Abma 2000

This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa
Cruz]
On: 12 November 2014, At: 23:43
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:
1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer
Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
European Journal
of Work and
Organizational
Psychology
Publication details, including
instructions for authors and subscription
information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/
pewo20
Fostering learning-in-
organizing through
narration: Questioning
myths and stimulating
multiplicity in two
performing art schools
Tineke A. Abma
Published online: 10 Sep 2010.
To cite this article: Tineke A. Abma (2000) Fostering learning-in-

organizing through narration: Questioning myths and stimulating
multiplicity in two performing art schools, European Journal of Work and
Organizational Psychology, 9:2, 211-231, DOI: 10.1080/135943200397950
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943200397950
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of
all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications
on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our
licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as
to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of
the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication
are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views
of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content
should not be relied upon and should be independently verified
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 23:43 12 November 2014
with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not

be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands,
costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with,
in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private

study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction,
redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply,
or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL
NARRATION PSYCHOLOGY, 2000, 9 (2), 211–231
IN LEARNING-IN-ORGANIZING 211
Fostering learning-in-organizing through narration:

Questioning myths and stimulating multiplicity in
two performing art schools
Tineke A. Abma
Department of Health Care Policy and Management,

Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
This article is organized around the concept of “learning-in-organizing” to capture

the collective, dynamic, and relational nature of how groups of persons, moving
together through space and time, can come to gain knowledge and appreciation of
a given issue through “storying” their experiences. Learning is understood as an
integral part of the process of organizing. I suggest that the character and modes of
learning vary depending on the stage of organizing. These move through stages of
relative stability (“gaming”) and change (“playing”). The learning that takes place
during a relative stable period has the character of monitoring and is primarily
problem driven. During change, more complicated learning occurs. Inherited
myths and rules are called into question; situations and problems are redefined as a
result of the conflicting stories told by social actors. This article covers
considerable theoretical and practical ground in outlining and illustrating this
dynamic narrative approach to organizational learning. It includes a case
concerned with making self-care a public issue among the communities of two
performing art schools. The example shows that in situations where inherited
narratives are no longer adequate, it is possible to foster transformational learning
through reflexive dialogues if participants are willing to share their experiences, to
take each other seriously, and to acknowledge multiplicity.
Narratives (“narratio” means telling) are vehicles for making sense of

experiences and for determining courses of action. Narrative researchers focus
on discursive practices and the psychological, social, performance, and cultural
functions of narratives, examining how persons (and in some cases groups)
endow their experiences with both meaning and value. The concept of narrative
has proven a source of inspiration in many other disciplinary fields, including
psychology (Bruner, 1986), education (Connely & Clandinin, 1990), and
Tineke A. Abma, Erasmus University, Department of Health Care Policy and Management ,
Postbox 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Email: abma@bmg.eur.nl
Dian Hosking, Shoshana Simons, and Sandra Kensen, you have stimulated my thinking on this
topic. Thanks!
© 2000 Psychology Press Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/1359432X.htm l
212 ABMA
evaluation (Abma, 1999). Recently, the need to gain more insight in organi-
zational processes—the dynamics of these processes are aptly captured in the
concept “organizing”—has lead to a growing interest in narrative and the
narrative mode of knowing in management and organization literature (Boje,
1991, 1995; Boyce, 1996; Czarniawska, 1997b; Gabriel, 1991; Grant & Oswick,
1996; Sködberg, 1994; Watson, 1995; Witten, 1993). Given the utility of
narrative in these fields, I believe it is important to explore the value of this
concept for organizational learning.
In a dynamic narrative approach, organizational learning is not understood as
a cognitive process that takes place in the head of an individual, but as a

collective and relational process. It situates learning in the daily working context
where knowledge gains meaning. It assumes that every learning process
simultaneously consists of a social and a cognitive dimension. In going further
than approaches that acknowledge the supportive nature of teamwork for
individual learning in organizations (Senge, 1990) it assumes social processes
are part of the cognitive activity of learning itself. The term “learning-in-
organizing” refers to the interwovenness of the social and cognitive. It suggests
that the process of learning is constituted by the process of organizing. Learning
takes place when there is a social need for it. Divergent meanings and conflicting
narratives of persons in a particular relationship trigger the organizational
learning process. The type of learning takes place depends on the stage of
organizing. During relative stability, organizational actors act according to the
codified stories and rules they have constructed collectively. These provide them
with an adequate framework for action. Learning takes on the character of
monitoring. When these inherited stories and rules are no longer adequate it may
mean that a process of change and transformational learning will begin. On the
basis of this theory I expect that the quality of learning—terms of effectiveness
and ethics—will depend on the way multiplicity is handled during these stages.
The dynamic narrative approach to organizational learning presented in this
article has an action orientation. It not only provides a different understanding
and description of learning processes, but also intends to create conditions to
foster the dynamic ongoing preservation and transformation of vital meanings as
part of the process of organizing. In that sense it resolves the dichotomy between
descriptive and prescriptive research in organizational learning and the learning
organization (Tsang, 1997).
This article draws on research in several different scientific domains,
including theories of organizational learning, social constructionism, the work of
Kensen (1998, 1999; Kensen & Bogason, 1999) on dynamics, narrative theory,
and my own thinking on organizational myths. The theoretical cornerstone is the
relationship between dynamic processes of organizing and learning and the role
of narratives and narration in alternating stability and change. The theory is
illustrated by a case study in the context of a Dance Academy and Music School
of the Amsterdam School for Higher Education in the Arts. Other data and
NARRATION IN LEARNING-IN-ORGANIZING 213
examples are drawn from my study of a vocational rehabilitation programme for
psychiatric patients in a middle-sized general mental hospital in the Netherlands
(Abma, 1997a, 1997b, 1998a, b, 2000). In the first part of this article I lay out
several theoretical concepts: meaning, narrative, narration, and learning-in-
organizing. In the second section, I draw on the study of the role of self-care
among performing art students to illustrate the concepts laid out in the first
section. The final part concludes with a discussion and reflection on how my
“learning-in-organizing” thesis, sketched throughout this article, is exemplified
by the case study and what lessons can be learned.
SOME THEORETICAL NOTIONS

