Teaching Strategy as Practice

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Teaching Strategy as Practice Richard
Whittington EGOS Vienna 2007
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The strategic pendulum swings towards staff
STRATEGY remains a pillar of the classic MBA.
But the way the subject is taught is changing as
the more enlightened business schools recognise
that once students leave the classroom, strategy
ceases to be theoretical and becomes part of the
job of management. The pendulum is now
swinging away from the theoretical view of
strategy towards the practical. Current interest
focuses on something called strategy as practice,
which is concerned with what people actually do.
Johnson, Mintzberg and Whittington place a
growing emphasis on the skills and practices that
are needed to work with real people. They
recognise that strategy, just like every aspect
of management, is fundamentally about
people. Des Dearlove, The Times, 27 June, 2007
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Research into the Classroom

• After all

• Strategy-as-Practice is both practical and
  reflective

• for our students, strategy is a job!

• theres a large gap in our courses and texts

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What to Teach?
Practitioners Praxis Practices
After Whittington, 2006, Completing the Practice
Turn, Organization Studies Jarzabkowski,
Balogun and Seidl, 2007, Strategizing the
Challenge of a Practice Perspective, Human
Relations
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What to Teach?
Practitioners who to include, and roles of top
managers, middle-managers, strategy
consultants, strategic planners, civil
servants Praxis Practices
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What to Teach?
Practitioners who to include, and roles of top
managers, middle-managers, strategy
consultants, strategic planners, civil
servants Praxis analysis, issue-selling,
decision-making, consulting, communicating
. Practices
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What to Teach?
Practitioners who to include, and roles of top
managers, middle-managers, strategy
consultants, strategic planners, civil
servants Praxis real analysis, issue-selling,
decision-making, consulting, communicating
. Practices strategy workshops, strategy
projects, reviews, hypothesis testing, business
cases and strategic plans
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J. Balogun, P. Jarzabkowski and D. Seidl,
Strategy as Practice Perspective, Chapter 13,
in M. Jenkins, V. Ambrosini, N. Collier (eds),
Advanced Strategic Management a
Multi-Perspective Approach, 2nd Edition,
Palgrave MacMillan, May 2007
Mini-case studies Strategising at
Ostgota Enskilda Bank Writing Strategy
Shaping the Story
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G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R. Whittington, Explori
ng Corporate Strategy, Pearson Chapter 15, 8th
Edition, December, 2007
Exhibit 15.1 The Pyramid of Strategy Practice
Strategists Who?
Illustrations, cases etc Strategist job
description IBM Strategy jamming Strategy
workshops at ESB Hypothesis testing at a
bank Planning at Notre Dame What use strategy
consultants? Ozzies Off-site (end-chapter) MacFar
lane case (consultants) RACC case (strategic
planning)
Strategising Activities What?
Strategising Methodologies Which?
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What We Need

• more research on practices in praxis
• more case studies of praxis
• more photography, videos and artefacts

Whittington et al, LRP, 2006 Molloy
Whittington, AiSM, 2005
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Challenges

• is Strategy-as-Practice more than one
  chapter/session in the core?
• should it be taught to undergraduates or only
  post-experience students?
• how to make non-practitioner teachers
  comfortable and credible?
• can we reach to normative prescription?