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2014. ‘Sensemaking in Organizations: Taking Stock and Moving Forward’.The Academy of Management Annals 8(1):57–125.; Sandberg, Jörgen and Haridimos Tsoukas. 2015. ‘MakingSense of the Sensemaking Perspective: Its Constituents, Limitations, and Opportunities for Further Development’.Journal of Organizational Behavior 36:S6–3211However, due B. Czarniawska’s “serial” metaphor (Czarniawska, 1997),change does not necessarily imply a logical and eventual outcome and resolution, asa number of problems organization deals with are just inextricable. Organizationalbecoming takes place not only in the decisions of authorities, but also in the dailyinteractions of completely different participants.
“Change programs (…) need to bemade to work on any given occasion, they do not work themselves out” 16. And mostimportantly this implies communication of participants, organizations are talked intoexistence17. However, narratives are multiple and deeply rooted into the context; thepersonality of the narrator and the narrative process are almost as important as thecontent of the story. Taking this into account it is appropriate to consider theadvantages of stories and narratives for organizational change analysis.Change in any large company is usually presented from the official“bureaucratic” point of view, which is too unfounded and limited; change requiresmany voices and perspectives18.
Participants' narratives are necessary forreconstructing the real polyphony, because changes do not have a clear definition,they are open to various interpretations. Stories set the frame of meanings and allownarrators to express their thoughts and feelings. In some cases a story is an orderedsequence of events19, in other cases it requires an interpretation of the previousexperience by two or more people (the story may be just a nod or a phrase “ Well,you know the story!” 20). The third definition requires a reflection of participants’Tsoukas, Haridimos and Robert Chia.
2002. ‘On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change’.Organization Science 13(5):568.17Weick, Karl E., Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, and David Obstfeld. 2005. ‘Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking’.Organization Science 16(4):409–421.18Boje, David M. 1994. ‘Organizational Storytelling: The Struggles of Pre-Modern, Modern and PostmodernOrganizational Learning Discourses’. Management Learning 25(3):433–461.19Czarniawska, Barbara. 1997b. Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press; Czarniawska, Barbara.
2000. The Uses of Narrative in Organization Research. Report. GRIReport 2000:5. Göteborg: Göteborg University. School of Business, Economics and Law; Polletta, Francesca, PangChing Bobby Chen, Beth Gharrity Gardner, and Alice Motes. 2011. ‘The Sociology of Storytelling’. Annual Reviewof Sociology 37:109–130.20Boje, David M. 1991.
‘The Storytelling Organization: A Study of Story Performance in an Office- Supply Firm’.Administrative Science Quarterly 36(1):106–26; Boje, David M. 1995. ‘Stories of the Storytelling Organization: APostmodern Analysis of Disney as “Tamara-Land”’. The Academy of Management Journal 38(4):997–1035.1612emotions and meanings and the emotional reaction of listeners21. This work developsthese ideas through the concepts of “organizational drama” (B. Czarniawska),“unmanaged organization” (Y.
Gabriel) and “storytelling organization” (D. Boje).The theoretical framework of the research determines the methodology, whichis based on an organizational ethnography of Russian Post reorganization.Ethnography can be a mixture of different methods (this particular work is based onparticipant observation, document analysis and interviews). Still it is more of aresearch strategy22, than a procedure or a genre. From the ethnographic point ofview, the social world is different from nature and it deserves some special tools forinvestigation. Researcher's work consists of “headwork” and “textwork” at the desk,and “fieldwork” for collecting materials.
Organizational culture should find itsreflection and representation in the text, otherwise it will remain elusive2324.The representative character of ethnographic narration turns into “tales” 25,which combine researcher’s work on “translation” and the inherent literary characterof ethnography. This assumption also justifies the use of stories and narratives in theorganizational change analysis.According to the chosen research strategy, the empirical data served as amaterial for further theory building.
The aspects of communication and knowledgetransfer, the locality of knowledge, power relations, the construction of employeeidentity, and temporality of organizational change became themes in the serial ofRussian Post reorganization.21Gabriel, Yiannis. 2000. Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies. Oxford University Press.;Feldman, Martha S., Kaj Sködberg, Ruth Nkole Brown, and Debra Homer. 2004. ‘Making Sense of Stories: ARhetorical Approach to Narrative Analysis’. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory 14(2):147–70.22Watson, Tony J.
