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Lancaster University

Team

Julia Balogun, The Professor Sir Roland Smith Chair in Strategic Management, Director Centre for Strategic Management
Martin Friesl, Lecturer in Strategic Management (Assistant Professor of Strategic Management)
Winston Kwon, Lecturer in Strategic Management
Kathryn Fahy, Lecturer in Strategic Management, RCUK Fellow
Gerry Johnson, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Management

Professional Roles

Julia Balogun Coordinator of the EGOS Standing Work Group on “Strategizing: Activity and Practice“ (with P. Jarzabkowski, A. Langley, P-M Laine and D. Seidl) (Since 2004)
Julia Balogun Lead on Proposal for Interest Group at the academy on SAP (awarded December 2009)

Projects

  • Building Strategic Integration, Julia Balogun

  • Strategic Planning has a variable reputation, with some attacking it as an annual ritual delivering little value and others arguing for the benefits it provides in terms of enabling strategic integration across business units, and the development of commitment of common strategic goals. Despite these disputes as to its value, and the difficulties in practice of achieving commitment to shared goals through communication and participation, organisations continue to invest considerable time and resources in strategic planning. Indeed it could be argued that as increasing numbers of organisations seek to gain advantage from integration across countries and regions, yet also simultaneously allow local market differentiation as appropriate, the potential benefits offered by strategic planning mechanisms may become more important. This research project explores how strategic planning can be used to deliver integration in strategic work across previously localised strategizing contexts.

  • Delivering Strategic Renewal in MNCs, Julia Balogun & Kathryn Fahy

  • This research explores the actions and activities senior managers engage in to deliver strategic renewal in MNCs through a discourse perspective. Discourse and narrative approaches provide a fruitful yet under utilised avenue for studying mature corporations, and how new strategic intents take hold and spread (or don’t) in organisations, since these approaches emphasize the political, social and multi-vocal nature of complex organisations typically underemphasised in other approaches. The particular focus here is on how managers in MNCs are rebuilding their European organisations to remain competitive a) to deliver new strategic capabilities in integration of action, whilst still retaining capabilities in local responsiveness, and to b) to deliver a new managerial logic of action which doesn't prioritise local at the expense of regional or global. The research focuses on how renewal ocurs through paths of subsidiary evolution

  • Strategy Workshops, Gerry Johnson

  • Strategy workshops and away days are common occurrences in most public and private sector organisations. They are seen as an important component of the strategy development process. However we know very little about their effectiveness. For the last 3 years, this research project has sought to understand the relationship between the practices adopted in such workshops, how they contribute to managers’ thinking about the strategy of an organisation and the implications for the adoption of proposals arising from those workshops.

  • Replication of Capabilities and Routines in Franchise Organizations, Martin Friesl

  • Franchise organizations contributed £12.4bn to the UKs gross domestic product in 2008. The success of these organizations depends on the ability to replicate organizational routines and capabilities whilst maintaining the balance between standardisation and local adaptation. Although these routines and capabilities are based on proven business models, franchisees sometimes do not follow the standardised routines. Some studies suggest that this may be linked to franchisee failure. To date there has been limited empirical research that has shed light on this area. The objective of this research project is to explore how organizational routines and capabilities are replicated by franchisees across franchise organizations and which factors support or tend to hinder successful replication.

  • Strategic Decision Making in Meetings, Winston Kown

  • One of the most critical events within the overall organizational activity of strategizing is the process of strategic decision-making. This process is often unfolds within the context of meetings, and is often highly political rather than entirely rational. Actions taken at meetings can have significant consequences for an organization’s overall strategic direction and positioning. From experience we know that decision outcomes can be influenced by both the skill with which both sides of a decision are positioned and argued, as well as the relative power possessed by those making the decision. Yet we still know very little about how this dynamic plays out. This research project seeks to understand how the real-time dynamic interplay of various individuals’ discursive strategies can influence the outcome of the strategic decision-making process. The project draws on a study within a large multinational corporation and the boards of directors of two separate business units during their monthly strategy meetings over a six-month period.

