news 9 Brands with stories live happily ever after


More businesses would have happy endings if they started with stories, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth Business School


Managers need to be able to spin a great yarn as easily as they manage people and budgets, says Dr Sara Spear, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth Business School.


She has found that leaders and senior managers tend to be better storytellers than middle managers, but very few are good enough at it, and managers are often unaware of the stories that are told in their company.


She said: “Managers ignore the importance of storytelling at their peril. Good storytelling should probably be taught to all managers. It creates brands whose values resonate throughout an organisation.


“All businesses want employees who deliver a brand message, both in terms of how they think about their employer and how they behave. Stories have a powerful role to play in making this happen.“


Spear presented her findings, focusing on the power of stories to help build and maintain corporate brands, at the 10th Global Brand conference at the University of Turku in Finland.


She examined the role of storytelling in the internal communications of two major companies in the energy industry. In addition to conducting nearly 70 interviews with staff at all levels, she collated formal and informal stories from within the companies, including in staff newspapers and magazines, and comments on blogs and forums.


“The results were clear: that it‘s important managers tell official stories and encourage employees to share their own stories to reinforce corporate brand values, increase brand engagement and influence employees‘ behaviour in delivering the brand,“ she said.


Spear found employees in the organisations she studied shared stories about safety incidents that had occurred both in the company and outside, and that these helped employees to learn from incidents and avoid risks in the future. Stories celebrating excellent customer service were also shared, and these often motivated employees to improve service delivery.


She found differences in storytelling between different parts of the organisations, reflecting the culture of each area. For example, managers in operational areas were less likely to tell stories or recognise the importance of stories than managers in the customer service and corporate areas.


“The operational areas tend to be practically focused, many employees are based in the field rather than in offices and they often have less communication


with the organisation, including much less face-to-face contact with managers,“ she said.


She also found that middle managers were less likely to tell stories than senior managers, suggesting experience could have an effect on how well managers used and understood the use of stories.


“Some people are natural storytellers, but it is a communication skill that can be developed and improved with practice.“


The best stories were authentic and based on real events. Stories that were believed to have been invented or exaggerated often lacked credibility with employees.


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T: +44 (0)23 9284 2991 E: pbs-studentrecruitment@port.ac.uk W: www.port.ac.uk/pbscourses THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2015 www.businessmag.co.uk


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