The Role of Meetings in the Social Practice of Strategy

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. ABSTRACT This paper addresses the recent turn in strategy research to practice-based theorizing. Based on a data set of 51 meeting observations, the paper examines how strategy meetings are involved in either stabilizing existing strategic orientations or proposing variations that cumulatively generate change in strategic orientations. Eleven significant structuring characteristics of strategy meetings are identified and examined with regard to their potential for stabilizing or destabilizing existing strategic orientations. Based on a taxonomy of meeting structures, we explain three typical evolutionary paths through which variations emerge, are maintained and developed, and are selected or de-selected. The findings make four main contributions. First, they contribute to the literature on strategy-as-practice by explaining how the practice of meetings is related to consequential strategic outcomes. Second, they contribute to the literature on organizational becoming by demonstrating the role of meetings in shaping stability and change. Third, they extend and elaborate the concept of meetings as strategic episodes. Fourth, they contribute to the literature on garbage can models of strategy-making. Permanent repository link:Keywords: Strategy-as-practice, strategy meetings, university, strategy episodes, strategizing. 1 The authors would like to thank colleagues, Richard Whittington and John Sillince, for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper and the three anonymous reviewers and the Senior Editor, Ann Langley, for their enormous help with developing this published version of the paper. Jarzabkowski, P. & D. . 'The role of strategy meetings in the social practice of strategy '. Organization Studies, 29.11: 1391-1426 1 The Role of Meetings in the Social Practice of StrategyWith its recent turn towards practice-based theorizing (Balogun et al. 2007;Hendry 2000;Jarzabkowski 2005;Johnson et al. 2003;Whittington 1996;2006) strategy research has developed a particular interest in the everyday activities of strategy practitioners. Strategy, it is argued, may be understood as something people do rather than something that firms-in-their markets have. While Johnson et al. (2003) proposed a focus on the everyday micro-activities through which actors shape strategic outcomes, others emphasize that these micro-phenomena need to be understood within their social context. Actors do not act in isolation but draw upon regular, socially defined modes of acting that make their actions and interactions meaningful to others (Balogun et al. 2007;Chia and Mackay 2007;Suchman 1986;Wilson and Jarzabkowski 2004;Whittington 2006). We must thus look to those social structures, such as tools, technologies and discourses, through which micro actions are constructed and which, in turn, construct the possibilities for action (Giddens 1984;Orlikowski 1996). Strategy-as-practice has, therefore, been conceptualized "as...

Strategic intent: The literature, the construct and its role in predicting organization performance

“…The paper also needs to succinctly draw on certain threads of insight from the strategy practice literature to help develop the research propositions (Jarzabkowski & Seidl, 2008;Kaplan, 2008;Kaplan & Orlikowski, 2013).…”

Social Dynamics at Work

“…The contemporary perspective of team processes argues for a central focus on temporal team dynamics unfolding over time (e.g., Cronin et al, 2011;Marks et al, 2001) With one notable exception (Jarzabkowski & Seidl, 2008), meetings research to date has not yielded insights into different phases in meetings. However, we can borrow from the existing literature on negotiation (e.g., Adair & Brett, 2005;Liu, 2013;Olekalns, Brett, & Weingart, 2003).…”

Environmental strategy as social practice in a forest-based enterprise: a descriptive study

“…They concern organizational entities that act as intermediaries between structures and actions or everyday events; they may include spatial-temporal signals, discourses, different kinds of awareness, conflicts, symbolic production, actions, types of knowledge, tools, methods of work and objects. For theorists, practice is intrinsically linked to organizational reality because it supplies the physical, rational, instrumental, cognitive and behavioral resources required for the collective development of an organization's reality Jarzabkowski & Seidl, 2008;Laine & Vaara, 2007;Regnér, 2008;Seidl. 2007).…”

“…According to and Jarzabkowski & Seidl (2008), the strategic approach as practice recognizes the value of the strategist's world-view (experiences, knowledge and identity) and defines strategy as a phenomenon that is situated in a given social-historical context; that incorporates a flow of activities carried out collectively; and that has important implications for a group, organization or sector. These authors stress that this approach aims to create knowledge that can identify the strategists, their conceptions, their actions, the development of their practices, and the extent of their impact on the micro and macro social activities that are organized and implemented collectively (Jarabkowski et al, 2007;Jarabkowski & Wilson, 2006).…”