Constructing Identity: A Narrative Analysis of Academic Restructuring Discussion Forums at the University of Alberta
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This capstone explores the University of Alberta’s use of an open strategy platform, ThoughtExchange, to facilitate academic restructuring of the institution during a transformational change initiative. In seeking a framework to analyze the discussion forums generated through open strategizing, this paper argues that narrative analysis helps to reveal important insights beyond what a platform such as ThoughtExchange surfaces through its own mechanisms. The study results indicate that narrative analysis can enrich our understanding of the data generated through ThoughtExchange in four main ways: by contextualizing information, by adding detail around visible themes, by identifying and revealing new themes, and by contextualizing identity tensions and organizational experiences. Based on these findings, this paper further suggests that open strategy platforms offer researchers one valuable medium for exploring the communicative constitution of organization, identity and change amid the academic restructuring of a university.
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http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_93fc
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en