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The Impact of
Stories (pp53-64)
Joanna Sinclair
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland
joanna.sinclair@hanken.fi |
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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. Research based answers to
why stories are considered effective are, however, limited in the field of
Knowledge Management. 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. To achieve this, stories are
perceived as a medium, which enables the examination of stories through
two interlinked theories: Social Presence Theory and Media Richness
Theory. The impact of stories is explained by examining characteristics of
stories that have been found in previous key research, and by studying the
social presence and media richness of these attributes. Both theories are
critised and re-evaluated during the process to simultaneously assess
their value in evaluating media effectiveness. The examination shows that
verbally communicated stories are high in various aspects of social
presence as well as media richness and thus they can be considered an
adept method of communicating complex or ambiguous issues such as
organisational change efforts or strategy, whereas written stories can be
considered a somewhat leaner media in regards to media richness and social
presence and thus more suitable for communicating moderately complex
issues, such as an organisation’s vision, values or brand promises. Media
Richness Theory and Social Presence Theory are found to be limited
indicators of media effectiveness. It is suggested that elements of the
theories should be broadened to include receiver interpretations, which
would 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.
Keywords: Stories, Storytelling, Communication, Social Presence
Theory, Media Richness Theory, Knowledge Management |
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