Strategy-as-Practice:

Institutions, strategizing

activities and practices 

Strategy-as-practice researchers view strategy as a social activity; in other words, as something that members of an organization actually do. As such, the focus of research in this area has been on the micro-activities and interactions of actors in and around the organization, both in terms of what actors do in practice and how they accomplish it. This has yielded much interesting and valuable research. However, the richness inherent in strategy-as-practice work has sometimes obscured the link between micro and macro perspectives. Recently there have been calls from within s-as-p to make the relationship between practices and institutions more explicit.

This call for a link between agency and institutions has been echoed in institutional research. While practices are posited as institutional carriers, they do not automatically reproduce institutions. Rather, they need to be invested with meaning through the way that actors draw upon institutional rules and resources to account for their practices. The association between the micro-practices of actors and the way that institutions are instantiated or modified within organizations are particularly relevant to studies of strategizing. On the one hand, these micro-practices may be considered strategic, in that they constitute political skill in drawing upon institutions to legitimate particular strategic actions. Alternately, such micro-practices, even where they are highly consequential for the strategies of actors and organizations, might also emerge from actors balancing the multiple institutional contexts in which their organizations are located. We therefore suggest that strategizing activity and practice have to be seen within the wider institutional context, examining both how people draw upon institutions to constitute themselves as strategic actors and also how institutions shape strategy within organizations.

It is this dynamic we focus on in this year’s call for the SWG “Strategizing: Activity and Practice” by specifically seeking papers that explore the reciprocal relationship between strategizing and institutions, institutions and strategizing. Possible topics for contributions include but are not restricted to:

• How micro-activities and practices draw on institutions
• How micro-activities and practices constitute and modify institutions
• How micro-activities and practices impact upon the performance of organizations and institutions at the higher level, incl. developing competitive advantage
• How institutions restrict and enable micro-activities and practices
• How institutions modify micro-activities and practices
• How the performance of organizations and institutions at the higher level impacts micro-activities and practices

We also welcome papers on other strategy-as-practice topics, including conceptual and empirical papers utilizing a range of methodological approaches. For more information on the practice perspective on strategizing see www.strategy-as-practice.org

About the conveners

David Seidl Dipl.-Kfm. (LMU Munich), PhD (Cambridge University)

• Professor of Organization & Management, University of Zurich
• Research and publications in the field of organization and strategy (incl. JMS, Organization Studies, Organization and Human Relations)
• Host of Strategy-as-Practice website (with Paula Jarzabkowski)
• Convenor of various sub-themes at EGOS and EURAM
• Organizer of the EGOS SWG “Strategizing: Activity and Practice”

Jane Matthiesen CPsychol, BSc (Brandon), MSc (Nottingham), PhD (Aston)

• Lecturer in Strategic Management, Aston Business School
• Research and publications in the field of organization and strategy (TBC)

Roy Suddaby BSc (Alberta), LLB (Alberta), MBA (BC), PhD (Alberta)

• Associate Professor of Strategic Mgmt & Organization, University of Alberta
• Research and publications in the field of organization and strategy (incl. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Relations, Academy of Management Journal, Accounting Organizations & Society and Administrative Science Quarterly)
• Associate Editor of Academy of Management Review