Publications

2011
Linda Rouleau, & Julia Balogun (2011). Middle managers, strategic sensemaking and discursive competence. Journal of Management Studies, 48(5), 953-983.
2010
Gerry Johnson, Stuart Smith, & Brian Codling (2010). Institutional change and strategic agency: an empirical analysis of managers’ experimentation with routines in strategic decision-making. In Damon Golsorkhi, Linda Rouleau, David Seidl, & Eero Vaara (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice (pp. 273-290). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2010
Gerry Johnson, Shameen Prashantham, Steven W Floyd, & Nicole Bourque (2010). Ritualization of Strategy Workshops. Organization Studies, 32(12), 1589-1618.
2010
Elena Antonacopoulou, & Julia Balogun (2010). Collaborating to discover the practice of strategy and its impact. Advances in Strategic Management, 27391-410.
2010
Phyl Johnson, Julia Balogun, & Nic Beech (2010). Researching strategists and their identity in practice: building ‘close-with’ relationships. In Damon Golsorkhi, Linda Rouleau, David Seidl, & Eero Vaara (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice (pp. 243-257). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2009
Paula Jarzabkowski, & Julia Balogun (2009). The Practice and Process of Delivering Integration through Strategic Planning. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, 46(8), 1255-1288.
2008
Nicole Bourque, & Gerry Johnson (2008). Strategy Workshops and “Away-Days” As Ritual. In William H.Starbuck, & Gerard P.Hodgkinson (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making (pp. 552-564). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2008
Julia Balogun, Annie Pye, & Gerard P. Hodgkinson (2008). Cognitively Skilled Organizational Decision making: Making Sense of Deciding. In Gerard P. Hodgkinson, & William H. Starbuck (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making (pp. --). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2007
Gerry Johnson, Ann Langley, Leif Melin, & Richard Whittington (2007). Strategy as Practice: Research Directions and Resources. London: Sage.
2007
Paula Jarzabkowski, Julia Balogun, & David Seidl (2007). Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. HUMAN RELATIONS, 60(1), 5-27.
2007
Julia Balogun, Paula Jarzabkowski, & David Seidl (2007). Strategy as Practice. In M Jenkins, & V Ambrosini (Eds.), Strategic Management: A Multi-Perspective Approach (pp. 196-214). Basingstoke: Palgrave.
2007
Julia Balogun, Paula Jarzabkowski, & David Seidl (2007). Strategizing: A Practice Perspective. Human Relations, 60(1), tbd.
2007
Julia Balogun (2007). The practice of organizational restructuring: from design to reality. European Management Journal, 25(2), 91-101.
2006
David Seidl, Julia Balogun, & Paula Jarzabkowski (2006). Stratégie comme pratique: recentrage de la recherche en management stratégique. In Damon Golsorkhi (Ed.), La fabrique de la stratégie. Une perspective multidimensionnelle (pp. 1-7). Paris: Vuibert.
2006
Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Richard Whittington, Gerry Johnson, & Mirela Schwarz (2006). The role of strategy workshops in strategy development processes: Formality, communication, co-ordination and inclusion. LONG RANGE PLANNING, 39(5), 479-496.
2005
Julia Balogun, Veronica Hope Hailey, Pauline Gleadle, & Hugh Willmott (2005). Managing Change Across Boundaries: Boundary Shaking Practices. British Journal of Management, 16261-278.
2005
Julia Balogun, & Gerry Johnson (2005). From intended strategies to unintended outcomes: The impact of change recipient sensemaking. ORGANISATION STUDIES, 26(11), 1573-1601.
2004
Julia Balogun, & Gerry Johnson (2004). Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking. ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 47(4), 523-549.
2003
Julia Balogun, Anne S. Huff, & Phyl Johnson (2003). Three responses to the methodological challenges of studying strategizing. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, 40(1), 197-224.
2003
Julia Balogun (2003). From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries. British Journal of Management, 14(1), 69-84.
2003
Gerry Johnson, Leif Melin, & Richard Whittington (2003). Guest Editors' Introduction: Micro Strategy and Strategizing: Towards an Activity-Based View. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, 40(1), 3-22.
2002
Kevin Daniels, Gerry Johnson, & Leslie de Chernatony (2002). Task and Institutional Influences on Managers' Mental Models of Competition'. Organization Studies, 23(1), 31-62.
2001
Gerry Johnson, & Andy Bailey (2001). A framework for a managerial understanding of strategy development. In Henk W. Volberda, & Tom Elfring (Eds.), Rethinking Strategy (pp. 212-230). London: Sage.

