Understanding narrative effects

Abstract

Purpose Employee engagement has been directly linked to organizational outcomes, and at present, improving employee engagement has increasingly been a main focus for organizations. However, studies evaluating the impact of storytelling interventions on increasing the level of employee engagement are limited. Storytelling is one of the intervention methods that can provide cognitive stimulus to employees, which in turn could change their attitudes toward work including employee engagement. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of storytelling as an intervention tool for increasing employee engagement in one of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in West Java, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quantitative method. Employees from a West Java branch of large SOEs were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The research design used a pretest and a post-test with an expressive writing method to identify the extent of employee engagement by comparing participant groups and measuring the increase of employee engagement as a result of the storytelling intervention. The experimental group participated in three storytelling sessions that had been set up by panels of experts, while the control group was not given any treatment. The expressive writing analysis was conducted using software that has been developed and tested for validity and reliability. Furthermore, statistical analysis was used to test the results of expressive writing scoring to determine the impact of storytelling interventions. Findings Direct storytelling is proven to be one of the most effective methods of increasing employee engagement in one of the SOEs in the West Java region. The results of this study showed that there were differences between the experiment and control groups after experiencing a direct storytelling intervention where there was a significant increase in the dimensions of employee engagement. Participants in experimental group had higher scores than participants in control group in most of the employee engagement dimensions. Additionally, expressive writing methods are also proven to be able to provide a stimulus for employees in expressing thoughts, perceptions and motivations for employee engagement in the company. Research limitations/implications As direct storytelling has not been frequently used, especially to improve employee engagement, more studies should be conducted in various settings, with different measurement tools, and in a more controlled environment to confirm the effects of the intervention. Practical implications This paper provides insight into how companies can use direct storytelling to improve the dimensions of employee engagement. Additionally, this research can also be used as a reference by companies in Indonesia, especially SOEs, for applying the same method in an effort to improve work-related attitudes, such as employee satisfaction and organizational commitment. Social implications This study raises social implications in which employees enthusiasm increases in improving personal relationships between employees and storytellers, who are middle or upper management employees. In addition, employees also more appreciate their struggles when starting their careers, so they care more about increasing their role and involvement in the company. Originality/value This paper provides resources and information for companies and organizations to improve employee engagement through the implementation of direct storytelling. The focus of this paper is to gain information on the role of direct storytelling in improving employee engagement within a company or organization.

A biographic approach to the study of biocultural learning

“…Biographical approaches have also proved relevant to the study of 'how' and 'why' adults learn in professional learning contexts (e.g. West 2001;Stroobants 2005;Fillis 2015;Gustomo et al 2019), and further understanding of motivation within adult learning in higher education (e.g. Armstrong 1998).…”

An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Data Storytelling Competency and Business Performance

“…The literature has also demonstrated the value of storytelling to improve organizational processes and operations (Dykes, 2019;Elias et al, 2013) and collaboration quality, socialization and adaptation of new employees (Gustomo et al, 2019;Riche et al, 2018;Sundin, Andersson, & Watt, 2018), organizational and financial success (Vora, 2019;Welbourne, 2015), innovation capabilities and new product development and dissemination (Ciriello, Richter, & Schwabe, 2017;Dessart, 2018;Mirkovski et al, 2019), organizational knowledge management (Dalkir & Wiseman, 2004;Suzuki et al, 2018) and organizational learning and growth (Hedman, Bødker, Gimpel, & Damsgaard, 2018;Welbourne, 2015). While these studies provide conceptual evidence on the value and importance of using data storytelling in the organizational context, no research has been conducted to empirically test the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance, and this is yet to be verified empirically through hypothesis testing.…”

“…Second, while prior research has suggested that data storytelling is positively associated with business performance (Adegboyega & Bahareh, 2018;Dykes, 2019;Knaflic, 2015), no research appears to have examined the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance. Third, although conceptual work has suggested that decision-making quality may mediate the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance (Gustomo, Febriansyah, Ginting, & Santoso, 2019;Vora, 2019), almost no empirical evidence exists to examine this relationship and its mediating role. These research gaps can be attributed to the fact that most of the work on data storytelling in business analytics practices is conceptual and has been mainly contributed by industrial reports and consultants, which generally lack both theoretical and empirical validity.…”

Digital Evaluation Stories: A Case Study of Implementation for Monitoring and Evaluation in an Australian Community Not-for-Profit

“…Using them can emphasize the participants’ perspective within the context of their lives, making information richer, easier to remember, and more persuasive (Aaker, 2013; Bower, 1976; DeWitt, 2019). By conveying emotion, stories can help viewers engage in and understand the subject at hand and can enable organizations to disseminate knowledge, translate knowledge into practice, and motivate viewers to take action (Gustomo et al, 2019; Lawrence et al, 2006). Using film methods can further increase the power of storytelling by appealing to a diverse audience and repositioning evaluation participants as co-creators of knowledge (Gubrium & Harper, 2013).…”