“Who am I?”- 18
PIN jc19265
through narrative within organizational contexts, Lievrouw’s (1996) work is relevant. Lievrouw
(1996) is interested in how academic scholars constructed their identities through research
narratives, which are “defined as the scholar’s own ‘story’ of his or her professional life and
work…The research narrative is therefore a primary means of continuously shaping and
communicating the researcher’s identity” (p. 216). Here, the research narrative was constructed
through temporally experienced and remembered interactions, and it is organized to allow for the
scholar to tell his/her story from the position of “I.” This taking of a position is one of the key
identifying features of narrative (Gergen & Gergen, 1997; Hinchman & Hinchman, 1997;
Mumby, 1988; Nelson, 1989).
Cheney (1992) further examines the relationship between identity and narrative and
points to communication processes that align the individual with the organization and establish
an organization’s identity. He highlights how metaphors, analogies, meanings and narratives are
attached to corporate logos giving the organization they represent an identity of its own. In later
work, Cheney and Carroll (1997) are concerned with the discursive practices of the organization,
concentrating on how the “current push towards greater efficiency, competitiveness, and so-
called customer responsiveness” (p. 593) has aided in constructing an organizational world
where the individual is objectified, alienated and dehumanized. Individuals are “clearly and
consistently less important than organizational policies and strategies” (Cheney & Carroll, 1997,
p. 595).
Generating Communication Theory
Following Gergen’s (1982) claim that theory has the capability of contributing
significantly to broad societal problems, and bridging the distance between academic and
practitioner concerns, I will reflect on the scholarship that addresses the confluence of identity,
Convention