A narrative approach to strategy-as-practice

2013/10/01 by Andrew D. Brown, Edmund R. Thompson · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · #Management and Organizational Studies #Organizational Change and Leadership #Organizational Learning and Leadership

paper · doi:10.1080/00076791.2013.838031

Abstract

The strategy-as-practice project would benefit from greater consideration of narratological concerns. Narratorship, the formulation and performance of narratives, is an important strategy practice; narratives (stories) are key tools of strategists; and narratological perspectives generally may usefully inform strategy research, leading to less scientistic and more reflexive scholarship. Five specific ways in which attention to narratology can assist the strategy-as-practice agenda are considered: humanising strategy research, dealing with equivocality, accounting adequately for polyphony, understanding outcomes, and sensitivity to issues of power. While storytelling approaches have considerable strengths, they also have limitations, and are offered as a supplement to, not replacement of, existing perspectives.

Citations

• Strategy as practice
• Micro‐Practices of Strategic Sensemaking and Sensegiving: How Middle Managers Interpret and Sell Change Every Day*
• Micro Strategy and Strategizing: Towards an Activity‐Based View

Cited by

• Making Sense of Sensemaking in <i>Organization Studies</i>

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