Toward a Mid-Range Theory of Strategy Workshops

Advanced Institute of Management Research Paper No. 035

34 Pages Posted: 27 Nov 2008

See all articles by Gerry Johnson

Gerry Johnson

University of Strathclyde in Glasgow

Shameen Prashantham

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Steven W. Floyd

University of Connecticut - School of Business

Date Written: March 1, 2006

Abstract

Strategy workshops - typically 2-3 day events involving senior managers - represent a common and frequent, yet under-researched, organisational practice relating to strategy development and therefore provide a natural extension of mainstream strategy process research. In this paper we seek to build upon the recent call for a more micro, activity-based approach to strategic management by identifying a theoretically informed empirical agenda for research into strategy workshops. We argue here that theoretical perspectives on ritual - specifically on transition ritual (i.e., rites of passage) - and ritualisation from social anthropology and microsociology are very relevant to our agenda. In particular, insights from this literature suggest that the nature of such ritualised events may help explain the problem of transferring plans and ideas from such workshops to the everyday of management practice.

Suggested Citation

Johnson, Gerry and Prashantham, Shameen and Floyd, Steven, Toward a Mid-Range Theory of Strategy Workshops (March 1, 2006). Advanced Institute of Management Research Paper No. 035, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1307693 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1307693

Gerry Johnson (Contact Author)

University of Strathclyde in Glasgow ( email )

16 Richmond Street
Glasgow 1XQ, Scotland G1 1XQ
United Kingdom

Shameen Prashantham

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

Steven Floyd

University of Connecticut - School of Business ( email )

368 Fairfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-2041
United States