Strategy as Practice: Linking Strategic Thinking and Acting
Professor Julia Balogun, Strategic Management Centre
11.30 am
A key challenge facing most large corporations is how to implement new strategies designed to maintain or regain competitive advantage, particularly when these strategies require a shift in strategic direction. For many executives the challenge does not lie so much in conceiving of what should be done differently (the thinking), but in how to realise the new intended strategy (the acting).
The difficulties associated with turning intended strategies into realised strategies have long been acknowledged. We know, for example, that attempts to deliver top-down change often result in outcomes other than those expected and typically deliver something significantly less than the transformation envisaged. However, research that marries an exploration of managerial practice with different theoretical perspectives can help to inform both our theoretical understanding of the issues involved in linking strategic thinking to acting, and our understanding of what executives need to do differently. It enables us to better understand the cultural, cognitive and political issues that executives know undermine their efforts at change, but rarely have the understanding to unpack.
Strategic change research that extends back beyond a decade and involves research in many different corporate settings, both private and public, and including more recently multinationals, is drawn on to show the lessons that emerge for both academics and practitioners. The research also demonstrates the value for both academics and executives that can lie in collaborative endeavours designed to provide value in both the academic and corporate worlds.
Biography
Julia Balogun holds The Professor Sir Roland Smith Chair of Strategic Management, and is Director of the Strategic Management Centre, at Lancaster University Management School. Her research, teaching and consultancy centres on strategy development and strategic change and transformation. She typically utilises her previous consultancy experience to work collaboratively with organisations and managers in a way that enables the advancement of practitioner and theoretical knowledge. Her book, Exploring Strategic Change, is in its third edition. She has published widely in the area of strategy and strategic change in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Studies and the Journal of Management Studies. Julia is also a member of the editorial boards of these journals and others including Organization Science and Long Range Planning.