Loizos Heracleous

Strategic thinking or strategic planning

Abstract There is no agreement in the literature on what strategic thinking is, what strategic planning is, or on the nature of their interrelationship. This paper disentangles the relationship between the terms strategic thinking and strategic planning as found in the literature, identifying four main varieties of this relationship; clarifies the nature of strategic thinking and strategic planning by developing the analogy of strategic planning as single-loop learning and strategic thinking as double-loop learning; and proposes a dialectical view of the relationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning which sees them as distinct, but interrelated and complementary thought processes.

An Ethnographic Study of Culture in the Context of Organizational Change

The author employed an ethnographic research approach, combined with a clinical element, to explore the nature and role of culture in the context of organizational change. The study took place at the U. K. operations of a global human resources consulting firm, People Associates. Using Schein’s levels of culture model, the author identified cultural assumptions and values and explored how these relate to behaviors, using the author’s relationship with the organization as a rich data source. This study contributes in two main ways: first, it shows how an organizational culture develops historically, is internally coherent, and has potent effects on behaviors that should be studied and understood by managers and clinicians undertaking organizational change programs. Second, it highlights and illustrates how researcher reflexivity and subject reactivity can be useful sources of data for understanding an organization.

Conceptualizing organizational discourse as situated symbolic action

This article presents a conceptualization of organizational discourse as situated symbolic action, drawing from the fields of speech act theory, rhetoric, ethnography of communication and social constructionism. This conceptualization is illustrated through analysis of an episode of negotiated order accessed through an organization development intervention; a meeting of senior managers of Systech, a major IT organization, to decide on a new business model. This perspective helps to respond to some of the key challenges facing the organizational discourse field in terms of developing more clearly specified conceptualizations of discourse suited to the organizational level of analysis, achieving a more holistic and discourse-sensitive understanding of empirical contexts by organizational researchers, and illustrating that organizational discourse analysis is not simply an intellectual luxury but can have pragmatic, relevant implications.

Boundaries in the Study of Organization

The concept of boundaries as relational processes has been central and ubiquitous in the social sciences, especially in areas such as the formation of individual, group or national identities, the creation of class, ethnic or gender inequalities, or the social construction of professions, knowledge and science itself. A key theme running through these literatures is how symbolic resources are used to create, perpetuate, or challenge institutionalized differences or inequalities by creating distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the legitimate or illegitimate, the acceptable or unacceptable, the in or out (Lamont & Molnar, 2002). A central focus of study has thus been how ‘symbolic boundaries’ (Lamont, 2001), particular classification systems enshrined in cognitive schemata have very real consequences in forming and sustaining corresponding social boundaries. In the management literature, however, there has been little serious and concerted study of the formation, properties and consequences of boundaries per se as complex, shifting, socially constructed entities. Organizational boundaries are often treated as socially and organizationally unproblematic, to be determined by considerations of economic efficiency, as, for example, in the case of transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1985), advancing a perspective originally proposed by Coase (1937). From a transaction cost perspective, for example, new technologies such as the internet can either enlarge or shrink firm boundaries through their effects on production costs that influence whether a productive task is outsourced or carried out internally (Afuah, 2003). The property rights approach (Grossman & Hart, 1986) has also been very influential in the theorizing of boundaries. In this approach, the boundaries of the firm are determined by the common ownership of assets that grants the owner bargaining power when issues of incomplete contracting, opportunism or hold-up problems emerge.

Constructing Shared Understanding The Role of Embodied Metaphors in Organization Development

The authors present a novel metaphorical approach to organization development, the use of embodied metaphors, and in so doing extend current understandings and uses of metaphor in organization development (OD). The authors discuss an intervention technology that emphasizes induced rather than naturally occurring metaphors, builds on a developed theoretical base of collaborative diagnostic technologies, and can be employed in a targeted manner for issue diagnosis and intervention. Implications for the use of embodied metaphors in OD are discussed.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks Implementing Organizational Learning in an Asian National Police Force

The authors employed a longitudinal in-depth action research method to explore the implementation of organizational learning in an Asian national police force. They aimed to get an interpretive, in-depth understanding of the related processes of transformational change, as well as the barriers to change, in a machine bureaucracy with entrenched structure and culture not ordinarily conducive to learning and adaptation. Second, they aimed to explore the applicability of universalist change management prescriptions in this context. The authors found several structural and cultural barriers to transformational change that were nevertheless being successfully contested through a bottom-up participative change process, the existence of change champions, experiences that challenged the prevailing culture, and change actions that were congruent with the organization’s authorizing environment. Second, they found that universalist change management prescriptions may not always be relevant because the nature, task, and culture of an organization influence what approaches are appropriate and applicable.

Serious Play as a Practice of Paradox

A recent stream of organizational research has used the term serious play to describe situations in which people engage in playful behaviors deliberately with the intention to achieve serious, work-related objectives. In this article, the authors reflect on the ambiguity of this term, and reframe serious play as a practice characterized by the paradox of intentionality (when actors engage deliberately in a fun, intrinsically motivating activity as a means to achieve a serious, extrinsically motivated work objective). This reframing not only extends the explanatory power of the concept of serious play but also helps bridge the concerns of scholars and practitioners: first, by enabling us to understand a variety of activities in organizations as serious play, which can help practitioners address specific organizational challenges; second, by recognizing the potential for emergent serious play, and the creation of the conditions to foster this emergence; third, by pointing toward specific, individual or group-level outcomes associated with the practice; and finally, by uncovering its ethical dimensions and encouraging the understanding of the role of serious play on ethical decision making.

Strategic Change and Organizational Culture at Hay Management Consultants

Abstract In summer 1994 Hay Management Consultants responded to market and stakeholder demands by embarking on a strategic change program which aims at transforming the way the organization operates over a 5-year period. Experience from leading and researching the change process suggests, among other things, that diagnosing and considering the implications of organizational culture at the initial stages of a change programme, as well as conducting subsequent periodic cultural audits, is extremely helpful to its effective management. Moreover, the case highlights important issues relating to the management of knowledge workers in the context of strategic change. Within a simplified framework of strategic decision-making we discuss the importance and role of organizational culture in strategic change programmes, as well as other change management issues and lessons arising from this case. In so doing we illustrate the use of a potent diagnostic tool—the ‘cultural web’—which has assisted the executive to plan and manage the change process and is currently used for monitoring the change.

A discursive approach to organization development

This article presents a conceptualization of organizational discourse as situated symbolic action that is then illustrated through an analysis of a meeting of senior managers during an organization development intervention. This perspective encourages a more holistic understanding of organizational contexts and offers an actionable framework to help make sense of workplace episodes and choose appropriate interventions. The ways in which action research was conceptualized and applied are also discussed.

State Ownership, Privatization and Performance in Singapore: An Exploratory Study from a Strategic Management Perspective

This paper considers the ownership debate with regard to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) performance, that is, whether superior performance of SOEs can be achieved under state ownership. While the traditional belief has been, supported by empirical work, that private ownership is generally associated with superior performance, the experience of Singapore is a clear example to the contrary. We outline global privatization trends and discuss the impact of privatization programs. We then discuss Singapore Telecom as a case where state ownership combined with several contextual and firm-related factors, especially firm strategy, has led to sustained world-class performance. We develop a theoretical framework for this analysis based on the strategic management field. We lastly outline some theoretical and practical implications of the analysis.