Rhetorical History, Historical Metanarratives, and Rhetorical Effectiveness

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the literature on rhetorical history as a source of competitive advantage. This literature has shown that managers in a wide range of organizations create historical narratives that are used rhetorically to advance the organization’s goals. The existing literature gives us a limited understanding of the determinants of the rhetorical effectiveness of these historical narratives. This chapter draws on the literature on confirmation basis and the literature on historical metanarratives to understand the factors that influence whether a listener will be persuaded by a manager’s historical narrative. The use of a historical narrative is likely to be strategically efficacious whenever the historical narrative is congruent with the listener’s historical metanarratives and with the ontological and cosmological commitments that underpin the listener’s historical metanarrative. Whether or not the historical narrative is true is far less important in predicting its rhetorical effectiveness.