Meaning, narrative, and different narrative forms
The question of what knowledge is, what kind of knowledge is being built and
how it is stored has been answered in different ways by scholars of organizational
learning. Some focus on prepositional or declarative knowledge. At this end of
the spectrum are studies of how organizations acquire and distribute the
knowledge of significant facts and theories (see Cohen & Sproull, 1996). Cook
and Yanow (1996) suggest, however, that the idea that knowledge needs to be
made explicit in order to be communicable offers a restricted view of
organizational learning. A lot of knowledge is not well articulated and the
language of practitioners may be inexact, but this does not mean that
organizational learning does not take place. Even if the language is cryptic
practitioners may well understand each other and take action. Furthermore,
abstract knowledge in the form of protocols and checklists is often supplemented
by concrete and contextual knowledge in the form of stories (Seely Brown, &
Duguid, 1996). Stories and anecdotes are told to make sense of and understand
the meaning of the unexpected and non-routine processes and cases. Events are
placed in a certain sequence to become meaningful and understandable (Abma,
1999). Narratives reduce, in other words, the chaos or confusion experienced by
practitioners through the active process of construction; a certain order is placed
on events.
A dynamic narrative approach differs from other approaches to organizational
learning because it does not predefine what kind of knowledge should be
gathered by organizations in order to acknowledge it as valid. It takes a broad
view of knowledge and assumes that, in principle, every narrative form can be
meaningful depending on the social context in which it is used.
Narration: Practitioners as bricoleurs

Another dimension of difference in the field of organizational learning concerns
the question of how knowledge is achieved. Some assume that people learn by
gaining knowledge about their practice. Learning is then conceived as an active,
214 ABMA
intentional, and instrumental process. By contrast, a dynamic narrative approach

assumes that what members in the organization learn may be, and often is, known
and communicated more implicitly by stories and daily practices (see for an
extensive discussion of tacit knowing and tacit knowledge in relation to action:
Bouwen, 1997). In this way much “passive” learning through introspection and
reflection on feelings and relationships takes place.
Practitioners may gain formal knowledge during their education. They also
learn know-how and skills from other practitioners in the workplace and through
imitation. Practitioners learn to behave in a certain way and they learn particular
language of their profession. “The central issue in learning is becoming a

practitioner not learning about practice” (Seely Brown & Duguid, 1996). As
such, the dynamic narrative approach draws attention away from abstract
knowledge and cranial processes and situates it in the working context in which
knowledge takes on significance. Learning, in this view, is inseparable from
action.
In their work practitioners rely on formal, authoritative accounts as well as on
the stories that have a more or less enduring status in their organization and
culture. They also depend on their memories and stories that contain the
important details and realities of practice. Out of the patchwork of narratives
available (Bakhtin, 1953/1981), practitioners develop a workable narrative to
guide and co-ordinate their actions. This process of narration is highly situated
and improvisational, and requires that practitioners have the ability to act as
bricoleurs who make do with whatever is at hand (Seely Brown & Duguid, 1996,
p. 68).
Learning as a collective and relational process

Many of the approaches that focus on learning by individuals in organizations are
individualistic and cognitive. Other approaches, such as the cultural approach
promoted by Cook and Yanow (1996), emphasize that knowledge is learned
collectively, not individually. The focus on learning by organizations may,
however, result in a reification of the organization. An abstract notion is reduced
to a real entity expressed in sentences such as “organizations act”. Instead of
making a distinction between individual and organizational learning as separate
and bounded entities, a dynamic narrative approach is closer to authors who
assume that learning is the outcome of an interactive process (Bodenrieder, 1998;
Seely Brown & Duguid, 1996; Weick & Roberts, 1996). Learning is then
understood as a socio-cognitive process. Learning is a social process and subtle
power struggles inevitably play a role. During the process of creating meaning,
certain narratives are accepted without dispute, while other accounts are ignored
(Boje, l995; Mumby, 1993).
The politics of telling can be illustrated with an example drawn from the study
of the vocational rehabilitation programme study. As part of the programme, the
participating therapists opened a boutique where psychiatric patients could learn
new skills. After several months the effectiveness of the boutique came up for
discussion. The therapists believed the boutique should function as a temporary
“training-place” and that patients should leave it after a short period of training.
The first two patients to run the shop valued it as a “work-place” where they
regained self-esteem and human dignity. They wanted to stay there and tried to
communicate their experiences, but could hardly name and develop their own
stories. One patient obeyed the decision taken by the therapists. The other patient
expressed dissatisfaction, but her emotional outbursts were immediately
interpreted in terms of her illness, and reduced to the story of the therapists. This
created a “narrative imbalance”. The asymmetry between the stories was further
enforced by the hierarchical relationship between the professional jargon and the
educated and sophisticated Dutch spoken by the therapists and the common
language and dialect spoken by the patients. Power-differences led to a situation
in which the patients could not develop their own stories. Their uncompleted
narratives were not heard and hence were not validated. As a result the patients
had to leave, although they were not yet prepared to (Abma, 1998).
The learning that took place was therefore one-sided and it sustained the
power-relationships of this particular practice in which patients are dependent
and passive and the professionals use their authority to solve conflicts. The
learning experiences of the patients could not gain meaning, because their stories
did not develop. The fact that the stories and voices of the patients were not heard
and validated, illustrates that learning is a political process: “What is deemed
worth learning has already been selected, because only those in power learn the
right things” (Gherardi, 1999 p. 106).
Dynamic interplays
Learning, by any definition, is a process that alters the character of action (Cohen
& Sproull, 1996, p. xiii). More precisely, learning is equated with behavioural,
change and/or improvement (Gherardi, 1999). This leads to a neglect of other
notions of learning, such as the important aspect of organizational learning that
concerns the preservation and transmission of specific know-how to newcomers
(Cook & Yanow, 1996). In a dynamic narrative approach to organizational
learning, both stability and change are considered to be significant and altemating
phases in the ongoing and dynamic process of organization (Holmes, this issue;
Hosking & Bass, 1997; Kensen, 1998, 1999b; Kensen & Bogason, 1999; Voogt,
1990).
Kensen (1998, 1999; Kensen & Bogason, 1999) uses the game metaphor of
“playing” and “gaming” to illuminate this interchange between stability and
change in the process of organizing. Gaming represents stability. When actors
are gaming, their interaction is organized according to codified rules concerning
the content, the place, the players, the interaction, and the timing of the game.
216 ABMA
When actors start to dispute the codified rules and try to change them the game
situation moves from gaming to playing. This is possible because a game
situation always leaves some room for actors to make unexpected moves and to
criticize the existing rules of the game. Initially, players will attempt to resolve
differences of opinion within their usual game. When this fails, the players may
allow the value of certain rules to be questioned. In this negotiation process
power plays a role. If the questioning of codified rules is permitted, the players
will change their game and move to a playing situation. Which rules are called
into question and who may question what topic is also a political process. Players
will search for new rules to replace the old ones. When players have the
impression that sufficient possibilities have been explored in the search for new
rules, the transition from playing to gaining is announced. During this transition
players will try to minimize differences, and ultimately a new game will be
played. In line with Kensen I assume that organizing is an ongoing process of
constructing meaning in which gaming and playing alternate.
Organizing refers to “an ordering activity, consisting in assuring that
appropriate people and objects arrive at an appropriate place at an appropriate
time” (Latour in Czarniawska, 1997a, p. 476). Learning refers to knowing and is
considered an integral part of the organizing process. The term “learning-in-
organizing” captures this idea and focuses directly on the process of creating and
using knowledge when organizing (Gherardi, 1999, p. 112). I would like to
suggest that the character and modes of learning vary depending on the
organization stage. The learning that takes place during a gaming situation can be
characterized as “first order learning”. Learning has the character of monitoring
and is primarily problem driven. The aim is to maintain vital know-how and to
correct errors. During the transition from gaming to playing “second order
learning” takes place. Existing rules are called into question; situations and
problems are redefined. The aim is to destabilize inherited wisdom. The phrase
“learning in the face of mystery” (Gherardi, 1999) captures the situation in which
learning is complicated by fluctuating discourses, ambiguities, and fuzziness.
During the playing phase, learning takes the character of active searching,
discovery, and experimentation. Translation of knowledge is the characteristic
learning mode during the transition from playing to gaming.
The (de)stabilizing role of narratives

