EGOS 2006 The Organizing Society: Abstracts due 6 Jan
Standing Working Group 6:
Strategizing and Organizing Activity and Practice
Convenors: Paula Jarzabkowski, Patrick Regnér, Linda Rouleau
Call for papers:
In this sub-theme, we are keen to engage participants in panel discussions of key strategizing and practice topics, have whole group sessions to discuss papers that contribute to key issues in the field, and provide more personal feedback for developmental papers. At the same time, we would like to take as many participants as possible. We will therefore run the sub-theme sessions as a mix of:
• an introductory and concluding panel session with key presenters and discussants, such as Yrjo Engestrom, Ann Langley, Hari Tsoukas and Richard Whittington;
• 3 x standard paper sessions of 3 papers for those papers that are either very well developed or that raise topical issues for discussion
• 2 x interactive round table paper sessions of up to 4 tables, with 3 papers per table, to provide small group feedback and discussion on other papers, with a particular aim of helping participants to develop their ideas and contributions to the strategizing activity and practice field.
We hope this will provide a combination of lively discussion, advancement of the field, and attention to and support for each others' work.
A practice perspective on strategizing focuses on the day-to-day activities and practices of strategizing and addresses questions such as: who the strategists are, what strategists do, how they do it, what influences the work of strategizing, and what are the consequences of strategizing activity? This year, in keeping with the main theme of the track, the 'Strategizing: Activity and Practice' Standing Working Group is looking for papers that explore the association between organizing and strategizing, both organizing inside the firm and how the strategizing that takes place within firms contributes to the organizing of wider social, economic and industry characteristics. We are looking for theoretical papers as well as case studies that can provide useful insights into these questions. Innovative papers that draw on theoretical and methodological pluralism are encouraged. Papers that address the following two themes are welcome but these themes are not exclusive, and any papers that address the principles of the Standing Working Group will be considered (see www.egosnet.org/groups/rgroupstrategizing.shtml, or www.strategy-as-practice.org for details on the type of work that our community is interested in).
1) Particular attention will be paid to works that explore the interconnectedness between strategizing and organizing inside the firm. We seek papers that can rethink and combine existing approaches to organizing and strategizing (which are typically seen as separate in the literature) to provide empirically-driven explanations of how the two shape each other as well as to derive new research questions and provide new research insights. In their day-to-day activities managers draw on formalized organizing practices, such as coordination mechanisms, performance indicators, and resource allocation mechanisms as well as more ad hoc practices, such as workshops and project groups, in order to shape strategies, and in the process transforming these internal practices of organizing. Potential papers might address this as: How do particular formalized or ad hoc organizing practices influence the work of strategizing and what are the consequences of strategizing on these organizing practices? Additionally, we seek papers that can develop more socially dynamic explanations of how organizing practices such as 'routines' and 'capabilities' come to be associated with competitive advantage, how competitive advantage shapes such organizing practices, and, particularly, how organizing practices transform competitive advantage.
2) One of the major challenges for the Strategizing: Activity and Practice research agenda is our capacity as researchers to better understand and explain the embeddedness of the firm's strategic orientation within its economic, political and social context at the macro level and at more 'meso' industry levels. While much research addresses this from an institutional perspective, examining how institutionalized forces influences firm-level strategizing, there is less research into how the micro strategizing practices inside firms have an impact on their external context. We are particularly interested in papers that explore the interconnectedness between strategizing practices inside the firm and the organizing of industries, markets and wider social and economic contexts. Here papers might address how micro-strategizing practices are involved in cross-firm collaborations, influencing regulatory policy and/or shaping markets. Papers that can demonstrate empirical links between within-firm strategizing practices and the organizing of the meso and macro contexts within which firms' work are particularly welcome.
Please see the EGOS website for submission details: http://www.egosnet.org/conferences/collo22/colloquium_2006.shtml
About the convenors:
1. Paula Jarzabkowski is an AIM Ghoshal Fellow and a Reader in strategic management at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK. Her research focuses on the social dynamics of strategizing practices and their consequences for strategy formation inside the firm. She is particularly interested in strategizing practices in pluralistic contexts that have multiple conflicting strategies. www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/staff/detail.asp?sfldStaffID=A0000327
2. Patrick Regnér is Assistant professor at the Institute of International Business at the Stockholm School of Economics. His research is focused on strategy development and dynamics with a particular focus on the origins of strategy and exploration/exploitation tradeoffs.
3. Linda Rouleau: Associate professor, management department - HEC Montreal. Her research focuses on the social character of strategy formation and on the transformation of control and identity of middle managers in the context of organizational restructuring.