2012. ‘Making organisational ethnography’ Journal of Organizational Ethnography 1.1: 15-22.;Девятко, И. Ф. 2003. Методы Социологического Исследования. Книж. дом" Университет" М.23Van Maanen, John. 2011. Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. University of Chicago Press.24Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic books.25Van Maanen, John. 2006.
‘Ethnography Then and Now’. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management:An International Journal 1(1):13–21.; Van Maanen, John. 2011. Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography.University of Chicago Press.13Data collection and analysisThe applied research methodology rests upon a necessity to address both themacro-level of the organizational context of functioning and the micro-level ofemployees’ interactions. The chosen theoretical approach with a focus on processualnature of organizational change and narratives and the specific features of theresearch object also require a combination of variety of sources and methods.
Themain empirical tools of the research are: open sources and documents analysis,interview and participant observation.An open sources and documents analysis provided a clearer and more detailedpicture of the organization, fit it into a broader context, linked internal processeswith the environment, and helped to estimate the change process from the outside.The materials were obtained and selected: by “Integrum” database, in publicinterviews of Russian Post administrators, in statistical data from the UniversalPostal Union and FSUE “Russian Post” public domain26, in legislation texts andnormative documents of the national postal operator of Russia.The empirical materials of organizational ethnography include data fromparticipant observation and interviews with current and former employees of theorganization.
The participant observation was carried out at a leading specialistposition in Marketing Departments from June 2013 to September 2014. Data wascollected through a diary and field notes, photographs and audio recordings, andavailable internal documents27. These materials determined and specifiedobservation focuses.Interviews were collected into two parts. First group of interviews with currentand former employees of the Moscow Administration Office (AUP) was conductedduring the observation in 2013-2014.
Second group of the interviews was conductedin 2014-2017 with post offices employees during the field expeditions to Russian26Official website https://www.pochta.ru/about-documentsFinancial and commercial aspects of the organization activities are not part of the author’s interest, any potentialinformation disclosure is excluded2714small cities (Arkhangelsk, Vladimir, Vologda and Pskov regions) under the project“Summer Sociological Practice” of the Laboratory for Studies in EconomicSociology and the Sociological Club “Gorod” of National Research UniversityHigher School of Economics.
Because of some significant geographical andtemporal diversity, as well as differences in positions held by informants, theinterviews combined elements of narrative and biographical interviewing, as well asstorytelling. In total, more than 30 interviews were done (28 transcribed, the restwere recorded in notes).In accordance with the approach proposed by Czarniawska (1997b), theoverall collection materials was analysed for “stories”, “themes” and “serials”.
Thislogic highlights the continuity of change, reconciles innovation with inevitablerepetition, and represents a balance between order and novelty, scheme andinnovation (Czarniawska 1997b: 119-120). Therefore organizational change inRussian Post was understood as a serial, and themes included communication,knowledge, power, time and identity.
Five stories which illustrate these themes wereselected because of their clear structure28 and emotional response.The stories were analysed within the framework of the most relevant conceptsin narrative approach to organization studies. These are the concepts oforganizational drama (B. Czarniawska), unmanaged organization (Y. Gabriel) andstorytelling organization (D. Boje). All these concepts imply the notion that storiesmay crystallize and reflect the knowledge of a network of cultural meanings (Geertz1997). Decoding of these meanings and gaining a higher level of abstraction arebased on wide context investigation, preliminary and parallel open documentsanalysis, conducted interviews and the author's personal ethnographic experience.28Beginning – middle – end BME)15Main results of the research1. Most of the friction, tension and disagreement took place in themes ofcommunication, knowledge, power, time and identity during the Russian Postreorganization of 2013-2016.
These themes amalgamate various events oforganizational life (like dismissals, inspections and communication withmanagement) and demonstrate how communication is built up and participants’interactions are organized. These are the leitmotifs of organizing, which invarious combinations appear in examined stories.2. It is possible to trace personal perception and interpretation in the stories ofemployees. One can find their reactions to: layoffs and personnel policy,communication with state administrations and with clients, resources and power,knowledge and professionalism.
Postal service is not unified and identical for allemployees, there are several contradictions in its perception. Organization issimultaneously viewed as state-owned and commercial, unprofitable andprofitable, specific and typical, centre – controlling and periphery – missing.These contradictions are both the cause and the consequence of the Russian Postorganizing. They can be identified in conflicts between organizational units orwithin the hierarchy (the butter story), in irrational expenditures (the history ofpublic access places (PAP)), and in technological control (“deadly daisy” as anecho of panopticon).3.
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