Title:
Corporate Legends & Lore
Author:
Peg C. Neuhauser
Publisher:
McGraw-Hill, 1993
ISBN:
0-07-046326-3

Corporate Legends & Lore is not a Brunvandian collection of the stories told around the water cooler. (It does have an addendum of stories on specific subjects.) In fact, Peg C. Neuhauser's 1993 book, published by McGraw-Hill (ISBN 0-07-046326-3) is in some ways anathema to the myth debunking spirit of AFU. Neuhauser is convinced that story telling is an important part of any organization, and she spends 200 well-written pages explaining why.

The book starts by looking at stories and the role they play in organizations. It goes on to categorize them into stories that are useful and those that are not. It makes no serious attempt to discourage myth generation, although it points up the folly of not telling the truth as the audience perceives it. (Those of us who have been getting fewer invitations to parties since we've started exposing ULs know what she is talking about.)

In the latter part of the book, Neuhauser is an unabashed champion of stories. She explains how to find the stories people are telling, how to change them to the right spin, and how to use them to lead, to teach, and to change. She does use stories told by real people as examples, and there is a likelyhood that some of them are in fact corporate legends. In fact, using the AFU definition of a legend, a story that is told without specific attribution, and changed to suit the current venue, even if it really happened, most of them are legends that are told at corporate meetings all over the world.

I was fascinated by the book because it seemed to give me insight into the legends we have discussed on AFU. Why they are told, who tells them, and who listens to them. And why debunking such legends may earn us a black eye on occasion. The book sees legends from a point of view I have defended before on AFU, that myths which foster a sense of community, create a unity of purpose, or teach an important lesson are useful, and, while they shouldn't necessarily be told as the unvarnished truth, they don't need to be shouted down at every opportunity. (Naturally, this opinion is shared by most of the more sensitive AFUisti.)

This of course leads to the question, which of our legends and myths are "good," which are not, and who makes the distinction. Neuhauser seems to feel that it is the job of the organization's leadership. She does put less emphasis on the gossip around the water cooler, mentioning it mostly as a source of legends, and not giving it much of a role in the formation of an organizational culture. I suspect that as far as the legends she'd like to encourage are concerned, she is probably right.

But as it concerns all stories told, on this point the debate may rage. Neuhauser's book is mostly up-beat, describing a can-do approach to legends. She includes little in the way of words of warning regarding the damage stories can do, except to say that a careful leader listens to these stories, to diagnose problems. She offers no advice on how such stories could be squelched. That is probably just as well, as AFU experience indicates that they can't.

As far as the stories told in the book are concerned, some are foot-noted, some are not. Some are quite obvious legends (whether or not they ever happened), others have a ring of voracity to them. My favorite (I have heard it before) is the story of the battleship captain who tries to order a lighthouse to change course. (It isn't in the FAQ...)

The book is not a facts-at-your-fingertips collection, nor is it a debunker of legends. Nevertheless, because it throws a useful light on the subject near and dear to the heart of AFU, and because its point of view is extensible to the world of legends everywhere, it receives an AFU bookshelf rating of 6.