Topic > cim - 1682

Boje (1995) studied Walt Disney World and legendary accounts based on the organization. Historical accounts reveal a darker side of the organization, compared to “Disney's cunning and managed construction” (Boje, 1995:997). Walt Disney described the organization as "one big, happy family", however, this is falsely portrayed as Boje revealed that Walt Disney was an authority figure who "rarely allowed any voice other than his own to be heard" (1995: 1020). . One historical account portrays the negative image of labor at Disney World, when 1000 workers picketed against working conditions, due to “unfair wages, poor working conditions, and a parochial code of conduct” (1995: 1014). To maintain the company's positive image, Walt fired 20 strikers in an attempt to scare other workers; this had a negative effect on employee engagement. This strike is not recorded in official Walt Disney World documents, which highlights the dominant role Walt Disney had in silencing employee voices. Hiley (2004) argues that organizations exclude the voices of some individuals, which allows them to maintain the idealized identity of the organization. However, organizational change communication should be polyphonic (Langer and Thorup, 2006); so the voices of all employees are heard. By facilitating and coordinating the voices of all employees in a harmonious environment, a positive change process is enabled, as all employees are involved. By adopting a hegemonic narrative, organizations create an “invisible prison for those subject to it, which limits their ability to give voice to alternative narrative accounts to define their existence” (Browns and Humphreys, 2003:137-138), therefore the ideal the reality is never... at the center of the paper ......representation can be revealed, compared to the idealized representation of the organization from the point of view of company stories. Stories have always been part of human life, they are an important way in which we make sense of situations, and therefore the extent to which narrative can be ignored within organisations, may be questionable. Through the use of storytelling it is possible to achieve a connection between management and employees, leading to greater levels of motivation and engagement which in turn will allow the organization to implement changes without resistance due to employees feeling engaged with the organization , therefore greater motivation on the part of employees has a higher impact on productivity. To conclude, employee and organizational historical accounts allow for deeper insight into how individuals make sense of their world, through which complex identities can be explored.