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Narrative Analysis - 2.5 ECTS - ONLINE
Faculty
Professor Tammar Zilber
Department of Organization, CBS
Part-time full professor at CBS (also a full professor at the Business School, Hebrew University)
Prerequisite
The course is open to late-stage PhD students who have already collected the empirical data and can work with it in preparing for classes.
Aim
The course focuses on the narrative analysis of empirical qualitative materials—interviews, archival data, observations, or any mix thereof. It will support the analysis and interpretation stages over a six-month period. By creating a supportive and safe space for graduate students to reflect and discuss challenges, questions, and alternatives, they will learn from each other and the guidance of the course instructor.
The objective of the course is to help participants acknowledge the potential of a narrative approach to analysis and interpretation and practically experiment with this approach, implementing it on their qualitative materials.
The course deliberately differs from courses on specific methods (such as ‘the qualitative interview’ or ‘case studies’) or theories, as it focuses on narrative tools that can be used with any data collection method and within the framework of any theoretical positioning. It also differs from intensive courses by taking a longitudinal approach that will give participants enough time to learn new approaches and tools, implement them in their own project, discuss challenges and difficulties in class, and get feedback.
Learning objectives
The course provides students with:
- An understanding of the narrative paradigm and its varieties.
- A greater sensitivity to identify stories told within and about organizations
- Richer tool kit of different ways to collect and analyze narrative data.
- An ability to critically assess a narrative research project (their own, or of others), data collection and analysis, and published narrative-based papers.
- All these strengthen the research methodology of their own projects and develop their competencies to discuss and help others' research projects.
Course content
Taking a "strong" approach to stories, we will start by discussing what narrative is, and how narrative texts differ from other kinds of texts. After explicating narrative as a paradigm, we will map the basic narratological tool kit (how do we identify and analyze stories). We will discuss narrative analysis on individual (e.g., based on interviews) and collective (e.g., organizational stories) levels. We will then move from treating narratives as content to treating them as action. We will discuss how to use narrative analysis to understand the microdynamics of organizing, like decision-making or entrepreneurship.
Finally, we will discuss writing a paper or dissertation based on a narrative approach. Discussions will focus on methodological topics that are broadly relevant, giving students the tools and experience needed to do various kinds of narrative analyses of their qualitative data and get feedback on it. The reading consists mostly of empirical papers that exemplify various ways to use narrative analysis in our discipline.
Teaching methods
Students will prepare before each meeting by reading the assigned paper, analyzing their data and writing a reflection – all this to be submitted before class. In each meeting, Tammar will first provide feedback on their experiences conducting the assigned exercises. After a discussion of lessons learned and a short break, Tammar will give a lecture on the next theme of narrative analysis. This lecture is followed by a Q&A during which participants can ask questions to help them prepare for the next exercise.
Lecture plan
This is an online course comprised of 6 meetings. All meetings will be held on the 2nd Monday of the month, 8:30-10:30 CET, 9.11.2026, 14.12.2026, 11.1.2027, 8.2.2027, 8.3.2027, 12.4.2027
| Meeting 1 – 09/11/2026 | |
| Preparation exercise (before meeting): | Identifying stories.Written assignment to be submitted on the Friday before the meeting: Identify at least three stories in your data. Cite these stories, and reflect on how you identify and define a “story.” (reflection – 1 page max) |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Introduction: Welcome and students’ introduction |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Lecture: Introduction to narrative
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion of preparation exercise and instructions for next meeting, Q&A during which participants can ask questions helping them to prepare the next exercises. |
| Meeting 2 – 14/12/2026 | |
| Preparation exercise: | Narrative analysis of one interview. Written assignment to be submitted on the Friday before the meeting: Describe your narrative analysis and findings of that one interview. Reflect: What can you learn from focusing on stories within the interview text? What were the challenges and difficulties? (Analysis, interpretation, and reflection – 2 pages max.) |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Participants' reflections on the assigned exercise, feedback from Tammar |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Lecture: Narrative analysis of individual stories (interview data, observations)
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion of preparation exercise and instructions for next meeting, Q&A during which participants can ask questions helping them to prepare the next exercises. |
| Meeting 3 – 11/01/2027 | |
| Preparation exercise: | Analyzing multiple stories.Written assignment to be submitted on the Friday before the meeting: Look in your data for multiple stories about the same event/happening in your study organization. Conduct a narrative analysis of those multiple stories. Descrive the analysis, your interpretation, and reflect on challenges and difficulties. (Analysis, interpretation, and reflection – 2 pages max.) |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Participants' reflections on the assigned exercise, feedback from Tammar |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Lecture: Narrative analysis of organizational stories (observations, interviews, archival data)
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion of preparation exercise and instructions for next meeting, Q&A during which participants can ask questions helping them to prepare the next exercises. |
| Meeting 4 – 08/2/2027 | |
| Preparation exercise: | Narrative analysis of a process.Look in your data for an organizing process that can be conceptualized as a story. Conduct a narrative analysis of this process. Written assignment to be submitted on the Friday before the meeting: Describe your narrative analysis and interpretation, and reflect on challenges and difficulties. (Analysis, interpretation, and reflection – 2 pages max.) |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Participants' reflections on the assigned exercise, feedback from Tammar |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Lecture: Analyzing narrative as action I (observations, archival data)
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion of preparation exercise and instructions for next meeting, Q&A during which participants can ask questions helping them to prepare the next exercises. |
| Meeting 5 – 8/3/2027 | |
| Preparation exercise: | Narrative analysis of a process.Conduct a narrative analysis of this process. Written assignment to be submitted on the Friday before the meeting: Describe your narrative analysis and interpretation, and reflect on challenges and difficulties. (Analysis, interpretation, and reflection – 2 pages max.) |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Participants' reflections on the assigned exercise, feedback from Tammar |
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Lecture: Analyzing narrative as action II (observations, archival data)
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion of preparation exercise and instructions for next meeting, Q&A during which participants can ask questions helping them to prepare the next exercises. |
| Meeting 6 – 12/4/2027 | |
| Preparation exercise: | Writing narrative-based papers.Return to one of the empirical papers you read for the previous meetings. Look especially at the Method and Finding sections. How did the author explain and justify their use of a narrative approach? How did they showcase the stories? How did they balance between the fine and rich details of specific stories and provide a more systematic overview of their entire data? Written assignment to be submitted Friday before the meeting: Use this paper as a template for writing your own Method section and charting a rough plan for the Finding section for a paper or your dissertation, based on narrative analysis. Reflect on challenges and difficulties (no page limits). |
| 08:30- 09:00 | Participants' reflections on the assigned exercise, feedback from Tammar |
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Lecture: Writing up your narrative methodology and findings sections
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Summarising the course. |
Course literature
The reading consists mostly of empirical papers that exemplify various ways to use narrative analysis in our discipline. Students need to read one paper for each meeting, and they can choose from multiple reading options for each meeting to find the reading that best fits the kinds of data, level of analysis, and research question in their own research project.
