Exploring the start-up of an innovative enterprise: An ethnographic case study

The paper describes a research-intervention process where we adopted a set of linguisticdiscursive devices to identify organizational contradictions. Our aim is to describe such methodologies and to present data that show their heuristic value to recognize, analyze and elaborate on organizational criticalities. Specifically, we state that the narrative and conversational methodology, with its focus on the temporal and social dimensions of sense-giving processes, sheds light on the negotiated development of the symbolic and implicit social order. The adoption of a narrative approach allows the creation of a setting suitable for the social production of knowledge; conversational devices help generating and sustaining processes where subjects can revisit their working practices, create new knowledge and collectively negotiate meanings. We conclude by highlighting some suggestions for the adoption of linguistic-discursive devices in the context of a researchintervention: the implementation of such methodology asks for an explicit agreement among all practitioners, as well as an institutional alliance that legitimates the investment 2 of tangible and intangible energies. The participants willingness to engage in the production of texts, documents, stories and accounts must not be taken for granted.