STRATEGIC CHANGE COMMUNICATION USING A NOVEL BUSINESS NARRATIVE MODELLING LANGUAGE

Abstract

This conceptual paper is developed in the realm of strategic change communication. The purpose of this paper is to present our Business Narrative Modelling Language (BNML) (Oliveira and Ferreira, 2010a) as a tool for facilitating change. We illustrate how BNML has been used in real life cases to discuss strategy. Following data collection using a qualitative methodology and an analysis of the "As-Is" situation we proceed to construct a representation of the future desired ("To-Be") situation, in both situations using BNML. We start by defining the organizational actors relevant to value creation, we then map out their interactions in the organizational context, and study how relevant deliverables are exchanged, both tangible and intangible, along various storylines, one per actor. The social interaction leading to value creation happens according to a pattern sequence (using patterns taken from Bjork and Holopainen, 2005, which are intuitively comprehensible) and is instantiated according to an Enterprise Ontology (Uschold et al., 1998) (Oliveira and Ferreira, 2010a, b). By combining various sensemaking strategies such as the narrative, visual mapping and quantification our BNML scores high on accuracy, simplicity and generality (Langley, 1999) thus providing an attractive alternative to other techniques available to researchers and consultants and used to "connect and organize dispersed organizational knowledge" (Huff and Jenkins, 2002, p. 14).