Page 89 - Journal of Management Inquiry, July 2018

342 Journal of Management Inquiry 27(3)

organizational storytelling, the greater plasticity of digital This involves evaluation of the “reality” and sincerity of the
organizational stories means that the distinction between story, as well as the intentions of the storyteller. However, the
audience and storyteller is more blurred, and the ability of authenticity of a digital organizational story can be extremely
audiences to communicate their rejection of a story is inten- difficult to ascertain. The creative affordances associated
sified. An example that illustrates this dialogical potential with digital Internet communication result in frequent con-
concerns car manufacturer, Chevrolet, which used YouTube testation of authenticity (Kaare & Lundby, 2008). In a hybrid
to invite audiences to use animated clips of a new sports util- physical–virtual space such as YouTube, it can be difficult to
ity vehicle to create their own commercial. YouTube users ascertain the verisimilitude of user-generated content.
deliberately parodied the vehicle’s design features to tell Violations of authenticity may arise from the ease with which
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astory about its negative environmental impact; This was an digital identities and images can be manipulated. Trying to
oppositional reading (Hall, 1980) to the storytelling message establish whether content is authentic, including whether it is
the organization intended to communicate. produced “bottom up” by amateurs or “top down” by corpo-
However, not all digital organizational storytellers have rate interests, has therefore become part of the participatory
equal status within the cultural circuits of capital (Thrift, cultural repertoire of “YouTubers” (Burgess & Green, 2009).
2005) enabled by Internet communication. Internet sites like Authenticity can be demonstrated through individual self-
YouTube are characterized by tensions between content expression, such as by using the technique of “vlogging,”
generated by amateurs, including non-profit and community delivering an autobiographical video diary straight-to-cam-
organizations, and professionals driven by institutional and era. Concerns about inauthentic digital organizational story-
commercial interests (Consalvo, 2003; Kim, 2012). Digital telling can arise when corporations engage in digital
organizational storytelling takes place in a context where organizational storytelling in a way that obscures their iden-
amateur, grassroots, and corporate storytellers “converge” tity as storytellers. This is referred to as “astroturfing” and
and intersect (Jenkins, 2006). Yet some scholars are cautious involves the production of “fake grassroots media content . . .
of “celebratory” (Fuchs, 2014, p. 65) accounts that position by commercial media companies and special interest
Internet audiences as democratically engaged and continu- groups,” which is “passed off as coming from individual
ally resisting (Dean, 2009), as these tend to overlook the amateurs” (Jenkins, 2009, p. 122). A prominent example of
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importance of capitalist interests that rely on the creation of this involves the YouTube video “Al Gore’s Penguin Army,”
shareholder value through exploitation (Fuchs, 2014; a satirical parody of the popular documentary film, An
Terranova, 2000). Inconvenient Truth (2006), which features former Democratic
In addition to these characteristics, we argue that digital Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, talking about
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organizational storytelling can be distinguished from other the effects of climate change . Originally thought to be the
types of organizational story through its reliance on particu- work of an amateur, Al Gore’s Penguin Army was posted on
lar communicative codes, or “network protocols” (Castells, YouTube in June 2006 and to date has generated more than
2009), that make shared meaning possible. The first of these 600,000 views. The video was later exposed as having been
we term amateurism. Stories on YouTube that have a home- produced by public relations and lobbying firm the DCI
made or unprofessional character are more highly valued Group whose clients include ExxonMobil and General
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than those that display professional, corporate characteristics Motors, thereby undermining the authenticity of both the
(Burgess & Green, 2009). This arises from YouTube’s repu- storyteller and the story. Establishing authenticity thus relies
tation as a place for displaying and sharing images that rep- on assessment of the social authority of the storyteller,
resent mundane experiences of ordinary people (Kim, 2012). including whether or not he or she understands and observes
A further protocol that characterizes digital storytelling and the protocols that determine inclusion in the network.
connects storytellers to others in the network is the value of On the basis of this review, we suggest that although
affinity, which involves “feelings of membership in a social other forms of organizational storytelling are potentially
network, and feelings of attraction to people, things or ideas” dialogical, the affordances of digital communication
(Lange, 2009, p. 71). The construction of affinity relies on heighten this in interesting and important ways. This results
establishment of communicative connections between peo- in stories where meaning is more pluralistic, in terms of the
ple and can involve large organizational networks operating voices that are heard, and more open to questionin terms of
alongside smaller, personal ones. Establishing and maintain- the claims that are made. Yet, as we have argued, participa-
ing affinity require continuous attention to ensure that con- tion in digital organizational storytelling relies on observing
nections and relationships are captured and kept. This is and respecting the network protocols that determine a social
achieved by encouraging “viewers to whom the video is actor’s ability to influence the decisions of other social
addressed” to respond to “maintain a field of connection actors in the network in ways that favor their own interests
between creator and viewer” (Lange, 2009, p. 73). and values. This raises questions about the nature of organi-
The third protocol that determines participation in the zational power relations, the patterns of social interaction
digital organizational storytelling network is authenticity. between storytellers and audiences, and the conventions that