Abstracts
Abstract
Participation, a key component of strategy work, is examined to focus on bottom-up strategy work in this longitudinal study based on ob¬servations of a global firm’s strategy workshop. Results show some middle managers are better positioned than others to engage in strategy work because of previous international experience, prior strategy-workshop insights, and cultural, behavioral, and personality traits. A typology of strategist profiles identify those who characteristically participate, and associated vignettes reveal participation approaches. The research concludes strategy-workshop proposal consideration and adoption are subject to the participant’s identity, adding to the debate on the role identity plays in strategizing practices.
Keywords:
- participation,
- micro-strategizing,
- strategy workshops,
- identity,
- ethnography,
- strategy-as-practice
Résumé
Cet article s’intéresse à la participation dans la formation des stratégies par des workshops. Une étude ethnographique montre que certains participants sont mieux placés que d’autres pour s’engager dans ce travail en raison de leur expérience internationale, de leurs connaissances sur les workshops stratégiques et de leurs traits culturels, comportementaux et de personnalité. Une typologie des profils de stratèges identifie ceux qui participent de manière significative. La recherche conclut que la participation dans des workshops stratégiques est soumise à l’identité du participant et contribue au débat sur le rôle de l’identité du stratège dans l’élaboration des stratégies.
Mots-clés :
- participation,
- micro-strategie,
- workshops stratégiques,
- identité,
- ethnographie,
- strategie enpratique
Resumen
Este artículo se ocupa de la participación en la formación de estrategias a través de talleres. Un estudio etnográfico muestra que algunos participantes están en mejores condiciones que otros para participar en este trabajo debido a su experiencia internacional, su conocimiento de talleres estratégicos y sus rasgos culturales, conductuales y de personalidad. Una tipología de perfiles de estratega identifica a quienes participan de manera significativa. La investigación concluye que la participación en talleres estratégicos está sujeta a la identidad del participante y contribuye al debate sobre el rol de la identidad del estratega en el desarrollo de estrategias.
Palabras clave:
- participación,
- microestrategia,
- talleres de estrategia,
- identidad,
- etnografía,
- estrategia-como-práctica
Appendices
Bibliography
- Armenakis, A. A., & Harris, S. G. (2002). Crafting a change message to create transformational readiness. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15, p. 169-83.
- Atkinson, P., & Hammersley, M. (1994). Ethnography and participant observation. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 23, p. 248-261. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- Ahearne, M., Lam, S. K., & Kraus, F. (2014). Performance impact of middle managers’ adaptive strategy implementation: The role of social capital. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), p. 68-87.
- Anicich, E. M., & Hirsh, J. B. (2017). The psychology of middle power: Vertical code-switching, role conflict, and behavioral inhibition. Academy of Management Review, 42(4), p. 659-682.
- Balogun, J. (2003). From blaming the middle to harnessing its potential: Creating change intermediaries. British Journal of Management, 14(1), p. 69-83.
- Balogun, J., & Johnson, G. (2004). Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking. Academy of Management Journal, 47(4), p. 523-549.
- Basque, J., Rouleau, L., & Meziani, N. (2018, July). Talking About the “New” Boss: Unpacking the Strategy-Identity Nexus Through Discursive Presences. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No 1, p. 15195). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
- Beech, N., & Johnson, P. (2005). Discourses of disrupted identities in the practice of strategic change: the mayor, the street-fighter and the insider-out. Journal of Organizational Change, 18(1), p. 31-47.
- Besson, P., & Mahieu, C. (2011). Strategizing from the middle in radical change situations: Transforming roles to enable strategic creativity. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 19(3), p. 176-201.
- Bourque, N., & Johnson, G. (2008). Strategy Workshops and “Away Days” as Ritual, in: The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making. Oxford.
- Bowman, C. (1995). Strategy workshops and top-team commitment to strategic change. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 10(8), p. 4-12.
- Boyett, I., & Currie, G. (2004). Middle managers moulding international strategy: An Irish start-up in Jamaican telecoms. Long Range Planning, 37(1), p. 51-66.
- Burgelman, R. A. (1983). ‘A process model of internal corporate venturing in the diversified major firm’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, p. 223-44.
- Burgelman, R., Floyd, S. W., Laamanen, T., Mantere, S., Vaara, E., & Whittington, R. (2018). Strategy Processes and Practices: Dialogues and Intersections. Strategic Management Journal, p. 1-28.
- Chia, R. (2004). Strategy-as-practice: reflections on the research agenda. European Management Review, 1(1), p. 29-34.
