Abstract

This research explores how narrative act creates the path to organizational transformation. Narrative act is defined as entering into the stories of self, other, and the organization in order to recover the past and create the future. Transformation is defined as a fundamental change in condition and an increase in capacity; a movement from one of being to another. The articulation of a path to organizational transformation based in narrative is this work's distinct contribution to learning. The research develops six phases of narrative act for embracing transformation in praxis. Additionally, the research articulates roles and competencies to help leaders become catalysts for transformation in their organizations. ;Three hermeneutic themes serve as the theoretical and research framework: narrative identity, communicative action, and organization as text. These themes are guided by Ricoeur's work encompassing philosophy of language, narrative identity, human action as text, and the ethical aim of institutions. Other major contributors include Gadamer and Habermas. ;The ethnographic case study chronicles the narratives of leaders from two hospitals in Lubbock, Texas--St. Mary of the Plains Hospital and Methodist Hospital--who are in the initial stages of merging into one entity. The new entity will become part of St. Joseph Health System, Orange, California. The new organization will be one of the largest employers in the West Texas/Eastern New Mexico area, will employee over 6000 people, and will extend healthcare services to communities within a 500 mile radius of Lubbock. There is strong recognition among leaders that neither organization will survive in its current state, given the changes in health care. Leaders must successfully merge operations or risk having to close one of the hospitals. ;A fundamental premise substantiated throughout this dissertation is that narrative is constitutive of identity and is therefore necessary for transformation. The act of recounting narratives and critiquing the language, metaphors, assumptions, and contradictions embedded in these stories enables people to become effective narrators, protagonists, interpreters, and co-writers. Narrative act is the path to genuine, sustained organizational transformation