Narrative genre, social context, and the management of people: Intimations from the PRC

Abstract

This article explores the benefits of using narrative as a way of studying the management of people at work. It provides a framework for understanding the role that narrative plays in reflecting on the assumptions we make in our research. Using narrative from the People's Republic of China (PRC) as an example, this article posits two types of narrative: cultural narrative and voice narrative. Both provide interesting approaches to thinking about social relationships and understanding social contexts. But cultural narrative cannot be perceived as constant and isolated from the self and society. Rather, the way in which people live their own experiences through the self-representations and social representations of voice narratives must be taken into account simultaneously with cultural narrative.