The Role of Strategy Workshops in Strategy Development Processes: Formality, Communication, Co-ordination and Inclusion

Hodgkinson, Gerard P.; Whittington, Richard; Johnson, Gerry; Schwarz, Mirela

doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2006.07.003

Cited by 212 publications

(238 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…somewhere between first-line supervision and directors or senior managers) to the workshops did not achieve successful outcomes, perhaps because it is not easy for middle managers execute actions which were agreed the course of workshops. Our data corresponds to that of Hodgkinson et al (2006) in that only a minority of the workshops we studied involved middle managers. Univ Serv 11 E, which involved more junior staff and union representatives, achieved its objectives but these participants were introduced as the workshops progressed and were not involved at the outset.…”

Section: Research Results: Critical Aspects Of Workhop Activitiessupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Strategy workshops can be defined as specific events which take place outside the normal schedule of business meetings in an organisation and which focus explicitly on strategy. A survey of 1300 UK managers 2 established that strategy workshops were a common occurrence in modern organisational life (Hodgkinson et al 2006). The survey indicated that some 90 percent of such workshops last two days or less and that 73 percent take place away from the organisation"s premises.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?

MacIntosh¹,

MacLean²,

Seidl

2010

Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice

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INTRODUCTIONThe recent turn of strategy research toward practice-based theorising Johnson et al. 2003Johnson et al. , 2007Whittington 1996 Whittington , 2006 has increased interest in the everyday micro-activities of strategy practitioners. Strategy, it is argued, is better conceptualised as something people do rather than something that firms in their markets have. The interest in what managers actually do has a long tradition in the field of strategy process, starting with the seminal studies of Mintzberg (1973). Yet, in contrast to earlier research on organisational practices (Dalton 1959;Kotter 1982;Mintzberg, 1973), which emphasised the informal side of managerial work, the strategy-as-practice approach -whilst acknowledging the importance of emergence -calls for a reappreciation of the role of formal strategic practices. As Whittington (2003, p. 118) argued, formal practices deserve our particular attention for two reasons: not only are they pervasive phenomena in organisational life -a large part of organisational activity is in some way concerned with formal practices -but they also inflict considerable costs More recently, attention has begun to centre on the role of strategy workshops as a particular formal strategic practice. Strategy workshops can be defined as specific events which take place outside the normal schedule of business meetings in an organisation and which focus explicitly on strategy. A survey of 1300 UK managers 2 established that strategy workshops were a common occurrence in modern organisational life (Hodgkinson et al. 2006). The survey indicated that some 90 percent of such workshops last two days or less and that 73 percent take place away from the organisation"s premises. Hendry and Seidl (2003) argued that the separation between workshop activity and the usual day-to-day activities enables the participants to step out of their established routines and mindsets in order to reflect critically on the organisation"s strategic orientations.Various studies have drawn on Doz and Prahalad"s observation that organisational transformation "usually requires stepping out of the existing management processsince these processes are set to sustain the "old" cognitive perspective" (1987, p 75) In one sense then, strategy workshops might actually inhibit strategic change. Johnson and his colleagues use a vignette of a single strategy workshop to illustrate the point that, despite the explicit intention to follow through the actions agreed at an off-site strategy workshop, in fact, little happened after the workshop. This finding, however, is in contrast to the results of a study by Schwarz and Balogun (2007), who reported on workshops that had substantial effects on the strategic directions of the organisations involved. Thus, it appears that some strategy workshops get around the effectivity paradox.A potential explanation for this difference emerges from a closer examination of these two studies. While Johnson and his colleagues refer to one-off workshops, the study by Balogun and Schwa...

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Section: Research Results: Critical Aspects Of Workhop Activitiessupporting

confidence: 73%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?

MacIntosh¹,

MacLean²,

Seidl

2010

Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice

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“…In an analysis of major oil companies, Grant (2003) found that these new 'planned emergence' processes are characterized by shorter planning horizons, greater flexibility, and an increased emphasis on performance targets that primarily aim at controlling and coordinating the different parts of the business (see also Kim et al, 2014;Meissner, 2014). In addition, a wider dialogue in management research aims to better understand the success of strategy processes and the influence of context, communication, and informal processes and controls (Hodgkinson et al, 2006;Meissner, 2014;Regner, 2003;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of project portfolio management in fostering both deliberate and emergent strategy

Kopmann

Kock

Killen

et al. 2017

International Journal of Project Management

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Formal strategy processes have been shown to be insufficient in shaping strategy, particularly in turbulent environments. Emerging strategies that constitute independently from deliberate top-down strategy processes are important for organizational adaptability.This study explores strategic control mechanisms at the project portfolio level and their influence on emergent and deliberate strategies. Based on a sample of 182 firms, we show that both deliberate and emerging strategies positively influence project portfolio success, complementing each other. In turbulent environments, the relevance of deliberate strategy implementation decreases. Strategic control activities not only fosters the implementation of intended strategies, but also discloses strategic opportunities by unveiling emerging patterns.Furthermore, we find that deliberate strategy implementation and emerging strategy recognition mediate the performance impact of strategic control. Our findings suggest that strategic control at the project portfolio level has an important role to play in the purposeful management of emergent strategies.

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“…Taking into account the implications of SPMS for organisational processes (e.g. creation of a forum for communication, discourse elaboration and discussion; establishment of procedures for making collective decisions) (Hodgkinson et al, 2006;Langley, 1988;Nadkarni and Barr, 2008), it is reasonable to expect that SPMS foster awareness and shared understanding by top management of the multi-faceted complexities facing their firm. Therefore, SPMS make it possible that senior managers ground decisions on more varied information, and consequently, that senior managers include a larger and wider range of issues in the organisational strategic agenda, so increasing comprehensiveness.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using strategic performance measurement systems for strategy formulation: Does it work in dynamic environments?

Bisbe

Malagueño

2012

Management Accounting Research

172

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The Role of Strategy Workshops in Strategy Development Processes: Formality, Communication, Co-ordination and Inclusion

Cited by 212 publications

References 26 publications

Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?

Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change?

The role of project portfolio management in fostering both deliberate and emergent strategy

Using strategic performance measurement systems for strategy formulation: Does it work in dynamic environments?

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