Case Burdangetje

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Re-framing strategy: power, politics and accounting

Chris Carter

School of Management, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK and University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Re-framing strategy

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Stewart Clegg

CMOS, School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and

Martin Kornberger

University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the rise and institutionalization of the discourse of strategic management. It seeks to advance an agenda for studying strategy from a sociologically informed perspective. Moreover, it aims to make a case for a critically informed, interdisciplinary approach to studying strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an overview to studying strategy critically. It is a theoretically informed paper. Findings – The findings can be summarised as: first, strategy emerged as a major discipline in the 1970s; second, as a body of knowledge strategy has remained close to its industrial economics origins; and third, an agenda for the sociological study of strategy revolving around concerns of performativity and power is outlined. Originality/value – The paper offers a sociologically informed account of strategy. Keywords Management strategy, Accounting, Management power, Performativity, Politics Paper type Research paper

Introduction We live in a world saturated by strategy. Throughout the organizational world exhortations and expressions of strategy are omnipresent. Highly stylized strategy tools – such as SWOT analyses, market analyses, scenario plans and balance scorecards – are commonplace artefacts within organizations. While such techniques

This AAAJ special issue has its foundations in the “24 hours on Strategy” workshop, convened at Aston University in September 2007, organized by...