Abstract

Stories intrigue the field of Knowledge Management. Employing stories in both personnel and stakeholders communication is currently being recommended in several best practice guides on effective knowledge transfer and leadership communication. The aims of this article are to present further understanding of the impact of stories, and assess which kind of communication tasks stories are most apt for by considering stories as a medium. This allows for the examination of stories through two interlinked theories: Social Presence Theory and Media Richness Theory. These are found to be limited indicators of media effectiveness and it is suggested that elements of the theories should be broadened to make both theories useful for assessing core media effectiveness, although it is recommended that they be combined with other modes of evaluation to achieve thorough assessment of media impact.