“Well, That’s the Postal Service!”: How Organizations Produce Stories and Stories Shape Organizing

Abstract

Modern organizations are no longer just formal rational entities for researchers – they have proved to have a culture, and their employees are real people. One way to hear those people’s voices is listening to stories they tell. Storytelling in organizations uncovers internal events and their interpretations, allows revealing the hidden world of emotions, where there are power conflicts, interiorization (or denial) of values, and new order development. Three stories told by the employees of the “Russian Post” Moscow Head Office show the employees’ perception of organizational change, launched by the managerial shift in 2013. Personnel changes, communication between the Head Office and periphery, as well as the interaction among the departments and with the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation are viewed through the metaphors of “drama”, “unmanaged organization” and “storytelling organization”. A common phrase “Well, that’s the Postal Service!” turns out to be much more complex and concealing a set of problems and processes, not all of which have yet been realized even within the organization.