientation, gender schema theory, and social role theory. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Cultural Assumptions in Career Management: Practice Implications from Germany.

Examines the influence of culture in shaping career models. The research follows the belief that career goals and work strategies are framed by certain presupposed expectations. These ideals are subject to cross‐cultural differences because they are, in part, shaped by nationally grounded beliefs about the nature of work and organizational life. Qualitative data from German managers formed a descriptive basis for practice implications.

Culture, cognition and literacy: Tales from Morocco

Abstract Developing countries provide fertile ground for inquiry into the communication and instructional needs of people with little or no prior schooling. Exploratory data suggest that differences exist in the ways literates and nonliterates interpret information. These interpretations represent cognitive and culturally filtered patterns in “meaning-making.” This study looks at meaning making by analyzing the way people conceptualize relationships and events through storytelling. More specifically, perceptions of causality and emphasis are examined in visual stories created by literate and nonliterate subjects in Morocco.