Narratives play a powerful role in the process of learning-in-organizing. What
practitioners in an organization need to do and which rules they should follow in
certain situations is embedded in narratives and in principle these are subject to
multiple interpretable and negotiation. Every narrative is more or less open for
reconstruction; it has multiple meanings and this creates room for an infinite
process of interpretations. Every narrative can be transformed, but in practice
certain kind of narrative forms are more open to change than others. Narrative
forms that are relatively static and closed are theoretical models, arguments, fairy
tales, epics, and myths. A totalizing plot characterizes these narrative forms. Its
sustaining power stems from “over-plotting” and the ability to set forth claims
that are shielded from testing and debate (Abma, 1998; Hutcheon, 1988; Witten,
1993). These kinds of narratives are, in other words, so self-evident that their
claim to validity denies the need for justification or proof. They have an
important stabilizing function. They preserve the organization’s continuity and
establish a situation in which the game is played according to codified rules.
Narrative forms that are relatively open are poems, personal stories, drawings,
photographs, and metaphors. These forms are less authoritative and contain a
greater spectrum of meanings. They heighten the multiplicity of meanings and
under certain conditions they can become a destabilizing force and generate
transformations (Kaminsky, 1999). These types of narratives may foster the
transition from gaming into playing and catch the imagination during the
searching for new rules. The extended case example presented in the second half
of this article illustrates the alteration from gaming to playing and the
(de)stabilizing role of narratives.
Multiplicity and the quality of learning

In line with Kensen (1998, 1999; Kensen & Bogason, 1999) I assume that the
quality of “learning-in-organizing” depends on the way multiplicity is handled in
the alternation of stability and change. In order to assist the ongoing process of
learning-in-organizing, a process consultant and facilitator (versus expert) will
evaluate and facilitate the alternating dynamics. The central normative concern is
the quality of the process in this interplay. Assuming that multiplicity is
considered a necessary condition for interplay, it is thought to be unethical and
ineffective if certain meanings and voices are unable to make a difference in this
process. Formulated negatively, multiplicity should not be ignored, dominated,
neglected, or excluded. The positive equivalents are: stimulating, using,
recognizing, and respecting multiplicity. In order to make multiplicity useful, a
diverse usage of multiplicity is required. In a situation of playing and
transformational learning multiplicity should be stimulated (not ignored). During
the transition from playing to gaming, one should see to it that multiplicity is used
(not dominated). When new rules and narratives have become embedded within
daily practice and a new game is established, it is important to recognize (not
neglect) multiplicity. During the transition from gaming to playing it is important
to create conditions that allow codified rules and authoritative narratives to be
questioned. Respect (not exclusion) for multiplicity is of great importance for the
quality of the process. How one might foster a transformational learning process
by stimulating multiplicity through dialogues will be illustrated by the extended
case example.
218 ABMA
I have outlined the interchange between stability and change, the role
narratives play in this process and the significance of multiplicity for the quality
of this process. Table 1 indicates the methods process consultants may use to
“organize” this process. With this way of improving the organization’s learning
capacity and accompanying prescriptions the dynamic narrative approach can be
distinguished from a cognitive systems theory that concentrates on the
development of quality systems to detect and correct errors. The learning
capacity of an organization may improve if individual members learn to handle
multiplicity.
A CASE STORY:
THE AMSTERDAM HIGHER SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS
Several years ago I was asked to foster a change-oriented learning process at the
Music School and Dance Academy of the School for Higher Education of Arts in
Amsterdam. After a first meeting between the initiators—a staff member of the
Amsterdam Higher School for the Arts, a managing director of the music school,
the co-ordinator of dance programme at the dance academy—and myself, we met
again in March 1997 to talk about the project more in detail. During that meeting
I also introduced two of my colleagues with whom I formed a research team. As
TABLE 1
Learning-in-organizing: Dynamic interplay, quality criteria, and methods
Organizing Learning Quality Criteria Methods
Playing Searching Multiplicity stimulated *Engaging newcomers

(not ignored) Verbal renewal
Brainstorming
Plotting scenarios
Playing/gaming Translation Multiplicity used Internalization

(not dominated) Agreeing
Explicating
Symbolizing
Gaming Monitoring Multiplicity recognized Looking around
(not neglected) Maintaining vital knowledge
Integrating newcomers
Gaming/playing Questioning Multiplicity respected Using other media
(not excluded) Using metaphors
Exchanging roles
Questioning inherited myths
Reflexive dialogues
Elaboration of the scheme by Kensen (1999, p. 260).

