Counter-narration with numbers: understanding the interplay of words and numerals in fiscal storytelling

This paper addresses how numbers are given meaning in and through storytelling. It uses narrative-rhetorical analysis to uncover sensemaking practices used to construct meaning for quantitative, financial and temporal numbers in texts and finds that numbers are important and prevalent in organisational storytelling. Numbers are given meaning by artful association with words and other numbers. The paper contributes to the literature on counter-narratives by showing the importance of numbers and quantification in counter-narrative storytelling, identifying limitations of past storytelling literature that has viewed stories and numbers as separate elements of narration, and outlining an approach to understanding the role of numbers in storytelling. The paper then shows that numbers and stories are interdependent features of narration that work together to make numbers meaningful features of persuasive of storytelling. It concludes by arguing that the management of the meaning of numbers is a key task for managers.