Abstract: Sensegiving plays a critical role in the process of strategic change, especially when the change is under time pressure and broad interests are at stake. In order to facilitate the intended change, top managers often engage in intense sensegiving activities to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity. Our study explores the role of sensegiving by drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study of strategic change in two large firms. We establish a processual framework of top managers’ sensegiving practices that involve various discursive practices and symbolic actions. We show a mode of action-driven sensegiving, where bold actions were taken, then justified, and future actions are taken in order to create a coherent sense for the initiated change. Theoretical implications of our findings are discussed.

Abstract: The “strategy creation” process –the process of formulating and implementing strategy- is often considered as being ineffective and/or inefficient also because the process remains in practice often the privilege of top management with limited involvement of the entire organization. In order to address the main shortcomings, we start from the fair process theory and propose co-creation as an alternative –fairer- way of creating strategy. Using an innovative co-creation platform test to what extent corporations have been following fair process principles in their strategy creation process and their appetite for co-creation in strategy creation. Finally, we propose a conceptual model explaining how fair process in strategy creation can be achieved through co-creation.

Abstract: Research points to the importance of senior manager sensegiving in initiating and implementing strategic change. However, little research explores in detail how this takes place over time to not just initiate change but also sustain and implement it. Our findings from a longitudinal, real-time case study of a strategic change initiative in a university focus on how senior managers sustain strategic change through their sensemaking and sensegiving. We explore the detail of what is said and done, and the reciprocal response of others, to appreciate how senior manager sensegiving activity guides and shapes the interpretations of others towards intended goals. Through the focus on meetings as a mechanism of control and coordination, this research also contributes to what we know about meetings and strategic practice.

Abstract: This paper takes a macro-oriented Strategy-as-Practice perspective to examine the development of the Strategy profession in the period 1960-2000. The paper focuses on two practice innovations: strategic planning and strategic management. These innovations are first explored using a vocabularies of practice perspective and then qualitatively through an institutional work perspective. The paper stresses the role of distributed agency in achieving innovation, as carried out by socially-skilled actors from leading corporations, strategy consulting firms and business schools. Their institutional work of framing, organizing and implementing is shaped by the nature of Strategy as a profession with low social closure. Such professional openness makes hard work of practice innovation, obliging both duplication and repetition. The paper discusses implications for future innovation in Strategy practice.