- Chia, R., & Holt, R. (2006). Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization studies, 27(5), p. 635-655.
- Clegg, S., & Kornberger, M. (2015). Analytical frames for studying power in strategy as practice and beyond. In D. Golsorkhi, L. Rouleau, D. Seidl, & E. Vaara (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook on Strategy-as-Practice (pp. 389-404). Cambridge: UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Dopson, S., & Neumann, J. E. (1998). Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-bind: Middle Managers’ Reactions to Changing Contracts. British Journal of Management, 9(3), p. S53-S70.
- Duffy, M., & O’Rourke, B. K. (2015). Dialogue in strategy practice: A discourse analysis of a strategy workshop. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(4), p. 404-426.
- Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O’Neill, R. M., Hayes, E., & Wierba, E. E. (1997). Reading the wind: How middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18(5), p. 407-423.
- Eisenhardt, K. M., & Gräbner, M. E. (2007). Theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1), p. 25-32.
- Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. Chicago guides to writing, editing. and publishing. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- Floyd, S. W., & Lane, P. J. (2000). Strategizing throughout the organization: Management role conflict in strategic renewal. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), p. 154-177.
- Floyd, S. W., & Wooldridge, B. (1997). Middle management’s strategic influence and organizational performance. Journal of Management Studies, 34(3), p. 465-485.
- Friesl, M., & Kwon, W. (2017). The strategic importance of top management resistance: Extending Alfred D. Chandler. Strategic Organization, 15(1), p. 100-112.
- Glaser, L., Stam, W., & Takeuchi, R. (2016). Managing the risks of proactivity: A multilevel study of initiative and performance in the middle management context. Academy of Management Journal, 59(4), p. 1339-1360.
- Goffman, E. (1959), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Penguin Books, London.
- Golsorkhi, D., Rouleau, L., Seidl, D., & Vaara, E. (2015). Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, Second edition. Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press.
- Hackett, G., & Betz, N. E. (1981). A self-efficacy approach to the career development of women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 18(3), p. 326-339.
- Hautz, J., Seidl, D., Whittington, R. (2017). Open Strategy: Dimensions, Dilemmas, Dynamics. Long Range Planning, 50(3), p. 298-309.
- Healey, M. P., Hodgkinson, G. P., Whittington, R., & Johnson, G. (2015). Off to Plan or Out to Lunch? Relationships between Design Characteristics and Outcomes of Strategy Workshops. British Journal of Management, 26(3), p. 507-528.
- Hendry, J., & Seidl, D. (2003). The structure and significance of strategic episodes: Social systems theory and the routine practices of strategic change. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1), p. 175-196.
- Heyden, M. L. M., Fourné, S. P. L., Koene, B. A. S., Werkman, R., & Ansari, S. S. (2017). Rethinking ‘Top-Down’ and ‘Bottom-Up’ Roles of Top and Middle Managers in Organizational Change: Implications for Employee Support. Journal of Management Studies, 54(7), p. 961-985.
- Hodgkinson, G. P., & Wright, G. (2002). Confronting strategic inertia in a top management team: Learning from failure. Organization studies, 23(6), p. 949-977.
- Hodgkinson, G. P., Whittington, R., Johnson, G., & Schwarz, M. (2006). The role of strategy workshops in strategy development processes: Formality, communication, co-ordination and inclusion. Long Range Planning, 39(5), p. 479-496.
- Hoon, C. (2007). Committees as strategic practice: The role of strategic conversation in a public administration. Human Relations, 60(6), p. 921-952.
- Jarzabkowski, P. (2008). Shaping strategy as a structuration process. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), p. 621-650.
- Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J., & Seidl, D. (2007). Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. Human Relations, 60(1), p. 5-27.
- Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G., & Spee, P. (2015). Constructing Spaces for Strategic Work: A Multimodal Perspective. British Journal of Management, 26(S1), p. S26-S47.
- Jarzabkowski, P., Kaplan, S., Seidl, D., & Whittington, R. (2015). On the risk of studying practices in isolation: Linking what, who, and how in strategy research. Strategic Organization, 14(3), p. 248-259.
- Jarzabkowski, P., & Lê, J. K. (2015). We have to do this and that? You must be joking: Constructing and responding to paradox through humour. Organization Studies, 38(3-4), p. 433-462.
- Jarzabkowski, P., & Seidl, D. (2008). The Role of Meetings in the Social Practice of Strategy. Organization Studies, 29(11), p. 1391-1426.
