Politics and strategy practice: An ethnomethodologically-informed discourse analysis perspective

Frank Mueller, Andrea Whittle, Alan Gilchrist and Peter Lenney

Business History, 2013, vol. 55, issue 7, 1168-1199

Abstract: In this article we aim to contribute to the 'strategy-as-practice' (SAP) field by studying organizational politics from an ethnomethodological perspective. We argue that it is important to study not only the 'politics of sensemaking', but also the 'sensemaking of politics'. Existing research has examined how power and politics plays a role in the sensemaking processes involved in strategic action, yet we have little understanding to date about how power and politics are made sense of in accounts and used by members to conduct their practical affairs. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of a multinational branded apparel company, we show how politics constitutes a key interpretive method through which organizational reality is constructed and strategic decisions are made. We address two key research questions: How can we study politics as an interpretive procedure rather than a pre-existing entity? What practical actions are achieved through such interpretive procedures? The study reveals how a cross-functional team of senior managers used discourse to collectively co-author a version of the political landscape of the firm during team meeting interactions, with practical implications for how the group sought to undertake strategic change. As such, the paper furthers our understanding of the social construction of politics and strategy and puts forward a new and potentially more insightful form of analysis we call Ethnomethodologically-informed Discourse Analysis (EDA).

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2013.838037

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