In an earlier publication (Wagenaar, 1997), Wagenaar demonstrated that the way administrators talk about their work is narratively structured. Interviews with welfare officers displayed the structural characteristics, and were organized in ways, as was suggested by narrative theory. He further argued in that paper that administrators use narrative to solve the everyday problems and challenges that confront them in the course of their work. These problems and challenges derive from the everyday, practical nature of administrative work. In an impressionistic way the author delineated, what he thought were the main characteristics of everyday administrative practice. Administrative practice, he argued, was action-oriented, subjective, open-ended, concrete, and beset with moral conflict. Stories somehow helped administrators deal with administrative practice