NARRATING ORGANISATIONAL IDENTITIES BY WAY OF EVOLUTIONARY TALES- TALKING SHELL FROM AN OIL TO AN ENERGY COMPANY
Written on 15.12 by Dimas Sugeng Rachmadi
(REF : Lise Backer , Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Kilevei 14A, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark)
1. Shell, analysing the narrative battles over Shell’s organizational identity the present article offers a contribution to the field of organisational identity theory (e.g. Czarniawska, 1997; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991). To this end the article draws on publicly available data extending over more than a decade—a period during which Shell has changed from being an oil company to become an energy company. The overall research question addressed below is: How do narrators seek to narrate the organisational identity of a large Multinational company like Shell, and what does such a narration imply for the conceptual uderstanding of organisational identities?
2. Organisational identity and evolutionary tales, Czarniawska (1997) views Organisational identities ‘‘as a continuous process of narration, where both the narrator and the audience are involved in formulating, editing, applauding, and refusing various elements of the Overproduced narrative’’ (p. 49). The audience for narrations of this ever-produced Narrative—that is, the organizational identity—is not a single homogeneous one. Rather, it is
several different audiences encompassing various groups of employees and various key external stakeholders. Thus, while talk and storytelling can ‘‘do the work of organizing’’
(Boje et al., 2004, p. 576). A closer look on the plots in the two evolutionary tales discussed in this article reveals that they consist ‘‘in the passage from one equilibrium to another. An ‘ideal’ narrative begins with a stable situation which is disturbed by some power or force. There results a state of If the relevant internal and external audiences can accept this narration, it will successfully affect the organizational identity. The plot in agentive actor evolutionary tales also opens with the narrator noting that the business-as-usual equilibrium is being disturbed by some external pressures.
3. Method, Czarniawska (1997) argues that organisational identities are narrated in conversations, Pointing out that ‘‘a published autobiography can be seen as a lengthy contribution to a conversation, in which the responses are delayed’’ (p. 53). The Financial Times, as illustrated in the Introduction, reports developments in Shell in particular of interest to shareholders and also to national governments. Because of this communication link with Shell’s key stakeholders, it can be assumed that The Financial Times plays a part in narrating Shell’s organisational identity. Johannesburg UN Environmental Summit in 2002, Shell’s organisational identity as an oil company that becomes an energy company also selling renewable energy has been narrated. In studying this written data I paid articular attention to narrations of Shell’s organisational identity in relation to two important types of external pressures on companies, namely regulation and market pressures. I marked text with The abstract nature of written identity claims is what makes them more widely acceptable, although their acceptance by the different audiences may be based on different interpretations of what is being accepted. Thus, in the case described in the introduction above, the immediate response of most of the audiences would be a general acceptance of the Shell Chairman’s green narration. However, should a more concrete narration evolve over time, they may not agree on all details, such as the speed with which Shell should adapt to the emerging green market.
4. Shell’s ever-produced organizational narrative—from oil to energy company Shell’s ever-produced organisational narrative—that is, Shell’s organisational identity—has a plot (Czarniawska, 2004). In the early 1990s Shell’s business-as-usual equilibrium was disturbed by increasingly tough market conditions and by the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) that regulates global CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels. In the mid-1990s Shell then took action, and Shell International Renewables was established. In the late 1990s and early 2000s a new but different equilibrium emerged. Shell had changed from being an oil company to becoming an energy company that was also
selling renewable energies.
4.1. Disturbing Shell’s business-as-usual equilibrium In the early 1990s Shell’s business-as-usual equilibrium was disturbed by the increasingly tough conditions on the market. Cor Herkstro¨ter, the Chairman of Managing Directors in Shell, in particular encouraged narrations aimed at adapting the company’s organisational identity to these developments. In 1993 he told the following evolutionary tale in ShellWorld: ‘‘The world has changed immensely in the past 20 years and the emergence of market forces as a dominant influence means that we have to be more responsive.
4.2. Shell International Renewables, In the mid-1990s Shell’s oil business-as-usual euilibrium is further disturbed by developments on the market and other developments triggered by the Climate Convention. The oil market has become a tough arena in which to operate, In 1995 Shell was defeated by a green consumer boycott because of its plans for dumping the old oil storage tank ‘‘Brent Spar’’ out at sea. Around the same time Shell management narrators virtually ceased to ignore the Climate Convention. ShellWorld reported: ‘‘As a major energy company with global interests, Shell cannot stand aside from the continuing debate over climate change y In the scenarios, new renewable sources continue to progress along their learning curves, first capturing niche markets
4.3. Becoming an energy company, In the late 1990s and early 2000s Shell established a new equilibrium in Shell’s ever-produced organisational narrative based on the renewable energy activities of the mid- 1990s. Shell has now become an energy company that also
sells renewable energies. A new renewable energy identity seems to be emerging in the company. This identity has both normative and utilitarian elements (Albert & Whetten,
6. Conclusion, This article has described how since the Rio Environmental Summit in 1992, the narration of the multinational oil company Shell have projected an evolution from an oil
company identity to an identity also embracing renewable energies. In its analysis of the narrative battles over Shell’s organisational identity the article represents a contribution
to organisational identity theory (Czarniawska, 1997; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991). To do so, it has described certain microprocesses whereby individual management actors seek to achieve a revision of the wider corporate actor (organizational identity) by way of external stakeholder pressures, or to protect the identity from these same pressures. The article shows that while organisational identities are relational, it is possible for management narrators, by telling different kinds of evolutionary tales, to exert a certain influence on.
