Storytelling as a Tool for Vicarious Learning among Air Medical Transport Crews

Abstract

Learning vicariously from the experiences of others at work, such as those working on different teams or projects, has long been recognized as a driver of collective performance in organizations. Yet as work becomes more ambiguous and less observable in knowledge-intensive organizations, previously identified vicarious learning strategies, including direct observation and formal knowledge transfer, become less feasible. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with flight nurse crews in an air medical transport program, I inductively build a model of how storytelling can serve as a valuable tool for vicarious learning. I explore a multistage process of triggering, telling, and transforming stories as a means by which flight nurses convert the raw experience of other crews’ patient transports into prospective knowledge and expanded repertoires of responses for potential future challenges. Further, I highlight how this storytelling process is situated within the transport program’s broader structures and practices, which serve to enable flight nurses’ storytelling and to scale the lessons of their stories throughout the entire program. I discuss the implications of these insights for the study of storytelling as a learning tool in organizations, as well as for revamping the field’s understanding of vicarious learning in knowledge-intensive work settings.

Scarlet Letters: Rehabilitation Through Transgression Transparency and Personal Narrative Control

“…Thus in reaction to others’ inquiries, transgressors began to develop and share narratives about their transgressions with non-transgressors. As these responses became longer, we observed that they shared similarities with the storytelling narratives in which organizational scholars have become increasingly interested (Boje, 1991, 1995, 2001; Myers, 2022). Consistent with scholarship on storytelling, transgressors formed their narratives to provide social accounts (Scott and Lyman, 1968; Sitkin, Sutcliffe, and Reed, 1993; Orbuch, 1997; Cobb, Stephens, and Watson, 2001; Skarlicki, Folger, and Gee, 2004) of the transgression to explain to others why the transgression happened.…”

Investigating vicarious trauma: dramaturgical challenges for qualitative research

“…Moreover, as interview subjects engage with the researcher, the subject as storyteller is recreating experiences through an encounter with a listener. This provides an opportunity for the interviewer to derive lessons from that experience even though not having directly observed the traumatic experience (Myers, 2021). The numerous interview stories referred to above provided an abundance of data for qualitative analysis using a textual approach (Gephart, 1993) where written material serves as "text" that is embedded with creative interpretations of the author.…”

“…To introduce a critical viewpoint for the commemoration of the Ocean Ranger, I emphasize dramaturgy's ability to identify opportunities for storytelling, impression management and remembrance (Boje et al, 2004;Corrigan and Rixon, 2017;D'Cruz, 2022). Research about vicarious interaction often places its interest in the stories instead of the storytelling process (Myers, 2021). However, dramaturgical critique may be (Goffman, 1963) which discusses how the social status of persons can be systemically reduced in our minds, and in the concept of Total Institutions (Goffman, 1962) where the mental state of psychiatric patients (and the institutionalized identity of the hospital itself) is questioned.…”

“…, 2004; Corrigan and Rixon, 2017; D'Cruz, 2022). Research about vicarious interaction often places its interest in the stories instead of the storytelling process (Myers, 2021). However, dramaturgical critique may be used to expose oversimplified understandings of the stories related by VT interview participants.…”

Structuring the situation: Organizational goals trigger and direct decision-making

“…Organizational learning directs search by giving information helpful for forming construal and determining response ( Argote and Greve, 2007 ). In the long run, organizational responses are learned and retained through processes such as storytelling ( Myers, 2022 ), routine formation ( Bresman, 2013 ), and job creation ( Miner, 1990 ). In the short run, information from the environment shapes construal processes and influences the response.…”