Page 90 - Journal of Management Inquiry, July 2018

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Table 1. Digital Organizational Stories.
Release date Sequels and related
Title and duration titles 6 Commissioning client Focus of story Audience reception

The Meatrix 2003, Meatrix 2 (2006) and Global Resource Factory farming; animal Over 25 million views;
3.46 min Meatrix 2.5 (2006); Centre for the cruelty; unethical translated into over 40
Grocery Store Wars Environment (GRACE employment practices; languages
(2005) Communications pollution; poor food
Foundation) safety
The Story of 2007, The Story of Bottled The Story of Stuff Commodity culture, the Over 15 million views for
Stuff 20 min Water (2010); The Project, Tides materials economy; The Story of Stuff; follow-
Story of Electronics Foundation, Funders hyper-consumption; up in the form of a New
(2010); The Story of Workgroup for global supply chains; York Times bestselling book
Cosmetics (2010); The Sustainable Production corporations (Leonard, 2010); 200,000
Story of Broke (2011); and Consumption Facebook fans; shown in
The Story of Citizens 1,500 classrooms; distributed
7
United v. FEC (2011); across over 220 countries
The Story of Change and territories; 2 million
(2012) views for The Story of Bottled
Water; reached number
seven in the viral video
chart http://viralvideochart.
unrulymedia.com/ in March
2010

successful digital organizational storytellers co-construct. In Sachs, was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the
the section that follows, we introduce our empirical case 50 people who might save the planet, and in 2010, a video
before interpreting the data to show how digital organiza- produced by FRS was nominated for a National Design
tional storytelling affects the ability of corporations to make Award by the Smithsonian Institution. FRS videos are also
and control meaning. widely used as an educational resource in schools and uni-
versities, including business schools (Heaton, 2010).
Studying a Digital Storytelling Our rationale for the focus on this case was instrumental
Organization (Stake, 2005), to examine a well-known and successful digi-
tal storytelling organization and understand the dynamics of
FRS is a U.S. based branding and design company that, since its practice. It was also intrinsic (Stake, 2005), driven by a
2003, has specialized in digital organizational storytelling by desire to understand digital organizational storytelling theo-
producing online animated videos on behalf of non-profit retically through close engagement and rich description.
third-sector organizations and small to medium-sized busi- Access to the organization was negotiated via email and tele-
nesses. Many of the organizational campaigns for which phone, building on a successful collaboration with a senior
online videos are produced relate to environmental and social member of the organization to run a workshop at an aca-
or political issues, from the protection of endangered species demic conference in 2010. Our data set comprises semi-
to American health care reform. Table 1 provides a summary structured, one hour long interviews with five senior
of two popular animated online video series produced by members of the 24-member organization and two key infor-
FRS. The organization describes its mission as being “to sell mants from a client organization.
revolutionary ideas and products that build a more just and The interviews were conducted using Skype. Online
sustainable world” and positions itself in contrast to tradi- interviewing represents a new “methodological frontier”
tional creative branding or marketing agencies that “just (Deakin & Wakefield, 2014, p. 605) enabling interviews to
work to sell stuff” [Source: FRS website, 2011]. Storytelling be conducted over large geographical distances without
is seen by organization members as crucial in enabling effec- travel, and in a way that accommodates busy schedules and
tive communication of complex issues in a context charac- different time zones (Hanna, 2012). This was a naturalistic
terized by excessive noise and information overload (Sachs, method for respondents who were already comfortable using
2012). FRS has received national media attention in response Skype and other digital platforms in their working lives.
to its activities, from TV networks Fox News and CNN and Questions focused on the communication strategies used to
newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, engage with audiences and the networked relationships
and LA Times. In 2008, FRS co-founder and CEO, Jonah between FRS, commissioning clients, and digital storytelling