The Structure and Significance of Strategic Episodes: Social Systems Theory and the Routine Practices of Strategic Change

Hendry, John; Seidl, David

doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00008

Cited by 316 publications

(323 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…In our study, we actually did observe strategic changes as a result of workshop activities. We would argue that in the specific case of a series of strategy workshops, the effectiveness paradox can be circumvented: such series appear to separation and reconnection to occur over the course of several workshops and seem also to create opportunities for strategic episodes (Hendry and Seidl, 2003) to transfer to the wider organization. This is in line with the study of Schwarz and Balogun (2007), who also reported on series of workshops.…”

Section: Discussion and Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such processes effectively challenge organisation members to reconsider the identity of their organisation (Beech 2000). This process requires a comparatively safe environment and Hendry and Seidl (2003) argue that the renegotiation of such fundamental assumptions occurs in the course of 20 "episodes", such as workshops, where customary practices are suspended. Such episodes make it possible for the members of an organisation to step out of their daily routines in order to reflect on them critically (Doz and Prahalad 1987;Roos and Von Krogh 1996).…”

Section: Discussion and Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, having studied ninety-nine workshops conducted over a five-year period with ten organisations, we have been able to comment on the impact of distinct aspects, such as the frequency with which workshops are held, level of attention paid to action points, and continuity and commitment from senior managers. We have highlighted the mechanisms by means of which workshops arranged as series of meetings overcome the difficulty of translating what has been agreed during the workshop into action within the organisation at largea problem identified by Hendry and Seidl (2003) and Johnson et al (2006) and referred to as the effectivity paradox.…”

mentioning

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: Discussion and Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion and Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

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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System Theory

Seidl¹,

Schoeneborn²

2016

The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy

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System theory provides researchers with a transdisciplinary vocabulary and a framework for creating synergies between different disciplines. From a historical perspective, one can distinguish three generations of systems thinking which each represent a different research approach. The earliest of these relies on the notion of open systems, its successor on closed systems, and the current approach on autopoietic systems. This chapter discusses especially autopoietic system theory and its perspective on social phenomena in general and communication processes in particular.

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