Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction: What is Strategy as Practice?
- PART I ONTOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
- PART II THEORETICAL DIRECTIONS
- PART III METHODOLOGICAL TRACKS
- PART IV APPLICATION VARIATIONS
- 18 Institutional change and strategic agency: an empirical analysis of managers' experimentation with routines in strategic decision-making
- 19 Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?
- 20 Struggling over subjectivity: a critical discourse analysis of strategic development
- 21 Strategizing and history
- Author Index
- Index
- References
19 - Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction: What is Strategy as Practice?
- PART I ONTOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
- PART II THEORETICAL DIRECTIONS
- PART III METHODOLOGICAL TRACKS
- PART IV APPLICATION VARIATIONS
- 18 Institutional change and strategic agency: an empirical analysis of managers' experimentation with routines in strategic decision-making
- 19 Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?
- 20 Struggling over subjectivity: a critical discourse analysis of strategic development
- 21 Strategizing and history
- Author Index
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The recent turn of strategy research towards practice-based theorizing (Balogun et al. 2007; Johnson et al. 2003, 2007; Whittington 1996, 2006) has increased interest in the everyday micro-activities of strategy practitioners. Strategy, it is argued, is better conceptualized as something people do rather than something that firms in their markets have. The interest in what managers actually do has a long tradition in the field of strategy process, starting with the seminal studies of Mintzberg (1973). Yet, in contrast to earlier research on organizational practices (Dalton 1959; Kotter 1982; Mintzberg, 1973), which emphasized the informal side of managerial work, the Strategy as Practice approach – whilst acknowledging the importance of emergence – calls for a reappreciation of the role of formal strategic practices. As Whittington (2003, p. 118) argued, formal practices deserve our particular attention for two reasons: not only are they pervasive phenomena in organizational life – a large part of organizational activity is in some way concerned with formal practices – but they also inflict considerable costs on the respective organizations. Responding to such calls, several researchers have looked into the organizational effects of various formal practices such as different administrative routines (Jarzabkowski 2003, 2005; Jarzabkowski and Wilson 2002) or strategy meetings (Jarzabkowski and Seidl 2008), discussing their role in organizational strategizing.
More recently, attention has begun to centre on the role of strategy workshops as a particular formal strategic practice.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 291 - 309Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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