Performing Sales: Material Scripts and the Social Organization of Obligation

Darr, Asaf; Pinch, Trevor

doi:10.1177/0170840612470228

Cited by 51 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The literature on affordances emphasizes that tools and technologies are as much conceptual as material devices through which actors pursue multiple ends, such as negotiating about the content of PowerPoint slides (Kaplan, ) or using Blackberry devices to manage work flow (Mazmanian and Orlikowski, ). We are encouraged to consider the way tools and technologies provide interpretive, as well as material, affordances for action (Darr and Pinch, ).…”

Section: A Framework For Strategy Tools‐in‐usementioning

confidence: 95%

Strategy tools‐in‐use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice

Jarzabkowski

Kaplan

2014

Strategic Management Journal

393

375

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link Final version accepted into Strategic Management JournalKeywords: strategy tools, strategy-as-practice, technologies-in-use, practice theory, strategy process STRATEGY TOOLS-IN-USE: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING 'TECHNOLOGIES OF RATIONALITY' IN PRACTICEAbstract: In response to critiques of strategy tools as unhelpful or potentially dangerous for organizations, we suggest casting a sociological eye on how tools are actually mobilized by strategy makers. In conceptualizing strategy tools as tools-in-use, we offer a framework for examining the ways that the affordances of strategy tools and the agency of strategy makers interact to shape how and when tools are selected and applied. Further, rather than evaluating the 'correct' or 'incorrect' use of tools, we highlight the variety of outcomes that result, not just for organizations but also for the tools and the individuals who use them. We illustrate this framework with a vignette and propose an agenda and methodological approaches for further scholarship on the use of strategy tools. Strategy tools-in-use-1 - STRATEGY TOOLS-IN-USE: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING 'TECHNOLOGIES OF RATIONALITY' IN PRACTICEIn business schools, when we teach strategy we introduce students to various strategy toolssuch as Five Forces (Porter, 1980), strategic group maps (McGee and Thomas, 1986), or the BCG growth-share matrix (Henderson, 1979). Research suggests that managers use such tools to support situation analysis and evaluation of strategic choices (Grant, 2003;Orndoff, 2002;Tapinos et al., 2005). Managers use tools in what they consider to be rational processes of strategic decision-making (Cabantous and Gond, 2011;Jarratt and Stiles, 2010). Yet, March (2006: 211) (and others such as Mintzberg, 1994; critique an excessive trust in these 'technologies of rationality,' as potentially inappropriate props for decision making that 'defend a utopia of the mind against the realism of experience.'Bridging this gap between the 'utopia of the mind' (the theory of how strategy tools should be used) and the 'realism of experience' (how managers actually use tools) falls squarely into the strategy-as-practice research agenda (Balogun et al., 2007; Golsorkhi et al., 2010;Johnson et al., 2007;Orlikowski, 2010;Vaara and Whittington, 2012). To address this challenge, Whittington (2007Whittington ( : 1577Whittington ( -1578 suggests we take a 'sociological eye' to strategy, examining not only specific tools or actors, but also the rich interactions within which people and 'things' are engaged in doing strategy work. A sociological eye encourages close attention to tools as they are used in context, the motivations of actors in using them, the purposes to which tools are put, and their potential to lead to an array of sometimes unanticipated outcomes. In this paper, we develop a framework for seeing strategy tools through such a lens, probing their sel...

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Section: A Framework For Strategy Tools‐in‐usementioning

confidence: 95%

Strategy tools‐in‐use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice

Jarzabkowski

Kaplan

2014

Strategic Management Journal

393

375

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“…One is practical: using the term 'performance' in our search -even if restricted to its Goffmanian sense -expands the scope too greatly as this term is widely used in OMT (e.g. 'performance 2 This distinguishes our approach from prior works that have considered Goffman as a specific approach to performativity, such as Darr and Pinch (2013) or Diedrich et al (2013). It is noteworthy, however, that for certain research traditions (e.g.…”

Section: Scope and Semantic Clarificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This distinguishes our approach from prior works that have considered Goffman as a specific approach to performativity, such as Darr and Pinch () or Diedrich et al . ().…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

What Do We Mean by Performativity in Organizational and Management Theory? The Uses and Abuses of Performativity

Gond

Cabantous

Harding

et al. 2015

Int J Management Reviews

284

262

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introduced the formulation 'performative utterance' in his 1962 book How to Do Things with Words. This term and the related concept of performativity have subsequently been interpreted in numerous ways by social scientists and philosophers such as Lyotard, Butler, Callon and Barad, leading to the coexistence of several foundational perspectives on performativity. This paper reviews and evaluates critically how organization and management theory (OMT) scholars have used these perspectives, and how the power of performativity has, or has not, stimulated new theory-building. In performing a historical and critical review of performativity in OMT, the authors' analysis reveals the uses, abuses and under-uses of the concept by OMT scholars. It also reveals the lack of both organizational conceptualizations of performativity and analysis of how performativity is organized. Ultimately, the authors' aim is to provoke a 'performative turn' in OMT by unleashing the power of the performativity concept to generate new and stronger organizational theories.

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“…To fully utilize the potential that practice theory offers to sales researchers, we would strongly encourage future practice research to focus on the material objects that are employed in a sales setting, as this focus is lacking from most research designs currently in use in the sales research arena (Darr and Pinch 2013). Salespeople are structured or 'configured' not only by their relationship with others, for instance their fellow salespeople, their managers or their customers (intersubjective relations), but also by material objects (interobjective relations).…”

Section: Configuringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And at the most fundamental level, sales work still revolves around an object to be sold, negotiated over, discussed, shaped and transferred in ownership from seller to buyer (Darr and Pinch 2013). How such objects become part of a sales practice, how individuals interact through these objects, and how these objects shape the interaction represents a remarkably underresearched area of exploration.…”

Section: Configuringmentioning

confidence: 99%