Meeting 1:
Vaara, E., Sonenshein, S., & Boje, D. (2016). Narratives as sources of stability and change in organizations: Approaches and directions for future research. Academy of Management Annals, 10(1): 495-560.
Zilber, T.B. (2018). Stories as social action: Rethinking narrative studies of organizing. In: Mir, R., & Jain, S. (Eds.). Routledge Companion to Qualitative Research in Organization Studies. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 128-140.
Meeting 2:
Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (1996). Narrating the self. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25: 19-43.
Ruebottom, T. (2013). The microstructures of rhetorical strategy in social entrepreneurship: Building legitimacy through heroes and villains. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(1): 98-116.
Meeting 3:
Boje, D. M. (1991). The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(1): 106-126.
Zilber, T. B. )2007(. Stories and the discursive dynamics of institutional entrepreneurship: The case of Israeli high-tech after the bubble. Organization Studies, 28(7): 1035-1054.
Meeting 4:
Abolafia, M. Y. (2010). Narrative construction as sensemaking: How a central bank think. Organization Studies, 31(3): 349-367.
Gibson, D.R. (2011). Avoiding catastrophe: The interactional production of possibility during the Cuban Missile Crisis. American Journal of Sociology, 117(2): 361-419.
Zilber, T. B. (2024). Narrating institutional logics into effect: Coherence across cognitive, political, and emotional elements. Administrative Science Quarterly, 69(1), 172-221.
Meeting 5:
Garud, R., Schildt, H. A., and Lant, T. K. (2014). Entrepreneurial Storytelling, Future Expectations, and the Paradox of Legitimacy. Organization Science, 25(5), 1479-1492.
Garud, R., Gehman, J., & Giuliani, A.P. (2014). Contextualizing entrepreneurial innovation: A narrative perspective. Research Policy, 43: 1177-1188.
Mantere, S., Aula, P., Schildt, H., and Vaara, E. (2013). Narrative attributions of entrepreneurial failure. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(4), 459-473.
Martens, M. L., Jennings, J. E., & Jennings, P. D. (2007). Do the stories they tell get them the money they need? The role of entrepreneurial narratives in resource acquisition. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5): 1107-1132.
Meeting 6:
Choose one of the above.
Exam
Active Participation in class meetings based on reading and assignments is graded on a Pass/Fail basis. 40% of the overall course grade.
Submission of 4 out of 6 assignments throughout the course. Feedback will be given by the instructor in class. 60% of the overall grade (each submission 15%).
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Workload
1 ECTS = 28 hrs |
Course Diploma
PhD students must participate in the entire course to be eligible for the course diploma. The diploma will be issued after the last day of the course or following any exam or assignment due after the course. It will be sent to the email address you provided during registration.
PhD students must participate in the entire course to be eligible for the course diploma. The diploma will be issued after the last day of the course or following any exam or assignment due after the course. It will be sent to the email address you provided during registration.
Registration Deadline and Conditions
The binding registration deadline is 28 September 2026. If you wish to cancel your registration, you must do so by this date. After the deadline, we will assess whether there are sufficient registrations to run the course and, if necessary, allocate seats if demand exceeds capacity.If seats remain available after this deadline, the registration period may be extended to fill the remaining seats.
Please note that once you receive our acceptance or welcome letter, your registration becomes binding, and no refunds of the course fee will be issued.If the number of course registrations exceed the available seats, admission will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis, or—where applicable—based on the motivation submitted at registration. Priority will be given to CBS PhD students
Payment Methods
Ensure you choose the correct payment method when finalizing your registration:
CBS students:
Select the payment method CBS PhD students. The course fee will be deducted from your PhD course budget.
Students from Other Danish Universities:
Select the payment method Danish Electronic Invoice (EAN). Provide your EAN number, attention, and any relevant purchase (project) order number.
If you do not pay via EAN number, select Invoice to pay via electronic bank payment (+71).
Students from Foreign Universities:
Select the payment method Payment Card. If you are unable to pay by credit card, choose Invoice International to pay via bank transfer.
Information about the Event
Date and time Monday 9 November 2026 at 08:30 to Monday 12 April 2027 at 10:30
Registration Deadline Monday 28 September 2026 at 23:55
Location Online
Organizer
Nina Iversen, CBS PhD School
Phone +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk
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