Strategy as Practice
Research Directions and Resources

This book provides an analysis of what people do in relation to the development of strategy in organizations.

Gerry Johnson (Author), Ann Langley (Author), Leif Melin (Author), Richard Whittington (Author)

9780521681568, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 August 2007

260 pages, 12 b/w illus. 8 tables
24.4 x 17 x 1.4 cm, 0.42 kg

'The strategy community (academics, consultants, practitioners) tend to work in separate silos with limited crossover. The authors have succeeded in breaking across these seemingly impenetrable silos. They find common ground in the strategy-as-practice.org community and through their excellent analysis of research methods attempt to find out 'what people do in relation to strategy'. They discuss the methodological issues and provide examples of the value of such cross-silo research projects. Strategy as Practice will fundamentally change the cogitative map of the reader and will increase the rate and quality of knowledge-transfer between these sub-sections of the strategy community.' Dr Rehan ul-Haq, Strategy & Alliances Academic and Consultant, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

Research in strategy has shifted significantly towards strategy as something organizations have, rather than strategy as something that managers do. The activities of the people who actually manage and develop organizational strategy have become marginalized. Strategy as Practice argues the reverse: that research on strategy needs to take seriously what strategists do and the effects of what they do. Written by a distinguished team of researchers and educators, this book sets out a research agenda, provides guidelines on theoretical perspectives and alternative methodologies for research on practice as well as commentaries on published illustrative papers that exemplify the practice perspective. Strategy as Practice will be essential reading for doctoral students, researchers and academics who wish to understand or undertake research in this important field of management research.

Preface
Part I: 1. Introducing the Strategy as Practice Perspective: 2. Practical theories
3. Doing research on doing strategy
Part II. Introduction to the Papers: 4. Technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments Stephen R. Barley
5. Making fast strategic decisions in high-velocity environments Kathleen M. Eisenhardt
6. In search of rationality: the purposes behind the use of formal analysis in organizations Ann Langley
7. Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation Dennis A. Gioia and Kumar Chittipeddi
8. Business planning as pedagogy: language and control in a changing institutional field Leslie S. Oakes, Barbara Townley and David J. Cooper
9. Strategizing as lived experience and strategists' everyday efforts to shape strategic direction Dalvir Samra-Fredericks
10. Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking Julia Balogun and Gerry Johnson
11. From metaphor to practice in the crafting of strategy Peter T. Bürgi, Claus D. Jacobs and Johan Roos
Part III: 12. Reflections
References.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ]