Philosophy of Management

Volume 5, Issue 3, 2005

Business, Legitimacy and Community

Narrative Identity Achieved Through Utterances
The Implications of Bakhtin for Managing Change and Learning

Ricoeur’s work on narrative has been instrumental in moving the conception of identity from the rational mind (Cartesian) to a text of narratives of meanings, desires, and aspirations. But his effort to question the Cartesian certainty came at a price, namely an excessive emphasis on personhood. This paper explicates the relevance of Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue for management by arguing for a critical examination of Ricoeur’s centripetal superiority of narrative order in favour of centrifugal encounters based on a Bakhtinian (dialogical) tension, one between an active addressor and an active addressee, rather than an active reciter and a passive listener. Adopting Bakhtin’s ideas has clear implications for the management of change and development of learning organisations.