Strategy as Practice

Gerry Johnson is Sir Roland Smith Professor of Strategic Management at the School of Management, University of Lancaster. Ann Langley is Professor of Strategic Management and Research Methods at HEC Montréal. Leif Melin is Professor of Strategy and Organization at the Department of Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Management, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University. Richard Whittington is Professor of Strategic Management at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

• Preface; Part I: 1. Introducing the Strategy as Practice Perspective: 2. Practical theories; 3. Doing research on doing strategy; Part II. Introduction to the Papers: 4. Technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments Stephen R. Barley; 5. Making fast strategic decisions in high-velocity environments Kathleen M. Eisenhardt; 6. In search of rationality: the purposes behind the use of formal analysis in organizations Ann Langley; 7. Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation Dennis A. Gioia and Kumar Chittipeddi; 8. Business planning as pedagogy: language and control in a changing institutional field Leslie S. Oakes, Barbara Townley and David J. Cooper; 9. Strategizing as lived experience and strategists' everyday efforts to shape strategic direction Dalvir Samra-Fredericks; 10. Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking Julia Balogun and Gerry Johnson; 11. From metaphor to practice in the crafting of strategy Peter T. Bürgi, Claus D. Jacobs and Johan Roos; Part III: 12. Reflections; References.

'This is a marvellous book in many ways. The simultaneous attention to epistemology, theory and methodology are quite unique. If you want to understand the epistemological underpinnings of strategy-as-practice, the underlying theoretical schools of thought, and the methodological implications for conducting empirical research, this is it. The annotated exemplary papers concretize the distinctive features of strategy-as-practice and provide guiding examples for those wanting to engage in relevant empirical research. It will be a landmark contribution to what is probably the most exciting area of research in strategy today.' Haridimos Tsoukas, Professor of Organisation Studies, University of Warwick and ALBA, Greece