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Temporal Work in Strategy Making
Sarah Kaplan,Wanda J. Orlikowski +1 more
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In this paper, the authors developed a model of temporal work in strategy making that articulates how actors resolved differences and linked their interpretations of the past, present, and future so as to construct a strategic account that enabled concrete strategic choice and action.Abstract:
This paper reports on a field study of strategy making in one organization facing an industry crisis. In a comparison of five strategy projects, we observed that organizational participants struggled with competing interpretations of what might emerge in the future, what was currently at stake, and even what had happened in the past. We develop a model of temporal work in strategy making that articulates how actors resolved differences and linked their interpretations of the past, present, and future so as to construct a strategic account that enabled concrete strategic choice and action. We found that settling on a particular account required it to be coherent, plausible, and acceptable; otherwise, breakdowns resulted. Such breakdowns could impede progress, but they could also be generative in provoking a search for new interpretations and possibilities for action. The more intensely actors engaged in temporal work, the more likely the strategies departed from the status quo. Our model suggests that strategy cannot be understood as the product of more or less accurate forecasting without considering the multiple interpretations of present concerns and historical trajectories that help to constitute those forecasts. Projections of the future are always entangled with views of the past and present, and temporal work is the means by which actors construct and reconstruct the connections among them. These insights into the mechanisms of strategy making help explain the practices and conditions that produce organizational inertia and change.read more
Citations
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Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda
TL;DR: A framework of digital transformation articulated across eight building blocks is built that foregrounds digital transformation as a process where digital technologies create disruptions triggering strategic responses from organizations that seek to alter their value creation paths while managing the structural changes and organizational barriers that affect the positive and negative outcomes of this process.
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Sensemaking in Organizations: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
TL;DR: For instance, the authors defined sensemaking as the process through which people work to understand issues or events that are novel, ambiguous, confusing, or in some other way violate expectations.
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Making sense of blockchain technology: How will it transform supply chains?
TL;DR: This study is among the very few to date to explicitly explore how blockchains may transform supply chain practices, and demonstrates the usefulness of sensemaking theory as an alternative lens in investigating contemporary supply chain phenomena such as blockchains.
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Strategy tools-in-use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice
Paula Jarzabkowski,Sarah Kaplan +1 more
TL;DR: In response to critiques of strategy tools as unhelpful or potentially dangerous for organizations, a sociological eye is suggested on how tools are actually mobilized by strategy makers, offering a framework for examining the ways that the affordances of strategy tool and the agency of strategy makers interact to shape how and when tools are selected and applied.
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Making sense of the sensemaking perspective: Its constituents, limitations, and opportunities for further development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore and articulate what constitutes the sensemaking perspective in organization studies, as well as its range of applications and limitations, and critically discuss the criticism that the sense-making perspective has received so far and selectively expand on it.
References
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Book
Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life
TL;DR: Zerubavel's Hidden Rhythms as mentioned in this paper is an original and highly imaginative analysis of the role time schedule plays in social life, focusing on the subtle and diverse significance of time in organizing social relationships and lives.
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Sensemaking in crisis and change: Inspiration and insights from Weick (1988)
Sally Maitlis,Scott Sonenshein +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the core themes that underlie sensemaking in crisis situations: shared meanings and emotion, and examine when and how shared meaning and emotion are more and less likely to enable more helpful or adaptive sensemaking.
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Symbolism and Strategic Change in Academia: The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Influence
TL;DR: This article investigated the uses of sensemaking, influence, and symbolism in launching a strategic change effort at a university and found that sensemaking and influence emerged as fundamental processes in the instigation of strategic change.
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The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2d ed.
Allan W. Wicker,Karl E. Weick +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an empirical study of the major agencies of an important government in Canada, focusing on the Canadian experience, and the authors have a sound grasp of the fundamentals and of the agencies involved.
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Life in the Trading Zone: Structuring Coordination Across Boundaries in Postbureaucratic Organizations
TL;DR: This study of an interactive marketing organization examines how members of different communities perform boundary-spanning coordination work in conditions of high speed, uncertainty, and rapid change and suggests that members enact a coordination structure that affords cross-boundary coordination while facilitating adaptability, speed, and learning.