Towards an organizational folklore of policing: the storied nature of policing and the police use of storytelling.

Smith, Robert; Pedersen, Sarah; Burnett, Simon

Abstract

For police officers, much of the working day consists of telling stories about everyday policing and events. Although the study of narrative and storytelling in organizational contexts is an expanding area of research, the same cannot be said of the study of narrative and storytelling in a police context, which remains an under-researched, although not unexplored, subject of study. Using the work of management-narrative theorists such as David Boje and Yiannis Gabriel as a starting point, this article considers policing organizations and agencies as storytelling organizations. This is achieved through a literature review of the 'storied' nature of policing and the police use of storytelling in an organizational context. Thus, this reflective article contributes to the developing literature in the field by reviewing and mapping the literature, highlighting potential areas for future research.

Citation

SMITH, R., PEDERSEN, S. and BURNETT, S. 2014. Towards an organizational folklore of policing: the storied nature of policing and the police use of storytelling. Folklore [online], 125(2), pages 218-237. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2014.913853

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 3, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Jul 3, 2014
• Publication Date: Aug 31, 2014
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Journal: Folklore
• Print ISSN: 0015-587X
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8315
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 125
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 218-237
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2014.913853
• Keywords: Police; Storytelling; Literature review; Policing
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1349