Events

2010 PDW, “Analyzing Strategy as Discourse”, Academy of Management Conference, Montreal, August 2010
2010 AIM Capacity Building Workshop on Collaborative Academic Practitioner Research: Building Research of Relevance to Academics & Practitioners BAM Offices, London 2nd March 2010
2009 Symposium: “Researching the Strategic Middle Manager”, Academy of Management Conference, Chicago, August 2009
2009 Sub-theme Individuality in strategizing activity and practice: Formulators, implementers, innovators at the 25th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) in Barcelona, July 2009
2009 Sub-theme “Methodology in Strategy as practice“ European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference, Liverpool, May 2009
2009 Sub-theme “Methodology in Strategy as practice“ European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference, Liverpool, May 2009
2009 SAP Workshop: Discourse, narrative and strategy as practice. Lancaster University Management School. 18th May 2009
2009 SAP Workshop: Discourse methods, strategy making and strategy renewal. Lancaster University Management School. 17th June 2009
2009 SAP Workshop: Exploring Strategy and Discourse. Lancaster University Management School. 24th November 2009
2008 Symposium “Resurrecting Strategic Planning” Academy of Management Conference, Anahein, California, August 2008
2008 Strategy as Practice Symposium: Purpose: to enable strategy researchers to gain a better understanding of relevant social science theory and research and, in turn, to interrogate it on the basis of their own theoretical and research interests. Lancaster University Management School / Institute for Advanced Studies, February 2008
2007 AIM Capacity Building Workshop for ESRC/EPSRC Festival of Science week ‘Engaging with Practice: Doing Strategy as Practice Research’, Aston Business School, March 2007
2007 PDW, “Researching and Publishing on Strategy as Practice”, Academy of Management Conference, Philadelphia, August, 2007
2007 Symposium ‘Strategists’ Identity and the Impact on the Practice of Strategy’ Academy of Management Conference, Philadelphia, August, 2007
2006 AIM Capacity Building Workshop for ESRC Social Science week: ‘Studying Practices Empirically’, Aston Business School, March 2006
2006 Symposium: “Strategists Identity and the Impact on the Practice of Strategy” British Academy of Management, Belfast, 2006
2005 Sub-theme Un-Locking Strategizing: A Practice Perspective at the 21st Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) in Berlin, June 30 – July 2
2005 Sympoisum “Strategy as Practice: The state of the art”, British Academy of Management, Oxford, September, 2005
2005 Symposium “Publishing Strategy as Practice Research,” British Academy of Management, Oxford, September, 2005
2004 Sub-theme Micro-Strategizing: Activity in Practice at the 20th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) in Ljubljana, July 1-3
2004 Symposium “Challenging Traditions in Strategy: Strategizing and Strategy as Practice – a Micro Perspective. ” Academy of Management Conference, New Orleans, August 2004
2003 Sub-theme: Micro Strategy and Strategising, 19th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Conference, Copenhagen, July 2003
2002 Sub-theme: Micro Strategy and Strategising, European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference, Stockholm, May 2002
2001 EIASM Workshop: Micro Strategy and Strategising, Brussels, February 2001

PhD Exchange

The Centre for Strategic Management at Lancaster offers PhD students interested in strategy as practice the opportunity to spend 2-3 months at the Centre. During that time, students can form valuable networks with Lancaster staff, attend the seminar series and, importantly, present and discuss their own work. Students will be provided with an office at the Centre but no funding. If you are interested and want to apply, please send your CV, a brief summary of your research project as well as a letter of recommendation to Dr Martin Friesl (m.friesl@lancaster.ac.uk).

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