a team we were assisted and critically followed by a broader project-group
composed of the initiators and several students and teachers who had a particular
interest in the topic. We discussed our findings with this project-group halfway
through the project before going on to negotiate its subsequent course. Together
we decided that a more detailed understanding of the psycho-dynamics
preventing transformation change was necessary. The project design was not
preordained, but emerged gradually in conversation with the project-group
(Guba & Lincoln, 1989). Officially the project started in April 1997 and it ended
a year later. It was sponsored by the School for Higher Education of Arts, the
Institute for Health Policy and Management, and the Trust for Students and
Health Care.
The project’s aim was to address the health-related problems of musicians and
dancers more systematically. Self-care should become a public issue within
student, teacher, (para-)medical specialist, and top-management communities.
The idea for the project proceeded from the knowledge that in the performing
arts, because of intensive training sessions and performances, great demands are
put on the physical and mental health of performers. As a result, tensions and
injuries can easily occur. Although no records were available of the amount and
exact type of injuries suffered, the project-group was convinced this was a
serious problem. In part they relied on their personal experience and training in
the performing arts, but they also referred to their observations and memories of
the students at the schools. The School of Music psychologist told us, for
example, she had seen almost 60% of the school population. The students who
consulted her often had psychosomatic problems. Despite the severity of the
situation at the Music School, the subject was school surrounded by taboos. At
the Dance Academy certain protective and prevented activities had already been
developed (body-awareness lessons, regular consulting hours, and curative care),
but the incidence of injuries remained high and prevention, in the regular
curriculum, was still a largely ignored dimension.
During my first meeting with the initiators we agreed that the problems were
not due to any lack of medical knowledge about health risks or how to prevent
injuries. They were the result of certain habits and teaching practices. We
expected that this know-how was developed in response to the worries and
challenges of the work and the profession (Rein, 1983). Know-how structures the
actions of participants and is embedded in relatively stable narratives. In this
particular setting this involved stories about what constituted a good musician or
dancer and how they should be trained to become good professionals. We agreed
that inherited teaching practice and narratives no longer provided a meaningful
context given the high amount of injuries and other health problems, and that we
could facilitate the process of learning through organizing reflexive dialogues. In
this process we would not act as experts collecting facts about the health of
students, but as process consultants participating in the ongoing process of
constructing meaning. By collaborating together, the school communities might
220 ABMA
acquire new knowledge by placing their experiences in another context. I

persuaded the initiators that it was important to actively involve the teachers as
well as the students. Since the project would affect the teachers’ working
situation, we considered it important to give them a voice in the process (Greene,
1997). Their participation might enlarge the scope of the knowledge generated
and pave the way for action on the basis of information generated if they
recognized themselves as the owners (Greene, 1988). The students might bring in
new experiences and question rules that had been taken for granted, much like the
patients in the vocational rehabilitation project described earlier.
The start of our project coincided with the Dance Academy moving into a
new, glass building. It was populated by a mixture of students from five different
genres (classic, modern, jazz, new dance, and dance education). This was the first
time these disciplines had worked together under the same roof. At the time of the
project there had just been a government instigated merger between a famous
jazz school and a music school renowned for its classical studies. The Music
School was still waiting for a new Board of Directors. This was the dynamic
background against which we started the project.
Reconstructing organizational myths (phase I)

In retrospect the project consisted of three phases. The objective of the initial
phase was to gain an insight into the specific organizational knowledge and the
know-how that structured habits of health and self-care. Our interest
concentrated on the reconstruction of collectively formed myths.
Over the course of a year, one of my colleagues worked for 3–4 days a week at
the schools. She attended regular lessons, special body-awareness lessons, and
consulting hours, as well as concerts and student performances. This “prolonged
engagement” (Lincoln & Guba, 1986) enabled her to build up a relationship with
the communities and to gain an insight in common patterns of interaction. In
order to enhance our knowledge of the field we also read several
(auto)biographies and interviews with or about dancers and musicians. Once
every 2 weeks we met as a research team to discuss methodological
considerations and to reflect on how our particular position, research agenda, and
the main filter that influenced the project. Furthermore, we had regular meetings
with the initiators. Another important source of information during this phase
were in-depth interviews with several students, teachers, and (para)medical
specialists. One of the main principles that guided the selection of respondents
was variety; we tried to gain a broad spectrum of meanings. The interviews were
informal and were not guided by our topics but by the issues brought to the fore
by respondents. We started with broad opening questions, such as “What does it
mean to be a student/teacher at a music/dance school?” and “What happened
when you were injured and had to stop (temporarily)?” The interviews were all
tape-recorded and transcribed. Our interpretations were presented to every
respondent in order to give them the chance to comment on our findings
(“member checks”). All the respondents recognized themselves in our
reconstruction.
During the analysis of the personal stories it struck us that all of them were
unique, but that there were many similarities in the way students and teachers
made sense of their experiences. Also there were many striking parallels between
the stories of those at the Dance Academy and those at the music school. In
ordering their experiences in a meaningful way they relied on a collectively
formed myth. Here is a reconstruction of this myth:
Performing artists are individuals who experience their profession as a way of

expressing themselves personally. A life without dance or music is simply
impossible. The highest goal is to reach the top. Not the personal top, but the
absolute top within that specific profession. Only a few can attain this.
To reach the top, one has to start at a very early age, preferably before the age of
10, and iron discipline is required. One should work hard and train regularly. Life
is structured by rigid schemes. In order to succeed, the use of alcohol, cigarettes,
and drugs should be kept to a minimum, and dancers should constantly watch their
weight. Complete dedication to the profession is a must and this means that other
aspects in life, such as having a social life, is of minor importance.
In order to become a good performing artist the authority of the master-teacher
should be accepted. This is particularly so in the Music School where every
student is taught on a one-to-one basis. The student should be compliant.
To reach the top other students must be considered competitors and rivalry is
required to win the struggle.
Care for the body and health take second place. The body only receives attention
when injured or tense. It is no more than an instrument (“You have a body” versus
“You are a body”. In the dance world, external appearance, the aesthetics of the
body are even more important; meager to the bone is still the ideal in classic dance.
In the case of music the body symbolizes, like clothing, earthly, banal needs;
music by contrast symbolizes the mysterious, the transcendental.
Self-care is minimal and preventing problems requires a lot of time. Its benefits
are considered minimal. Further it keeps one from what really matters, namely
dedication to the profession.
Heavy demands are made on the students during their studies to prepare them
for the heavy demands of this difficult life. This is considered to be the way to
select the best students. It means that they have to control/toughen themselves
when injuries occur and that they learn not expect too much from teachers. Pain is
a common fact of life. It is a normal phenomenon and students should learn to live
with it. A good musician or dancer is a go-getter. Performances cannot be
cancelled, because of pain or illnesses.
In the myth opposing goals and values are connected in a meaningful

framework for action. In this case the highest goal is formulated in terms of
reaching the absolute top. This is accompanied by struggles and the hero is the
222 ABMA
one who, despite physical constraints, reaches the highest rung on the career
ladder. The anti-hero is someone who ends up as a teacher at a provincial dance
or music school. Important values are perfection, discipline, compliance, rivalry,
as well as creativity. It is this masculine discourse and myth that forms the
identity of students. At a very young age students learn to adjust their personality
to group norms: “to mute the personhood or voice of its noviates” (Lee, 1992,
1995). The myth also determines the interaction-rules between students and
between students and their teachers. It reflects and sustains the power-
relationship in which the student is (or is said to be) dependent on the teacher.
This unequal and not very democratic relationship is continued in professional

