Introduction: What is Strategy as Practice?

Golsorkhi, Damon; Rouleau, Linda; Seidl, David; Vaara, Eero

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511777882.001

Cited by 92 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Furthermore, the methods used by traditional strategy research, such as reviews of organisational performance, are detached from the ICTD discipline. For such reasons, we move away from the traditional framing of strategy and towards the theoretical perspective of strategy‐as‐practice (Golsorkhi et al, ; Jarzabkowski, ; Johnson et al, ). We adopt this perspective as we are interested in unpacking the “black box” of strategy work (Golsorkhi et al, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We draw on the "strategy-as-practice" approach (Golsorkhi, Rouleau, Seidl, & Vaara, 2015;Jarzabkowski, 2003;Johnson, Melin, & Whittington, 2003), in particular the work of Jarzabkowski (2005Jarzabkowski ( , 2010 and Jarzabkowski and Wolf (2015), inspired by concepts from activity theory (Engeström, 1987;Karanasios, 2018). In this approach, the strategic activities of development actors are not viewed as annual rituals or as things that organisations "have," but rather as things people "do" (Johnson et al, 2003;Johnson, Langley, Melin, & Whittington, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

Karanasios

Slavova

2018

Information Systems Journal

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This paper examines how development actors within the Ghanaian agricultural sector enact information and communication technology (ICT) in their day‐to‐day outreach practices with smallholder farmers. We draw on an in‐depth qualitative case study, informed by the theoretical perspective of “strategy‐as‐practice” to answer the research question: “what ICT‐mediated strategic practices are used by development actors in the Ghanaian agriculture sector?” The research findings reveal that (1) the activities of development actors are meshed within a network of interdependencies; (2) the enacted strategic practices reflect the trade‐off between novelty of content and novelty of the technologies used to deliver it; and lastly, (3) the praxis of development actors for doing ICT for development consists of hybrid strategies, combining bottom‐up approaches consistent with farmers' indigenous smallholder logic, with top‐down imperatives framing agriculture “as a business” and nurturing value‐chain integration. Consequently, our research points to the impact of ICT initiatives as step‐wise and attained over the long term, rather than disruptive and attained in the immediate term.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

Karanasios

Slavova

2018

Information Systems Journal

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“…This is what Taylor and Van Every () refer to as the ‘uplink’ problem, i.e. the question of how local activities ‘reproduce or at times transform prevailing understandings and practices’ (Golsorkhi et al., , p. 13). To understand how power influences the success or failure of particular strategy initiatives, we therefore need more studies of how certain meanings ‘take’, while others do not (Laine and Vaara, ).…”

Section: Strategy Discourse and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategy, Discourse and Practice: The Intensification of Power

Hardy

Thomas²

2013

J Management Studies

117

128

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We adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse to show how power relations shape the constitution of strategy. By exploring two particular discourses associated with the strategy of a global telecommunications company, our study shows how the power effects of discourses are intensified through particular discursive and material practices, leading to the production of objects and subjects that are clearly aligned with the strategy. In this way, our study contributes to understanding: the mechanisms whereby discourse bears down on strategy through intensification practices; different forms of resistance; and the way in which strategy objects and subjects reproduce (or undermine) discourse.

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“…Consequently a number of authors started to analyze strategy as a form of social practice (e.g. Whittington 2002, 2010, Golsorkhi et al 2010, Seidl 2007, Samra-Fredericks 2005, Hendry 2000, Hendry and Seidl 2003, expressing interest in mutually constitutive (dialectical) influence of detailed microactivities that constitute ''strategizing'' and wider social organizational and social contexts, often referred to as macro. Not surprisingly, using the strategy as practice approach, some researchers successfully applied more recent sociological theories of practice (Giddens 1979, 1984, Bourdieu 1990, de Certeau 1988 and started dealing with one of the basic sociological questions through analysis of strategic processes: relation between actor and structure (European sociological tradition) or macro-and micro-level (American sociological tradition).…”

Section: Dimensions Of Strategic Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards the strategies of modern societies: systems and social processes

Rončević

Makarovič

2010

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research

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While several sociological theories have traditionally dealt with rational action by human actors, little attention has been devoted to the possibilities for rational steering of the entire subsystems of functionally differentiated modern societies in the context of their increasing complexity. Although rational intentional action is clearly limited at the macro-level by the complexity emphasized by Luhmann's social systems theory, strategies are required to approach the normative ideal of active society as defined by Etzioni. Understanding the strategic processes requires microÁmacro and agencyÁstructure connections. A possible solution to understanding strategy as a social process in this respect is found in the adaptation of the three-level Á individuality, reality and totality Á approach of Sztompka's theory of social becoming.

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Introduction: What is Strategy as Practice?

Cited by 92 publications

References 83 publications

How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

Strategy, Discourse and Practice: The Intensification of Power

Towards the strategies of modern societies: systems and social processes

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