Miners' tales: stories and the storying process for understanding the collective sensemaking of employees during contested change

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which the storying lens provides useful purchase in understanding the sensemaking processes that occur in the hegemonic struggle over collective identities during contested change. Our interest is in how stories are shaped within the context of workplace change; the limitations of existing story types for making sense of the data; temporality as it relates to change processes and story types; and the use of stories to legitimate identity in the power-political dynamics of change. The empirical material draws on a study of miners’ storied responses to the introduction of a performance appraisal system for underground workers at an Australian colliery.