“How” Narratology Narrows the Organizational Theory–Practice Gap

Abstract

In this conceptual piece, we take a narrative approach to explicating the gap between organizational theory and practice. The narrative pentad ( what, why, how, who, and when/ where) represents six narrative questions metaphorically mapped to the five fingers of the hand. The narrative pentad has successfully served both narrative scholars and practitioners, and we believe that the narrative pentad holds similar promise as a theoretical framework for HRD scholars and practitioners. At the finger tips, spaces between fingers represent gaps between questions. In the organizational domain, the theory–practice gap is attributable primarily to a scholarly focus on the universal and abstract what and why questions (story in narrative terms) and a practitioner focus on the particular or embodied how question (discourse in narrative terms). Framed as similarities, we propose that all HRD questions are interrelated at the palm of the hand. In narrative terms, effective organizational theory must include both story and discourse, thereby addressing all questions. This article emphasizes the how question—important to practitioners—but often marginalized by postpositive organizational scholars. We propose the how question represents aesthetic knowledge, and this form of knowledge should be central to organizational theory. We explore related ontological and epistemological considerations. Three recognized causes of the theory–practice gap are examined in light of a narrative approach to organizational theory: (a) the knowledge divide (divergence of emphasis on forms of knowledge between scholars and practitioners); (b) the knowledge transfer problem (lack of information sharing between scholars and practitioners); (c) and the knowledge production problem (associated with an absence of collaboration between scholars and practitioners).