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23 - A critical perspective on strategy as practice

from Part III - Theoretical Resources: Organization and Management Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2015

By
Martin Blom  and
Mats Alvesson
Edited by
Damon Golsorkhi ,
Linda Rouleau ,
David Seidl  and
Eero Vaara
Martin Blom
Affiliation:
University School of Economics and Management
Mats Alvesson
Affiliation:
University of Lund
Damon Golsorkhi
Affiliation:
Grenoble School of Management
Linda Rouleau
Affiliation:
HEC Montréal
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Eero Vaara
Affiliation:
Svenska Handelshögskolan, Helsinki
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Summary

Introduction

During the last two decades the strategy-as-practice perspective has emerged, from what is often claimed to be a growing discontent with much of current, mainstream strategy research. In particular, the fact that human actors and their actions in strategy research have been lost to sight has been acknowledged (Jarzabkowski, Balogun and Seidl 2007; Jarzabkowski and Spee 2009). Sometimes the perspective is said to contribute with a ‘sociological eye’ (Whittington 2007) on strategy and strategists, as opposed (or, at least, as a complement) to mainstream, mainly North-American-inspired strategic management research, with its reductionist, economics-based assumptions about firms and industries. The ambition is to move away from the abstract statistical analysis of performance effects and instead, in the tradition of process-oriented strategy scholars such as Mintzberg (1973) and Pettigrew (1973), open up the ‘black box’ of strategy work (Golsorkhi et al. 2010). Foundational works, such as those by Balogun and Johnson (2004), Hendry (2000), Jarzabkowski (2003; 2004; 2005), Johnson, Melin and Whittington (2003) and Whittington (1996; 2004), have ignited (but also framed) an impressive research activity during the last ten years. Strong research groups focusing on strategy as practice have emerged during this period, especially in the United Kingdom, Canada and Finland; an SAP online community (the Strategy as Practice International Network) has been established; and numerous papers have been presented at major conferences (many of which have been published later in prestigious journals). In other words, much has been achieved; as always, though, it is important to be (self-)critical and reflect upon a growing, popular and seemingly successful body of knowledge (Alvesson and Deetz 2000) such as strategy as practice.

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to review and comment on strategy as practice from a critical perspective; and (2) to suggest how a critical perspective – and, in particular, critical management studies (CMS) – can be leveraged in a future research agenda. The structure of the chapter will follow this logic. After this short introduction, we continue by illuminating what we (and others) see as problems, shortcomings or pitfalls with current SAP research. This is partly done from a CMS perspective. We then continue with a section that briefly outlines critical management studies, and in particular how it can be further incorporated in SAP research. A summary section concludes the chapter.

A critical perspective on strategy as practice

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Chapter
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Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 405 - 428
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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