Agreeing on What? Creating Joint Accounts of Strategic Change

Paul Spee () and Paula Jarzabkowski ()
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Paul Spee: UQ Business School, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
Paula Jarzabkowski: Cass Business School, City University London, London EC1Y 8TZ, United Kingdom

Organization Science, 2017, vol. 28, issue 1, 152-176

Abstract: This paper addresses a fundamental conundrum at the heart of meaning making: How is agreement to change achieved amid multiple, coexisting meanings? This challenge is particularly salient when proposing a new strategic initiative as it introduces new meanings that must coexist with multiple prevailing meanings. Yet, prior literature on meaning-making processes places different emphases on the extent to which agreement to a new initiative requires shared meaning across diverse organizational members. We propose the concept of a joint account as the means through which an agreement to change may be achieved that accommodates multiple, coexisting meanings that satisfy diverse constituents’ vested interests. Based on the findings from an ethnographic study of a university’s strategic planning process, we develop a framework that demonstrates two different patterns in the microprocesses of meaning making. These patterns extend our understanding about the way vested interests enable or constrain the construction of a joint account. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about resistance, ambiguity, and lack of agreement to a proposed change.

Keywords: meaning making; plurivocal contents; strategic change; strategy-as-practice; strategic planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:28:y:2017:i:1:p:152-176

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