Credibility and Defamiliarization in Strategic Plans: a Narrative Analysis

The paper proposes a narrative analysis of a strategic plan. According to Barry and Elmes (1997), in order to be effective, strategic plans must seem both credible and novel. However, little is known about how the narrative dynamic of credibility and defamiliarization is constituted in plans. This paper analyzes the strategic plan of the Quebec microbrewers’ association from a narrative perspective in order to better understand what renders strategy text effective from a communicative standpoint. Our analysis reveals three narrative tensions that structure the credibility/defamiliarization dynamic in strategy texts: a tension of distance and proximity that is implicit to the plan’s reading contract; a tension between what is real and what is virtual that structures the storyline of the strategic narrative and the proposed representation of the brewing world; a tension of similarity and difference with the brewing industry’s social discourse that is present in the plan.