Storytelling in an age of uncertainty: exploring managerial cognitive capability, expectations and sense giving in narratives post the financial crisis of 2007

Abstract

Drawing on the theories of the managerial cognitive capability, sociology of expectations, and sense giving, we conducted a longitudinal study based on storytelling. We focus on how the banking and finance sectors in the UK communicated with their stakeholders in an age of high uncertainty, via annual reports during the period of 2007-2015. We investigated how organizational narratives and stories regarding the TMT’s managerial cognitive capability were changed by events which resulted in uncertainty, and how critical events could produce variations of the narratives by employing content analysis with two cycles of coding with NVivo 10. The findings significantly contribute to theory development in the areas of storytelling and sensegiving as part of TMT’s managerial cognitive capability during periods of change and uncertainty in business management, as well as to practice