Call for Papers
STRATEGY AS PRACTICE: STABILITY AND CHANGE IN STRATEGIZING ROUTINES
24th EGOS Colloquium, Amsterdam (sub-theme 5), July 10–12, 2008
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION of ABSTRACTS (800 words): January 13, 2008
Convenors: DAVID SEIDL, MARTHA FELDMAN, ANN LANGLEY and SAKU MANTERE
Keynote Speaker: BRIAN PENTLAND
Under the label 'Strategy as Practice' researchers lately have been calling for a re-conceptualisation of strategy as a social activity: strategy is not something an organisation has but something that its members do. This implies a focus on the myriad micro-activities and interactions in and around the organisation that make up strategy in practice. However, these micro-phenomena have also to be seen in their wider social context: actors in their situations are not acting in isolation but are drawing upon the regular, socially defined modes of acting that arise from the plurality of social institutions to which they belong. In this sense the strategy-as-practice approach tries to establish explicit links between micro and macro perspectives. For reviews of the strategy-as-practice field see particularly Johnson et al (2003), Whittington (2006) or Balogun et al. (2007) or visit the s-as-p website at www.s-as-p.org.
This year, the Standing Working Group "Strategizing: Activity and Practice" will devote particular attention to the role of routines in strategizing. Much of the everyday practice of strategizing is based on routine activities – behavioural, cognitive, discursive and physical routines. There are, for example, annual planning cycles, regular meetings and workshops, each of which might comprise routine patterns that shape organizational strategy over time, as well as having routinized practices through which each meeting, workshop or plan is instantiated as a social structure. Such routines result not only in stability but equally in change either because they are routines of change, e.g. strategic episodes or change programmes or because the routines are evolving and modifying over time. Although routines have been widely acknowledged by strategy-as-practice researchers, our understanding of their role in shaping stability and change in strategy is still rather limited. There is a large literature on routines in general (see particularly Feldman & Pentland, 2003) that strategy researchers have yet to tap into, as well as considerable scope for empirical studies on strategizing routines.
We call for papers that explore the various aspects of routines in strategizing, understood broadly. We are interested both in conceptual and empirical papers, which might be qualitative and/or quantitative in approach. Possible topics for contributions include, but are not restricted to:
- Types of strategizing routines; comparison of strategizing routines across different contexts
- Relationships between different strategizing routines within a single context
- How strategizing routines are constructed and modified through everyday practice
- The implications of strategizing routines for strategic outcomes at either individual, group, organizational or institutional levels
- Sources, triggers and consequences of change in strategizing routines
- The role of non-routine events and activities in upsetting strategizing routines
- The role of strategizing routines in shaping stability and change in organizational strategy over time
- Critical approaches to strategizing routines, such as how routines enable some voices to be represented whilst marginalizing others.
Note that these themes are not exclusive. While we hope that the focus on routines will prove an inspiration for submitting authors, any work that reflects the general mission of the Standing Working Group to examine strategizing as an activity or practice will be considered.
For the submission procedure please visit the EGOS website at: www.egosnet.org
References
Balogun, J. Jarzabkowski, P and Seidl, D. (2007) "Special Issue on "Strategizing the Challenges of a Practice Perspective". Human Relations 60/1.
Feldman, M. S. and Pentland, B. T. (2003) "Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change". Administrative Science Quarterly, 48/1: 94-118
Johnson, G. Melin, L. and Whittington, R. (eds) (2003) Special Issue on "Micro-strategy and Strategizing: Towards an Activity-Based View". Journal of Management Studies. 40/1
Whittington, R. (2006) "Completing the Practice Turn in Strategy Research". Organization Studies 27/5: 613-634
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Prof. David Seidl, PhD
Juniorprofessur fuer Strategische Unternehmensfuehrung
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen
Ludwigstr. 28 Rgb III
80539 Muenchen
Tel. ++49/89/2180 2770 (Sekretariat)
Durchwahl ++49/89/21802988
fax ++49/89/2180 2886
www.suf.bwl.lmu.de/personen/professoren/seidl/index.html
www.strategy-as-practice.org