2003/01/01 by John Hendry, David Seidl · 83 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · #Business #Business Strategy and Innovation #Computer science #Economics #Engineering #Epistemology #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Management #Management and Organizational Studies #Management science #Mechanism (biology) #Organizational change #Organizational structure #Political science #Process (computing) #Process management #Public relations #Sociology #Strategic Choice Theory #Strategic alignment #Strategic control #Strategic financial management #Strategic leadership #Strategic planning #Strategic thinking #Theory of change
paper · open access · doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00008
published in Journal of Management Studies 40(1), 175-196 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
theory and the routine practices of strategic change In this paper we draw on Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, and in particular his concept of an ‘episode’, to guide research into strategic practice and its relationship to the operating routines of an organization. Episodes, in Luhmann’s theory, provide a mechanism by which a system can suspend its routine structures and so initiate a reflection on and change of these structures. Applying this theory to the organisational process of strategic change, we draw attention to the routine nature of strategic episodes and to their organisational role as the effective locus of strategic practice and the interaction between strategic and operating routines. We continue to develop a framework for the systematic analysis of different kinds of episode in terms of key aspects of their initiation, conduct and termination. 2 The structure and significance of strategic episodes: social systems theory and the routine practices of strategic change This paper responds to a recent call for an exploration of strategy as a form of