Turning Facts into Stories and Stories into Facts: A Hermeneutic Exploration of Organizational Folklore

TLDR

Organizational myths are collective fantasies with a dual structure that embody ambivalent wishes and allow multiple interpretations. The study analyzes three organizational stories from work and military settings. The three myths function symbolically to transform passivity into activity, powerlessness into control, and to provide consolation against pain and suffering.

Abstract

This paper analyzes three organizational stories which the author encountered in different work and military organizations. Each story reveals a dual structure, a recital, which varies in different accounts, and a common core, referred to here as the myth. These myths are seen as collective fantasies, fulfilling shared desires and offering either opportunities for cathartic discharge or a partial inoculation against misfortune. It is argued that the meanings of organizational myths are neither transparent nor unambiguous, often expressing ambivalent and contradictory wishes and permitting different or competing interpretations. The three myths discussed in this paper were all found to be symbolic means of turning passivity into activity, powerlessness into control, and of offering consolations against pain and suffering.