practice: In the orchestra players are dependent on the conductor, and dancers are
dependent on the choreographer who chooses his or her dancers per performance
(Krasnow, Kerr, & Mainwaring, 1994). A dance teacher and ex-dancer puts it
like this: “As a dancer you are always dependent, I find that very difficult. You
are always dependent on that person, for a role.”
Myths, according to Trice and Beyer (1993, p. 105), have a high degree of
seriousness: “Myths are dramatic, rather vague, unquestioned narratives of
imagined events … They deal with matters that are very serious or sacred in a
culture” (p. 79). The irony and humour one often finds in daily organizational
stories are completely absent. A myth contains an explanation that is hard to
question and is well protected against debate and argument. Myths have a lot of
authority and they legitimate action. The myth we reconstructed was deeply
embedded in the cultural values of the group and it had a lot of power among the
students and teachers in the school’s communities.
Destabilizing the organizational myth (phase II)

The objective of the second phase of the project was to stimulate critical
reflection on the inherited myth. We organized a series of story-workshop s
between students and teachers in both schools. With the exception of the teachers
at the Music School, the groups of students and teachers (again selected on the
principle of variety) we approached were willing to participate in these
workshops if they did not take too much time. We therefore planned the
workshops within the regular meetings and lessons. The groups that attended the
workshops were small (given the available amount of time, six persons appeared
to be the ideal size for a session of 1 or 2 hours). In the workshops, participants
were invited to respond to story-fragments from the intermediary report. The
stories presented were selected because of they were like life and were critical in
their approach to the dominant myth. They were rewritten and edited so that they
could be read within a short period of time.
Teachers at the Dance Academy, for example, were confronted with the
following two short stories (Abma, de Jong, and van der Zouwe, 1998, pp. 86–
87). One told by a student called Johan and one told by Margot, the co-ordinator
of the injury prevention programme. Johan said he had had a hard time
interpreting the corrections of his teachers and he explained what happened when
he discovered he had sprained his “hamstring”. The massages he received from
of the physiotherapist made him aware of his tense body and that he “was willing
too much”. At the time of the interview Johan was still wrestling to become more
assertive during the regular lessons. In our account we cite Johan “She [a teacher]
told me do it again and to think about it. I said—that was one time when I really
spoke up—‘Give some space!’ I told her this and she was like ahhhh, she could
not deal with what I said, but it was really getting too much for me.” We ended
Johan’s story with several questions we that formulated ourselves, such as “Did
Johan go too far? Was he obstinate? Or does it mean that the teacher never meets
students who let it be seen that they feel suffocated by the teacher’s authority?”
Margot tells readers what she thinks about the attitude and relationship between
teachers and students from another point of view. Students with injuries often
find it hard to follow medical advice when they start their regular lessons again.
Margot notices all kinds of communication problems and we end our account
with the following question: “Does the fact that the teacher evaluates the student
play a role in the troubled communication?”
The questions we raised in our accounts were meant to stimulate discussion
among participants at the workshops. We deliberately decided to give students
the stories of their teachers, and vice versa. This idea is grounded in the method
of rotation. Participants in rotation change roles in order to reposition themselves
temporarily and to see things from another point of view. They are forced to leave
their own territory for a while and this enables them to absorb some aspect of the
other and to carry this within them as possible ways of interpreting events and
taking action. Participants may develop a sensitivity for the “rationality of the
other” (Gergen, 1994, p. 77). Rotation may heighten the awareness and mutual
understanding of participants and open the way for unknown roles and
relationships (Abma, 2000b).
At this stage of the project we attempted to create safe and comfortable
environments in which participants would show respect for multiplicity. Two
consultants facilitated the workshops. One of us gave a short introduction to the
project, our role and interests, and the goals of the workshop. Permission was
sought to tape the conversation. Participants agreed when we promised that they
would be able to respond to our interpretations before publication. After a short
reading pause of 5 minutes everyone was invited to introduce themselves and
retell the stories in his or her own voice. The second consultant would record
names and reactions. The initial responses reflected what participants found
important and formed a good starting point for illuminating the different
meanings embedded in the stories. We then went on to ask questions like: “What
do you recognize? What do you miss in the story? Can a different story be told?
And what would you suggest to the storyteller?” After 1 or 2 hours we would end
the workshop.
224 ABMA
It is not possible to cover the richness of the dialogues during these workshops
in this short article, but the following may provide some insight into some
recurring issues.
1. Should students respect their own limits or exceed them? Whether

students should respect or exceed their own limits was the first issue that recurred
regularly during the story-workshops. For the answer some students and teachers
relied on the inherited myth. According to this myth it is necessary to go beyond
one’s limits to develop professionally. Exceeding one’s limits would be a way of
reaching a state of perfection beyond oneself. Pain is the prize that needs to be
paid: “I tell the students you will have pain and as a dancer you will keep that, that
is just the way it is [dance teacher].’ The myth was so dominant that the students
who did want to rest in time did not do so because they feared exclusion and
social isolation.
During the conversation there were also students and teachers who criticized
this mythical wisdom. These were often participants who had experiences
themselves the way exceeding one’s limits could carry great risks. A “time out”
was said to be a meaningful period to recover physically and grow mentally, but
the participants emphasized that first of all one should prevent problems by
paying serious attention to pain signals. Instead of considering pain as a normal
condition, they suggested the new rule might be: “Pain is stop.” Furthermore,
students might become more assertive in their relations with their teachers.
Teachers might assist students to heighten their awareness of their bodies so that
would be better prepared to recognize their limits.
2. Should students consult their specialist and/or teachers in case of

problems or solve them individually? The second subject of discussion
concerned the dilemma whether one should consult others or solve problems
oneself. Reasoning from the dominant myth most participants stated that students
were themselves responsible for their own health. The unspoken and unwritten
rule is that one should not disturb teachers with questions about posture, mental
condition, or other matters concerning health, especially not if they are top-
teachers. There is also a taboo around the matter of expressing authentic
emotions.
These interaction-rules have a symbolic as well as a practical value. They
sustain the teachers’ authority and maintain the distance between students and
teachers. Other students are not seen as people with whom problems can be
shared. Telling a fellow student that something is going wrong is considered to be
a sign of weakness.
Not everyone, however, was happy with the distance and division of
responsibilities between teachers and students. Several participants suggested
that what I have called the inherited myth does not sufficiently acknowledge that
students need support from their teachers and classmates. The idea that the
teacher stands above the student, because of his or her expertise, is placed into
perspective. The teacher, as someone put it, only represents “a different
authority”. Teachers do not have to become therapists, but they might take care of
their students’ well-being. Perhaps, as one of the participants suggests, teachers
should not only be selected on the basis of their artistic qualities but for their
didactic skills as well.
3. Should students actively prevent problems or avoid further deterioration

