Narratives are increasingly important in organizational and management research, as they offer insights into the meanings, experiences, and actions of individuals and groups. However, the literature on narratives is diverse and fragmented, lacking a coherent synthesis and a common terminology. In this paper we address this gap by reviewing over 30 years of research on narratives in organizations, from various disciplines and perspectives. We propose a conceptual framework that integrates existing knowledge and defines key concepts and categories. The framework consists of eight narrative categories: quality, functions, themes, types, levels, forms, objects, and temporality and space. We discuss how these categories can be used to analyze and compare different types of narratives in organizations, and how they can inform future research directions and applications. We contribute to the advancement of narrative research in organizational and management studies, by providing a systematic and integrative overview of the field.
