Strategy as Practice: An Activity Based Approach(Sage Strategy Series)

`An important and extremely welcome addition to the strategic management field. In this book the author builds on the work of an emerging community of scholars to lay out theoretical and methodological underpinnings of an activity-based framework for applying the practice lens to strategy' - Academy of Management Review `Paula Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield' - Organization Studies `Pioneering work. As the first book in the new strategy-as-practice field, it offers readers both innovative models and exemplary field research' - Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management, Said Business School, Oxford 'Extends and develops the emerging fields of strategy and practice as well as activity theory. It also demonstrates empirically, using University settings, how activity theory is itself bounded by the wider contexts of organisation, embedded routines and the heavy hand of history' - David C. Wilson, University of Warwick `An insightful book that would be of use to people interested in the actual practices of strategy and strategizing' - Organization Bridging the gap between what managers actually do and organizational strategies, this book provides an activity-based framework for studying strategy as practice, with empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of this framework in real terms.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Strategy as Practice: A New Perspective DEFINING AND THEORETICALLY LOCATING AN ACTIVITY-BASED VIEW Core Social Theory Themes in Strategy as Practice Locating Activity in the Strategy Literature SHAPING STRATEGIC ACTIVITY IN PRACTICE Establishing the Research Context Implications of Procedural and Interactive Strategizing Shaping Strategy and the Strategizing Matrix Multiple Strategies Shape Each Other THEORIZING AN ACTIVITY-BASED VIEW OF STRATEGY AS PRACTICE Developing a Strategizing Framework Taking the Research Agenda Forward

Review :
′Given the book is the first to deal with ′strategy-as-practice′ in depth, it becomes vital to set the contours of the field and lay the path for future research, both achieved in an admirable fashion. More importantly, it also raises several questions and forces the reader to embark on an invigorating thought process -the hallmark of an interesting book for the serious reader.′ Srinivas Gunta IIMB Management Review Reviews for Higher education Market: ′This volume will appeal to researchers, students and those engaged in strategic management in higher education. The case study material provides a detailed portrait of the ways in which senior managers engage in strategic development. Overall, the volume provides rich insights on strategic management in higher education′ -Professor Bob Burgess, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leicester ′This is a completely original account of three contrasting universities′ approach to creating and managing strategy in modern conditions. The problem of multiple strategies which interact with one another will be recognised by every practitioner but have not been described in this way before." Strategy as Practice" represents an important contribution to higher education literature because it theorises decisions and strategies which are for the most part instinctive responses to external realities′ - Professor Michael Shattock was Registrar of the University of Warwick before taking up his Visiting Professorship at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he is Director of the MBA in Higher Education Management. Overall, I found this book insightful and intriguing. As an interested outsider, I appreciated the aim of the activity-based framework and its key concepts. While I believe that many scholars will similarly recognize the significance of the theoretical apparatus developed, the real value of the book lies in the fact that it raises more questions than it answers. This is especially helpful in emerging areas of research, and in this case, Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield. Jarzabkowski’s book is a welcome contribution and introduction to the emerging strategy-as-practice research community. Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield.