 This paper draws together the ethnographic and ethnomethodological/conversation analytic traditions to outline an innovative and multidisciplinary approach for researching strategists-at-work. Ethnography is premised upon close-up observation of naturally occuring routines over time/space dimensions and ethnomethodology/conversation analysis, upon a study of people's practices and inherent tacit 'methods' for doing social and political life, much of which is accomplished through talk. Through the observation and recording of strategists talk-based interactive routines and from drawing upon seminal studies within the social sciences, the paper aims to map out a number of analytical routes for a fine-grained analysis of strategists' linguistic skills and forms of knowledge for strategizing. This includes their speaking of morals and the assembly of emotion as they construct a shared definition of the future. To illustrate the approach and its scope, the paper draws upon one ethnomethodologically informed ethnography. It will specifically focus upon aspects of the relational-rhetorical basis of strategic effectiveness as constituted by one strategist who was judged, from amongst a group of six, to have influenced strategic processes.

The study of practices has a long theoretical history and draws on a wide range of methods. This introductory essay sets the stage for the five articles presented in this Special Issue by explaining its background and providing one narrative of the theoretical background on which both its editors and the authors of its articles, in one way or another, draw and to which the latter make explicit or implicit reference.

This paper responds to the empirical and analytical challenge that surrounds tracing the constitution of 'power effects of corporate strategy discourse' notably documented in Knights and Morgan's seminal contribution. To meet the empirical challenge, interaction is centralized and ethnographies of strategists at-work are extended to include audiorecording their naturally occurring talk-based interactive routines over time/space. To meet the analytical challenge, the paper turns to two distinct social science traditions-Habermas' critical social theory and ethnostudies set against the stance of 'supplementation'. Habermas' schema suggests a re-conceptualization of strategic practice as a process where strategists routinely draw upon four forms of knowledge, which arguably 'makes-up' any 'Discourse'. These knowledges concern the external, social and subjective domain with the overarching knowledge being language use. Each also raises associated validity claims. While brief, the ethnomethodological perspective provides the fundamental methodology and indicates the ways further analytical texture is yielded to strategizing processes. Taken together, the paper paves the way for fine-grained studies of the everyday interactional constitution of power effects yielding that 'capillary image' of power relations. Two brief transcribed strips of interaction are reproduced from an earlier ethnography to illustrate theoretical, conceptual and analytical possibilities for critical analyses. A complexified notion of 'competence' constituting practice is maintained with the conclusion touching upon how this approach also potentially contributes to critical management education.Volume 12(6): 803-841

This paper is the first of two papers which will introduce a research approach where groups of directors and senior managers have, not only been observed, but also captured interacting with each other on audio tape recordings. It represents a move from asking board members questions during interviews to seeing and hearing them interactively perform in the boardroom (and elsewhere) over a period of time. When we undertake such ethnographic research what we primarily see is directors and senior managers talking to each other. We suggest that through a close study of their talk-based interpersonal routines, a detailed account of their skills and how factors such as knowledge or know-how and experience are deployed to influence boardroom process is possible. In this first paper our objective is limited to: making a case for a focus upon talk-based interpersonal routines in the boardroom/top management team (TMT); an introductory outline of our theoretical and analytical infrastructure drawn from sociology and; reproducing one illustrative extract of directors' talk to show what this data`looks like'. We conclude by outlining an emerging alternative avenue for developing boards/TMTs in a grounded and reflective fashion.

This article contributes to sociological studies of emotions in organizations. It resides upon an innovative move to extend the ethnographic approach to include audio-recording, in this case managerial elites’ naturally occurring interactions, to provide the basis for an ‘empirical filling out’ of emotions research. Furthermore, theoretically to develop this field in ways that encompass the simultaneous speaking of emotionality and rationality, Nash’s account of rhetoric as emotion is drawn upon. In particular, the four discursive constituents which orators are said to need for ‘moving an audience’ are deployed to analytically trace how elites intertwine emotional expressiveness and a rhetoric of rationality to influence management/strategic processes. These four constituents are empathetic matter/great theme, stance, utterance design ( taxis) and utterance relation ( lexis). Three brief transcribed extracts of elites-at-talk are reproduced from one ethnography to illustrate the scope of a fine-grained analysis of elites’ assembly of emotional displays – two are abstracted from the ebband-flow of interaction to illustrate everyday ‘mini-speeches’ of ‘great’ oratory and the third specifically illustrates the intricate nature of inter action revealing the ways emotion can be likened to a ‘barometer of moral and relational ethics’.