Understanding Strategy as Practice: A Social Approach to Business Strategy, Study notes of Strategic Management

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The Detail of Strategy?

Aims of the Session

• Explore where strategic activity can be

undertaken

• Introduce the Strategy as Practice

perspective in understanding strategic

behaviour

• Consider elements that help explain the way

people engage in strategic practice

Where are we strategic?

• Formal meetings

• Workshops

• Outputs:

– Minutes of meetings

– Plans

– Reports

– Flip-charts

Other places; e.g. Retreats

Activity

If strategising is a social practice, reflect on the value

and function of the following types of

social/interactive activities:

• Meetings – teams, groups etc.

• Business dinners

• Coffee conversations

• A round of golf

”Strategy as Practice”

perspective

“The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together. There's fitness and conditioning, of course, but there are other things that might seem on the periphery, like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are away and training in different places. Do you really know how to clean your hands? Without leaving the bits between your fingers? If you do things like that properly, you will get ill a little bit less. They're tiny things but if you clump them together it makes a big difference.“ Dave Brailsford, BBC News, 8 August 2012 Importance of micro practices and strategising? The importance of the mundane

London 2012 cycling event: Medal table by nation Posn Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 Great Britain 8 2 2 12 2 Germany 1 4 1 6 3 France 1 3 0 4 4 Australia 1 2 3 6 5 USA 1 2 1 4 6 Colombia 1 1 1 3 7 Netherlands 1 0 2 3 8= Czech Republic 1 0 0 1 8= Denmark 1 0 0 1 8= Kazakhstan 1 0 0 1 8= Latvia 1 0 0 1 12 China 0 2 1 3 13 New Zealand 0 1 2 3 14 Switzerland 0 1 0 1 15 Russia 0 0 2 2 16= Canada 0 0 1 1 16= Hong Kong 0 0 1 1 16= Italy 0 0 1 1 16= Norway 0 0 1 1 Source: www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

Five Core Questions

• What is strategy?

• Who is a strategist?

• What do strategists do?

• What does an analysis of strategists and their

activities explain?

• How can existing organisations and social theory

inform an analysis of SAP?

Jarzabkowski, et al, 2007

Principles Supporting SAP

• The traditional approach to strategy is one of

something an organisation has as opposed to

something the organisation does.

• The focus of attention is on the firm rather than the

individuals.

• Avoids the interpretation of strategy as being centred

on ‘one-off’ decisions by top management to be

implemented through the organisation.

• Instead, the complexity and messiness of situations

needs to be recognised.

Introducing Strategy-as- Practice

• (^) Strategy is something people do - it is not just a property of organizations
• (^) Strategy as an activity implies close attention to:
  • the processes of strategy formation: praxis, practices, practitioners
  • the content of strategies: routines, capabilities, practices
  • micro, meso and macro outcomes: e.g. performance of practitioners, spread and impact of practices, accomplishment of praxis …

Some Theoretical Resources for SAP

Actor Network

Theory

Carnegie Tradition:

Sensemaking

and Routines

Institutionalist

Theories

Situated

Learning

‘Macro’

‘Micro’

Content Process

(Source: Johnson, Langley, Melin & Whittington, Strategy-as-Practice: Research Directions and

Resources, Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Social Theories of Practice Philosophical Pragmatism

• Observations of strategy practices

(retreats; conversations; meetings; shadowing)

• Interpretations of strategy practices

(interviews; diaries; focus groups; questionnaires)

• Artefacts of strategy practice

(minutes of meetings; plans; reports; flip-charts

How Do We Understand

Practice?

Some Methods for Understanding SAP

• (^) Collect narratives of strategists at regular intervals over long periods of time
• (^) Diaries - e.g., respondents note down their reactions – ( Balogun & Johnson 2005).
• (^) Videos, photographs - e.g., film meetings and ask for informants’ interpretations – ( Stronz 2005)
• (^) Conversation analysis of interactions among strategists in meetings – ( Samra-Fredericks 2003)