Valuation reporting and storytelling imperative: Perspectives from practicing valuers

This paper examines the storytelling imperative for professional practice of valuation reporting. Drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with practicing valuers in New Zealand, the paper advances scholarly efforts to position storytelling as central to the enactment of effective valuation reporting behaviour. The paper begins by explicating the two core aspects – art and craft – of organisational storytelling advanced in literature, as a basis for understanding how valuers articulate the case for (or use of) storytelling in valuation professional practice. Participants discourse suggests an important and multi-dimensional role for storytelling as a tool for improving the quality of valuation reporting, emphasizes the need for accurate, balance, clear and flawless stories in valuation reporting, and points to the role of deep market knowledge, multimodal tools, and good cooperative relationships as potential (dis)enablers for understanding the stories. The paper also reflects on the intersections and departures between organisational storytelling and the practice of storytelling in valuation reporting and offers some suggestions on how storytelling can be integrated into valuers’ training and professional development.