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| ''So there we were...'' The stories told by Chief Petty Officers in the United States Navy, explored through a complexity lens.
| | Patricia Reily
| Since the later part of the 20th century, there has been growing recognition that story telling might be of value as organizations grapple with challenges regarding how to communicate with people, both inside and outside of organizations, and manage change. While there is tacit recognition of the value of a skillfully told story in the Navy, a systematic study of story, or narrative, has never been done. It is the premise of this paper that there is a missed opportunity with respect to the study, and use, of story in organizations.;This was a qualitative study that applied both narrative theory and complexity science theory to an analysis of stories told by 34 Navy Chief Petty Officers. Two methods of data collection were used, semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Data were collected at two different locations, a leadership training academy and onboard a Navy ship at sea. One hundred and twenty nine stories, along with the discussions that accompanied them, were audio recorded and supplemented with observation memos. The data were analyzed by searching for reoccurring phrases, themes and patterns.;It was found that the participants, as individuals and as a group, functioned like complex adaptive entities, and that their narratives helped them to adapt to constantly changing environments. Seven primary themes---called dominant narratives in this study---emerged from the data. The dominant narratives, and their attendant schemas, indicated that a cycle of narrative meaning develops as people use stories to make sense of the past, cope with the present, and navigate into the future. This cycle of narrative meaning repeats itself as the present becomes the past, and the future becomes the present, with stories ebbing and flowing between sense making, defining reality and prescribing schemas for how to proceed into the future.;The conclusion of the study was that through increased awareness and understanding of narrative in organizations, leaders and managers in the Navy, and in other human organizations, could purposefully use story to enhance the adaptability of their organizations, in an ever-changing world. This study also found that complexity science theory was particularly well suited to explain the dynamic---almost living---quality of story. While there is growing recognition that studying narrative provides deeper access to organizational realities, study of organizational narrative is underdeveloped and an area ripe for future research.
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