Narrative Change. Hans Hansen

to study narratives in the first place. The year prior to my work at The Second City in Chicago I was living in France, teaching management at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Clermont-Ferrand. My main purpose for going to France was to get permission to conduct an ethnography at Michelin Tire headquarters, which was considering a new tire factory in recently privatized Russia. I had previously lived and taught in Russia, and I had established a contact at Michelin. I hoped to do an international management dissertation on French-Russian cross-cultural issues surrounding the opening of the new manufacturing plant. I spent six months having meetings about having meetings but made little progress at Michelin or at any tire plant in Russia. Having failed to secure a research setting, I slunk back to Kansas with my tail between my legs, pushing my PhD program into its fifth year.

      On a lark, a friend from Chicago suggested I look into Second City’s corporate division. I had never heard of it, but I was desperate for a research site and drove to Chicago to meet with the cofounder of Second City Communications, Joe Keefe. I pitched Joe my idea about studying corporate culture through the narratives (skits) they crafted.

      “I kind of become part of your ‘tribe,’” I explained in his office overlooking the intersection of North and Wells in Chicago. “As an ethnographer, I come here and ‘live’ among you and see what you do and what that’s like. Over time, some patterns or themes should emerge that allow me to theorize about what is happening as these narratives are constructed and clients use them to various ends. Participant observation means that I watch everything that happens, take copious notes, ask lots of questions, and participate as fully as possible in the work context to understand all the processes.”

      “I have no idea what you just said, but you sounded great!” Joe said. “Let’s find you someplace to sit.”

      One of the first narrative construction processes I observed was for a large Fortune 500 telecom company. The telecom company hired Second City Communications after they bought a smaller internet company that had been a fierce competitor. During the day, employees from both companies heard about plans for integrating the two former competitors. The two companies had very different cultures, but management thought they could retain the best parts of each organizational culture.