- Johnson, G., Langley, A., Melin, L., & Whittington, R. (2007). Strategy as practice: research directions and resources. Cambridge University Press.
- Johnson, G., Prashantham, S., Floyd, S. W., & Bourque, N. (2010). The Ritualization of Strategy Workshops. Organization Studies, 31(12), p. 1589-1618.
- Kanter, R. M. (1986). The reshaping of middle management. Management Review, January, p. 19-20.
- Kaplan, S. (2011). Strategy and PowerPoint: An inquiry into the epistemic culture and machinery of strategy making. Organization Science, 22(2), p. 320-346.
- Kerseens-van Drongelen, I. K. (2001). The iterative theory-building process: rationale, principles and evaluation. Management Decision, 39(7), p. 503-512.
- Knight, F. H. 1965. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (Reprint) Harper & Row. New York, NY.
- Knights, D., & Morgan, G. (1991). Corporate Strategy, Organizations, Subjectivity: A Critique. Organisation Studies, 12(2), p. 251-273.
- Kryger, A. (2018). Iterative prototyping of strategy implementation workshop design. Journal of Strategy and Management, 11(2), p. 166-183.
- Laine, P.-M., & Vaara, E. (2015). Participation in strategy work. In D. Golsorkhi, L. Rouleau, D. Seidl, & E. Vaara (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of strategy as practice (2nd ed., p. 616-631). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press
- Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. The Academy of Management Review, 24(4), p. 691-710.
- Langley, A. (2007). Process thinking in strategic organization. Strategic Organization, 5(3), p. 271-282.
- Langley, A., & Abdallah, C. (2016). Templates and turns in qualitative studies of strategy and management. In Research methods for strategic management (p. 155-184). Routledge.
- Li, Q., Jarzabkowski, P., & Furnari, S. (2018). Strategy-as-Practice, Identity, and Capability to Perform in a Pluralist Context: A Case Study. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No 1, p. 12061).
- MacIntosh, R., & Beech, N. (2011). Strategy, strategists and fantasy: a dialogic constructionist perspective. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 24(1), p. 15-37.
- MacIntosh, R., MacLean, D., & Seidl, D. (2010). Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change? In: Golsorkhi, D; Rouleau, L; Seidl, D; Vaara, E. Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge, p. 291-307.
- MacKay, R.B., Chia, R., & Nair, A. (2020) Strategy-in-practices: a process philosophical approach to understanding strategy emergence and organizational outcomes. Human Relations.
- Mantere, S. (2005). Strategic practices as enablers and disablers of championing activity. Strategic Organization, 3(2), p. 157-184.
- Mantere, S. (2008). Role expectations and middle manager strategic agency. Journal of Management Studies, 45(2), p. 294-316.
- Mantere, S., & Vaara, E. (2008). On the Problem of Participation in Strategy: A Critical Discursive Perspective. Organization Science, 19(2), p. 341-358.
- Mezias, J., Grinyer, P., & Guth, W. D. (2001). Changing collective cognition: a process model for strategic change. Long Range Planning, 34(1), p. 71-95.
- Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), p. 257-272.
- Nicolini, D., & Monteiro, P. (2016). The Practice Approach: For a Praxeology of Organisational and Management Studies. In The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies (p. 1-27).
- Oakes, L., Townley, B. and Cooper, D. (1998). Business planning as pedagogy: language and control in a changing institutional field, Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, 2: p. 257-92).
- O’Reilly, K., 2005. Ethnographic Methods. London: Routledge.
- Pitsis, T. S., Kornberger, M., & Clegg, S. (2004). The art of managing relationships in interorganizational collaboration. Management, 7(3), p. 47-67.
- Raes, A. M., Heijltjes, M. G., Glunk, U., & Roe, R. A. (2011). The interface of the top management team and middle managers: A process model. Academy of Management Review, 36(1), p. 102-126.
- Rasche, A., & Chia, R. (2009). Researching strategy practices: A genealogical social theory perspective. Organization Studies, 30(7), p. 713-734.
- Ravasi, D., Tripsas, M., & Langley, A. (2020). Exploring the strategy-identity nexus. Strategic Organization, 18(1), p. 5-19.
- Rouleau, L. (2005). Micro-practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day. Journal of Management Studies, 42(7), p. 1413-1441.
- Rouleau, L., & Balogun, J. (2011). Middle managers, strategic sensemaking, and discursive competence. Journal of Management Studies, 48(5), p. 953-983.