Melted wax, unbroken wings

: a comprehensive study on the practical uses of creative storytelling within the context of the fight or flight setting of aviation crises

Abstract

Storytelling is here proposed as a viable strategy within the context of business adaptive strategies in crisis, as a method that makes use of inherent qualities and assumption within the human psyche and its reception to the use of narrative and story for sensemaking and guidance during crises. To this end, Melted Wax, Unbroken Wings sets out with the intention of uncovering to what extent storytelling is a viable method to be employed by organizations and leaders during turbulent times, where a special focus is given to the aviation industry as a medium of grounding the theory discussed into practicality, and give context to already practiced uses of creative storytelling in the industry. This paper made use of a large body of academic literature, used in collecting accounts and strategies for organizational storytelling during crises events, as well as first-hand accounts and case studies on its usage in the commercial airline industry. The study concluded that storytelling goes beyond viable as a tool to be used by organizations during crises, with vast support and numerous accounts of its implementation proving successful, with the consensus of many aligning with the idea that one cannot opt out of organizational storytelling; instead, they can passively follow emerging narratives or actively shape them toward desired goals and objectives.

Date of Award	8 May 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ricardo Reis (Supervisor)