What is it about?
We know a lot about how different and competing stories of strategy causes problems in organizations, we know less about how this competition is resolved without one story completely dominating the other. In this paper we show how, even when the competition of ideas about what the strategy is or should be, is pretty fierce and apparently irreconcilable, a direction is still set and maintained through the strategy story. This is because some common ground is found between competing stories, through emotional framing and shared values. The competition does not go away, it is ameliorated, so that strategy endures.
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Why is it important?
The paper helps us understand how strategy emerges in complex organizations where there are competing versions of what the organization should be or what the organization should do, especially from powerful stakeholders such as government and accompanying policy pressure. It is not as simple as 'one voice, one story' wins. Instead, because any subsequent story, draws from policy but is framed to support wide availability of the different versions of the organization and in a way that provides a unifying resonance, so we accept the (unified) version.
Perspectives
The paper is based on research in the Higher Education sector. We looked at 30 years of policy. We also studied two case study universities and how policy (text) was drawn into their strategy communications and how strategy was understood throughout the organization. It was a fascinating project, with lots of data that was at times difficult to manage. Thinking about strategy as narrative and how strategy drew on the setting in which it was produced, was really helpful to our enquiry.
Dr Jeannie Holstein
University of Nottingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategy and narrative in higher education, Strategic Organization, November 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1476127016674877.
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