when health problems arise? The third issue that recurred at the story-
workshops was whether or not health problems should be actively prevented. In

line with the dominant myth many participants stated that active takes time that
can better be used in study. Arguments for not developing an active injury
prevention strategy are meaningful in the context of the inherited myth: The
school is there to deliver top-talents and these select themselves out. “Survival of
the fittest” is the motto. The school has no responsibilities as far as prevention is
concerned.
There were, however, also participants who stated that prevention and health
promotion should be an integral part of the curriculum. Prevention should not
only focus on the injury, but on the student as an integral human being.
Furthermore, prevention is not only the responsibility of experts, but of teachers
in general. They should be observant and refer a student to a specialist if
necessary. The school has in this respect a preventive function that goes further
than delivering special courses and training.
Further enlarging the dialogue (phase III)

In the last phase of the project we passed on this newly acquired knowledge and
tried to engage as many people as possible in the reflexive dialogue about the
inherited myths. We tried to catch their imagination and generate new images for
the future. In order to realize these aims we deliberately choose to present our
findings in a format and style that differed from conventional scientific reports.
Although these reports take various forms and have different functions, the text
often has the character of an objective and factual account. The findings are
typically extracted from their context and the description is “thin”. Such a text
may be suited to informing readers of the facts but it does not give them a “feel”
for the setting nor does it enable and invite readers to engage in a dialogue on the
meanings embedded in the text. Neither does it help them form their own
judgements and conclusions.
Our report contains a collection of stories. The style is figurative and the
dramatic recall of the school setting is intended to draw readers into an unfamiliar
story world and allow them, as far as possible, to see, hear, and feel as the
participants in the project saw, heard, and felt. Parts of the text have the character
of an edited version of the conversations that took place in the story-workshops .
226 ABMA
The conversations between students and between teachers are placed in a split-
text format, which enabled readers to vicariously experience the diversity of
perspectives on the three recurring issues. The following observations can be
made about the process of learning from this kind of text. Stories are powerful
tools in learning, because they are one of the most fundamental ways to order
experiences and events. Learning from stories has been compared to learning
from friends (Forester, 1993). Friends tell us “appropriate” stories that touch us
by their specificity, as something about ourselves. These stories work like a
mirror. They help us to see things more clearly or in a different light. They
remind us of things which we may have forgotten or to which we have developed

a blind spot. Because events in stories are not described in abstract terms but
rather as contextualized experiences, stories can easily be assimilated. They are
the means by which we construct our personal experiences. For this reason we
are influenced by stories. Development and changes in practice do not come from
the rational application of formal abstract knowledge and information. Rather, it
is rooted in changes at a more basic level where someone changes by new
experiences (Kennedy, 1983; Stake, 1986). People react directly to vicarious
experiences: “They need stories of people in a plight like their own” (Stake,
1991, p. 76). Those who miss an experience first-hand can, through the detailed
narrative accounts of others, transport knowledge from the setting of another to a
context of their own.
It is quite common to end an evaluation report with conclusions and
recommendations. We deliberately decided not to do so. In order to further
stimulate the dialogue we presented a basic scenario that referred to a
continuation of the actual educational and pedagogical practice within the
schools and three alternative scenarios (Abma et al. 1998). The four scenarios
were invented and visualized in a two-dimensional scheme in which the
horizontal dimension referred to the mission of the school (absolute top/
individual development) and the vertical dimensions to the responsibility
(individual/collective). Every scenario was labelled with capturing phrases. The
inherited myth at the school of music was, for example, entitled as “Survival of
the fittest”. Each scenario was further elaborated in terms of the practical
consequences it would have for the school. The scenario “Symphony” (Music
School) was, for example, grounded, in the recognition that prevention is a
shared responsibility and that not everyone will be able to reach the absolute top.
On these grounds it is meaningful to develop a prevention program as an integral
part of the curriculum. After a discussion within the project-group the report was
distributed among the school communities and others who showed an active
interest in it. It was also presented to the Board of Directors of both schools and
formed the basis for a collaborative meeting between them in which learning and
defining future action was central.
DISCUSSION
In this article I have tried to show that learning is an integral part of the ongoing
and dynamic process of organizing. Organizational learning is hence not an
individual and cognitive, but a socio-cognitive process. What an organization
needs to do in a certain situation can be interpreted in multiple ways and, in
principle, is continuously subject to negotiation. Narratives frame interpretations
and guide the actions of practitioners. Working and learning are thus embedded
within the existing patchwork of concrete stories and other, more abstract,
accounts. They function as repositories of accumulated wisdom and practitioners

will rely on inherited narratives as long as these provide a meaningful context for
action and as long as they fulfil important social meanings. Confronted with
conflicts or fuzzy situations, they may engage in a process of narration to craft
stories and know-how that is not (yet) available or which is not permitted to be
utilized.
This case study has elaborated insights into the transition from gaming into
playing. The learning process that took place is questioning and reflective in
character. It is characterized by ambiguities, fuzziness, and conflicts. In order to
foster the process of learning-in-organizing it has been my position that the
central normative concern of a process consultant should be the quality of the
discursive process, and in particular with the way multiplicity is handled. It is
considered to be unethical and ineffective if certain meanings and voices do not
make a difference to the discursive process. In the example presented here, we
practised this ethos as the facilitators of a series of organized dialogues within the
different school communities. In these conversations the dominant myth became
the subject of critical discussion. Reflexive questions that were not allowed
previously, such as “How is it possible that I have had two injuries in one year”
and “What will happen to my body if 1 continue this way of life for years”, were
publicly addressed. The learning that took place concerned the role of self-care
and injury prevention. No less important was the learning that referred to
relationships. I have recounted the discussion on the relationships between
students and teachers and desirability of changing the way they relate to each
other. Teachers and experts also reflected upon their relationship. This
“relational learning” indicates another social dimension of learning (Eggers,
1999; McNamee & Gergen, 1999).
In this case small steps have been made to foster change, but modesty is
required. Given the social meaning of the myth and political constellation, it is
not unthinkable that the dominant myth and accompanying rules may reappear
again and again. How successful the narrative approach is in fostering change
will depend in part on the “anchoring” of newly invented meanings. The term
“anchoring” is introduced by Czarniawska (1997a) and refers to “testing new
228 ABMA
ideas—especially ideas that result from reframing—on the potentially involved

actors well in advance, so as to secure their cooperation or at least to minimize
their resistance” (p. 477). On the basis of her study of the learning process in
Warsaw city management, Czarniawska concludes that in her case “Much
experimentation goes on, but new solutions are not properly anchored and easily
vanish into oblivion” (p. 491). She relates this to “the underdevelopment of the
organizational field”; there was no organized reflection or debate on the
processes of transformation, and there were no forms of organized reflection,
such as development courses. In our case, we created such an environment by
organizing reflexive dialogues.

