Strategic Practice Drift: How Open Strategy Infiltrates the Strategy Process
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Strategic Practice Drift : How Open Strategy Infiltrates the Strategy Process. / Stjerne, Iben; Geraldi, Joana; Wenzel, Matthias.
In: Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 61, No. 3, 2024, p. 820-856.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategic Practice Drift
T2 - How Open Strategy Infiltrates the Strategy Process
AU - Stjerne, Iben
AU - Geraldi, Joana
AU - Wenzel, Matthias
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - This paper builds theory on the process of open-strategy infiltration through an ethnographic study investigating how open strategy entered a financial services firm's strategy process behind the backs of top managers. Based on our analysis, we show how open strategy infiltrates the strategy process through a ‘strategic practice drift’, i.e., a gradual and partly unnoticed shift towards open strategy that occurs through ‘accommodating’ and ‘legitimizing’ the performance of transparency and inclusion in the strategy process. We show how the ‘goal-based ambiguity’ and ‘procedural certainty’ of initiatives that latently imply the performance of transparency and inclusion in the strategy process enable open-strategy infiltration. Furthermore, we show how top managers' ‘goal-based rationalization’ and ‘procedural renegotiation’ of practising transparency and inclusion contribute to the eventual reproduction of open strategy in the strategy process. Our model generates an understanding of how and why open strategy can enter the strategy process behind the backs of top managers and adds nuance to extant understandings of the role of top managers in this process. In addition, our findings contribute to research on strategy as practice by theorizing ‘strategic practice drifts’ and extending our understanding of the role of ambiguity therein.
AB - This paper builds theory on the process of open-strategy infiltration through an ethnographic study investigating how open strategy entered a financial services firm's strategy process behind the backs of top managers. Based on our analysis, we show how open strategy infiltrates the strategy process through a ‘strategic practice drift’, i.e., a gradual and partly unnoticed shift towards open strategy that occurs through ‘accommodating’ and ‘legitimizing’ the performance of transparency and inclusion in the strategy process. We show how the ‘goal-based ambiguity’ and ‘procedural certainty’ of initiatives that latently imply the performance of transparency and inclusion in the strategy process enable open-strategy infiltration. Furthermore, we show how top managers' ‘goal-based rationalization’ and ‘procedural renegotiation’ of practising transparency and inclusion contribute to the eventual reproduction of open strategy in the strategy process. Our model generates an understanding of how and why open strategy can enter the strategy process behind the backs of top managers and adds nuance to extant understandings of the role of top managers in this process. In addition, our findings contribute to research on strategy as practice by theorizing ‘strategic practice drifts’ and extending our understanding of the role of ambiguity therein.
KW - Agile
KW - inclusion
KW - infiltration
KW - open strategy
KW - strategy as practice
KW - transparency
KW - Management studies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145221065&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2a5860ae-07c9-3e02-9cd6-f54aa5467799/
U2 - 10.1111/joms.12895
DO - 10.1111/joms.12895
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85145221065
VL - 61
SP - 820
EP - 856
JO - Journal of Management Studies
JF - Journal of Management Studies
SN - 0022-2380
IS - 3
ER -