One of the basic conditions for these dialogues is that organization members
are willing to join and participate in them. We have found that it is important to be
realistic and that the willingness to collaborate is the highest when activities are
integrated into the regular meetings and encounters. However, it remains hard to
motivate those practitioners who benefit from the reproduction of the dominant
myths, such as the teachers in the School of Music. The status quo reinforces
their authority and prestige as top-artists and thus their hierarchical relationship
with their students. Why should they engage in a process that might eventually
result in a situation where they would lose some of their status? We have found it
workable (not completely satisfying) to focus on those teachers who were
already convinced of the value of self-care, such as a famous piano-player who
was willing to share his personal story with us. The question of how
transformative conversations can be initiated with those who do not need to listen
deserves more attention, however, if we want to foster organizational learning in
unequal power constellations. Another important condition is the willingness to
respect and to use meanings that fall outside the dominant organizational myths
and stories. Here we found that safe and comfortable environments as well as the
respect the facilitator shows are important.
The narrative understanding of organizational learning was a fruitful approach
within the context of two performing art schools. The project took place in a very
“special” setting, one in which the relationships are asymmetrical and in which
the culture is very strong and quite homogeneous. Furthermore, the project aimed
to bring about changes and was less focused on the preservation of organizational
know-how. This implies that this account generates specific insights into the
relationship between narrative and organizational learning. Nevertheless, I
expect that this text will be of interest to those who are working in other
professional organizations such as hospitals, universities, the public services, or
knowledge-intensive organizations. One lesson of importance is that instead of a
common knowledge base, multiplicity must be seen as a necessary condition for
organizational learning. Bringing in other, external voices like those of clients,
for example, can stimulate multiplicity. Organizing multiplicity often implies
conflict and the quality of learning will be enhanced if consultants and managers
further refine their repertoire of conflict management (Abma, 1999, 2000a, b). A
second lesson is that learning is not solely an abstract process. In their daily
practice practitioners are crafting stories to act in ambiguous situations. These
stories developed by these working communities contain much wisdom that
might be overlooked if we concentrate on formal accounts alone. Thirdly, it is
important to become more aware of the captive plot line and roles embedded in
dominant narratives such as myths, if one wants to foster a change-oriented
learning process. Participants can profit from the reflexive understanding
generated in a collaborative dialogical process facilitated by process consultants
or managers.
We may further refine the provisional, local, and contextual findings through
more research at disparate locations. It would be particularly interesting to
further refine the idea of various stages in the learning-in-organizing process and
appropriate quality criteria, conditions, and narrative methods.
REFERENCES
Abma, T.A. (1997a). Sharing power—facing ambiguity. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program
evaluation: Vol. 3. Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 105–119). Greenwich, CT:
JAI Press.
Abma, T.A. (1997b). Voices from the margins: Political and ethical dilemmas in evaluation.
Canadian Review of Social Policy/Revue Canadienne de Politique Sociale, 39, 41–53.
Abma, T.A. (1998). Storytelling as inquiry in a mental hospital. Qualitative Health Research, 8(6),
821–838.
Abma, T.A. (1999). Introduction: Narrative perspectives on program evaluation. In T.A. Abma
(Ed.), Advances in Program Evaluation: Vol. 6. Telling tales: On evaluation and narrative
(pp. 1–27). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Abma, T.A. (2000a). Stakeholder conflict: A case study. Program Planning and Evaluation, 23(2),
1–12.
Abma, T.A. (2000b). Dynamic inquiry relationships: Ways of creating, sustaining, and improving
the inquiry process through the recognition and management of conflicts. Qualitative Inquiry,
6(1), 133–151.
Abma, T.A., de Jong, I.J.A., & van der Zouwe, N. (1998). Tegen beter weten in. Dilemma’s
verkend, verbreed en verbeeld. Tweede rapportage, Responsief onderzoek naar
attitudevorming inzake gezondheid bij de muziek en dansopleidingen van de Amsterdamse
Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Rotterdam, The Netherlands .
Bakhtin, M.M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. (Original
work published 1953)
Bodenrieder, I. (1998). Social architecture: A prerequisite for organizational learning
(Management Rep. No. 38). Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The
Netherlands.
Boje, D.M. (1991). The storytelling organization: Story performance in an office-supply firm.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 106–126.
Boje, D.M. (1995). Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of disney as
“Tamara-land”. Academy of Management Journal, 38(4), 997–1035.
Bouwen, R. (1997, June). Knowing in action: Transformation and interaction. Organizing in a
Multi-voiced World. Unpublished paper presented at the conference, Leuven, Belgium.
Boyce, L.M.E. (1996). Organizational and story and story-telling: A critical review.
Organizational Change Management, 9(5), 5–26.
230 ABMA
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press.
Cohen, M.D., & Sproull, L.S. Sproull, (1996). Introduction. In M.D. Cohen, & L.S. Sproull (Eds.),
Organizational learning (pp. ix–xv). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Connely, F.M., & Clandinin, D.J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational
Researcher, 22(1), 5–12.
Cook, S.D.N., & Yanow, D., (1996). Culture and organizational learning. In M.D. Cohen & L.S.
Sproull (Eds.), Organizational learning (pp. 430–460). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Czarniawska, B. (1997a). Learning organizing in a changing institutional order: Examples from
city management in Warsaw. Management Learning, 28(4), 475–495.
Czarniawska, B. (1997 b). Narrating the organization: Dramas of institutional identity. Chicago/
London: University of Chicago Press.
Eggers, W. (1999). “Just like Max”: Learning in relation. In S. McNamee, & K.J. Gergen, (Eds.),
Relational responsibility: Resources for sustainable dialogue (pp. 181–185). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications.
Forester, J. (1993). Learning from practice stories. In F. Fisher & J. Forester (Eds.), The
argumentative turn in policy analysis and planning (pp. 186–209). London: UCL Press.
Gabriel, Y. (1991). Turning facts into stories and stories into facts: A hermeneutic exploration of
organizational folklore. Human Relations, 44(8), 857–875.
Gergen, K.J. (1994). The limits of pure critique. In M. Billig & M.W. Simons (Eds.), After
postmodernism: Reconstructing ideology critique (pp. 58–78). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Gherardi, S. (1999). Learning as problem-driven or learning in the face of mystery? Organization
Studies, 20(1), 101–124.
Grant, D., & Oswick, C. (Eds.). (1996). Metaphor and organization. London: Sage Publications.
Greene, J.C. (1988). Stakeholder participation and utilization program evaluation. Evaluation
Review, 12(2), 91–116.
Greene, J.C. (1997). Participatory evolution. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program evaluation:
Vol. 3. Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 171–190). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Guba, E.G., & Lincoln, Y.S. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Hosking, D.M., & Bass, A. (1997, June). A changed approach to change. Organizing in a multi-
voiced world. Unpublished paper presented at the conference. Leuven, Belgium.
Hutcheon, L. (1988). A poetics of postmodernism: History, theory, fiction. New York: Routledge.
Kaminsky, A. (1999). Myth, meaning, multiplicity and metaphor: A figurative description of a
transformative learning program. In T.A. Abma (Ed.), Telling tales: On narrative and
evaluation (Vol. 6, pp. 151–165). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Kennedy, M.M. (1983). Working knowledge. Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 5(2),
193–211.
Kensen, S. (1998, October). Narrative knowledge and the politics of telling tales: Developing a
relational methodology of policy evaluation. Unpublished paper presented at the European
Evaluation Society annual conference, Rome, Italy.
Kensen, S. (1999). Sturen op variatie, Sociale vernieuwing en de Deense variant als bronnen van
inspiratie [Managing on diversity: Dutch social renewal and Danish local development as
sources of inspiration. The Hague, The Netherlands: VNG Uitgeverij.
Kensen, S., & Bogason, P. (1999). A Danish neighborhood council evaluated twice: Two narrative
approaches compared. In T.A. Abma (Ed.), Telling tales: On evaluation and narrative (Vol. 6,
pp. 79–108). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Kesey, K. (1983). One flew over the cuckoo’s nest: A novel. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.
(Original work published 1962).
Krasnow, D.A., Kerr, G. & Mainwaring, L., (1994). Psychology of dealing with the injured dancer.
Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 7–9.
Lee, S.A. (1992). Patterns of choice, bias and belief: Report from a pilot study on dancers and
health care. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 52–57.
Lee, S.A. (1995). Women’s lives in ballet: A psychological perspective. Impulse, 3, 229–237.
Lincoln, J.S., & Guba, E.G. (1986). But is it rigorous? Trustworthiness and authenticity in
naturalistic evaluation. In D.D. Williams (Ed.), Naturalistic evaluation: New directions for
program evaluation (pp. 73–84). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass .
McNamee, S., & Gergen, K. (1999). Relational responsibility: The converging conversation. In S.
McNamee & Gergen, K.J., Relational responsibility: Resources for sustainable dialogue (pp.
199–217). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Mumby, D.K. (1993). Introduction: Narrative and social control. In D.K. Mumby (Ed.), Sage
Annual Reviews of Communication Research: Vol. 21. Narrative and social control: Critical
perspectives . (pp. 1–12), Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rein, M. (1983). From policy to practice. New York: Sharpe Inc.
Seely Brown, J., & Duguid, P., (1996). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice :
Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. In M.D. Cohen & L.S. Sproull
(Eds.), Organizational learning (pp. 58–82). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Senge, P.M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New
York: Doubleday Currency.
Sköldberg, K. (1994). Tales of change: Public administration reform and narrative mode.
Organization Science, 5(2), 219–238.
Stake, R.E. (1986). An evolutionary view of educational improvement. In E.R. House (Ed.), New
directions in educational evaluation (pp. 89–102). London: Farmer.
Stake, R.E. (1991). Retrospective on the countenances of educational evaluation. In M.W.
McLaughlin & D.C. Philips (Eds.), Evaluation and education (Ninetieth yearbook of the
National Society for the Study of Education, pp. 67–88. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Trice, H.M., & Beyer, J.M. (1993). The cultures of work organizations. New Jersey: Prentice Hill.
Tsang, E.W.K. (1997). Organizational learning and the learning organization: A dichotomy
between descriptive and prescriptive literature. Human Relations, 50(1), 73–98.
Voogt, T. (1990). Managen in een meervoudige context. The Netherlands: Delft, Eburon.
Watson, T.J. (1995). Rhetoric, discourse and argument in organizational sensemaking: A reflexive
tale. Organizational Studies, 16(5), 805–821.
Weick, K.E., & Roberts, K.H. (1996). Collective mind in organizations: Heedful interrelating on
flight decks. In M.D. Cohen & L.S. Sproull (Eds), Organizational learning (pp. 330–358).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Witten, M. (1993). Narrative and the culture of obedience at the workplace. In D.K. Mumby (Ed.).
Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research: Narrative and social control: Critical
perspectives. Vol. 21. (pp. 97–118), Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Abma 2000

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Abma 2000

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa

To cite this article: Tineke A. Abma (2000) Fostering learning-in-

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943200397950

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private

Fostering learning-in-organizing through narration:

Department of Health Care Policy and Management,

This article is organized around the concept of “learning-in-organizing” to capture

Narratives (“narratio” means telling) are vehicles for making sense of

a cognitive process that takes place in the head of an individual, but as a

SOME THEORETICAL NOTIONS

Narration: Practitioners as bricoleurs

intentional, and instrumental process. By contrast, a dynamic narrative approach

language of their profession. “The central issue in learning is becoming a

Learning as a collective and relational process

The (de)stabilizing role of narratives

Multiplicity and the quality of learning

Organizing Learning Quality Criteria Methods

Playing Searching Multiplicity stimulated *Engaging newcomers

Playing/gaming Translation Multiplicity used Internalization

Elaboration of the scheme by Kensen (1999, p. 260).

acquire new knowledge by placing their experiences in another context. I

Reconstructing organizational myths (phase I)

Performing artists are individuals who experience their profession as a way of

In the myth opposing goals and values are connected in a meaningful

This unequal and not very democratic relationship is continued in professional

Destabilizing the organizational myth (phase II)

1. Should students respect their own limits or exceed them? Whether

2. Should students consult their specialist and/or teachers in case of

3. Should students actively prevent problems or avoid further deterioration

workshops was whether or not health problems should be actively prevented. In

Further enlarging the dialogue (phase III)

remind us of things which we may have forgotten or to which we have developed

accounts. They function as repositories of accumulated wisdom and practitioners

ideas—especially ideas that result from reframing—on the potentially involved

organizing reflexive dialogues.

You might also like

Playing/gaming Translation Multiplicity used Internalization