Title: Thinking Strategy Differently: Valuation, Organization and Collective Action

Transcription

1 Title: Thinking Strategy Differently: Valuation, Organization and Collective Action Dates: Monday April 11 until Thursday April Place: K4.74 (TBC) Course coordinator: Martin Kornberger Faculty: Professor Martin Kornberger, CBS and Professor Robin Holt, CBS Prerequisite: Participants should read all course material before the beginning of the course and reflect on how their own PhD project relates to the course readings. A precondition for receiving the course diploma is that the student attends the whole course. In addition, students must each write a 5-page paper that reflects on the course literature in relation to their own PhD projects. The reflection paper is due 4 weeks after the course. Content and objectives of the PhD course: PhD students of organizational life can hardly avoid encountering notions of strategy in their theoretical and empirical work: strategies provide scripts for organizational action, strategizing encompasses diverse sets of organizational practices, and strategic events, objects and technologies imply sometimes fundamental change. Yet, despite a growing body of research that understand strategy from a broadly social science perspective (most notably the strategy as practice approach), there are still many open question in regards to how strategy can be conceptualized, how it can be analysed in relation to organization, and how its effects can be theorized. This PhD course engages in a critical reading of current strategy scholarship and explores in how far research from related fields (organizational theory, practice theory, valuation studies, etc.) can provide answers to the questions. Several conceptual trajectories will be analysed using key texts from different theory traditions, with the aim of folding them back onto strategy and, through doing so, delineating new spaces for theorizing strategy. More specifically, the objectives of the course are to: Help to better understand strategy and strategizing from a social science perspective Offer theoretical vantage points to critically question current strategy theory and develop alternative analytical vocabularies to understand strategy, its conceptual relations and effects in practice Provide constructive feedback for the students PhD projects

2 Lecture plan Texts The course is organized into four distinct conversations that reflect on recent developments in the field of strategy with the aim to question their assumptions and develop new analytical perspectives: 1. Moments of strategy thought: in this first part the course will critically reflect on the conceptual and analytical vocabulary that traditional strategy research has produced over the past decade. 2. Social science and practice perspective on strategy: this session aims at broadening the vocabulary of strategy research and introduces some key texts to the debate. The afternoon focuses on strategy as practice which offers itself as platform for more critical and social science oriented strategy research. We will discuss key contributions and elaborate on their strengths and weaknesses. 3. Strategy and value: it is a commonplace to state that strategy is about value creation; yet, ironically, strategy theory does not have an elaborate concept of value. Building on the rapidly growing field of valuation studies, the relation between strategy and value will be explored. 4. Strategy and collective action: The last conversation in the course will revolve around mobilization, movements and forms of collective action (mediated by technology) that have potentially important implication but are to date not part of strategy s analytical vocabulary. See reference list below Learning style The course is organised as a 4 day learning experience. The pedagogy includes teacher and student-presentations, break-out sessions, PhD trouble shooting sessions (a short on-demand session focused on a specific problem or challenge one of the participants encounters in their PhD work which might be relevant to others) and intensive reading and discussion of texts. The pedagogical approach reflects that a productive learning experience is co-created; hence, students will be invited to mobilize their knowledge (their PhD research) in relation to not just the texts but also in relation to their colleagues work. This interactive learning experience is complemented by concise input and guidance of debates by faculty. The students are required to write a 5-page paper that reflects on the course literature in relation to their own PhD projects. The reflection paper is due 4 weeks after the course. Learning Objectives The students are expected to understand, discuss and reflect upon the course literature and topics for discussion and gain inspiration for their PhD work. ECTS awarded: 4 ECTS Language: English Max of 18 participants and a min. of 13. Number of hours: Total of 32 hours (4 days x 8 hours)

3 Fee and enrolment (The secretary will help provide the actual course fee, but it should be stated whether the course includes any meals, reading material etc. CBS courses should not cost more than 1300 DKK pr. ECTS for each student) DKK 5,200 (covers the course, coffee, tea, lunch and one dinner) Registration deadline: 29/02/2016 Contact Katja Høeg Tingleff Doctoral School of Organization and Management Studies PhD Administration CBS - Kilen Kilevej 14A, 1 DK-2000 Frederiksberg Tel.: kht.research@cbs.dk

4 Thinking Strategy Differently: Valuation, Organization and Collective Action PROGRAMME Doctoral School in Organisation and Management Studies Copenhagen Business School 2016 CBS, Kilen, Kilevej 14 A, 2000 Frederiksberg, 4 th floor, room K4.74 Day 1: Moments of strategic thought: the evolution of strategy as discipline in four acts Coffee/ tea Welcome and introduction Point of departure: key moments in the development of strategic thinking (Group work, max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Porter, 1979; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Mintzberg, 1987; Norman and Ramirez, 1993) Discussion and reflection lead by faculty Lunch Group work (max 3 people / group) on using strategy in PhD projects; exercise strategy tasting ; plenary discussion lead by faculty Reflection: mapping the contours of strategic thought (and what remains outside) of individual PhD projects Trouble shooting session I Dinner

5 Day 2: Strategy, organizing and practice Coffee/ tea Learning points Broadening strategy s agenda: group work (max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Knights and Morgan, 1991; Oakes et al., 1998; Rao et al. 2003) Theory input& discussion: strategy as practice Lunch Strategy as practice; input and group work (max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Chia and Holt, 2009 (chapter 3 only); Jarzabkowski and Seidl, 2008; Kornberger and Clegg, 2011; Gomez and Bouty, 2011; Kaplan, 2011) Implications, applications: folding organization and practice on strategy in PhD projects Trouble shooting session II

6 Day 3: Strategy and value Coffee/ tea Learning points Group work (max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Espeland and Sauder, 2007; Pollock and D Adderio, 2012; Kornberger, 2015) Theory input& discussion: Strategy and value Lunch Valuation, judgement, calculation: Group work (max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Holt, forthcoming; Karpik, 2010, chapter 1 only) Implications, applications: folding valuation on strategy in PhD projects Trouble shooting session II

7 Day 4: Strategy, power and collective action Coffee/ tea Learning points Group work (max 3 people / group) and plenary discussion lead by faculty (Becker, 1974; Latour, 1986; Miller and Rose, 1990; Callon and Law, 1997) Theory input / discussion: Strategy and collective action Lunch Group work (max 3 people / group), individual reflection and plenary discussion lead by faculty Implications, applications: folding collective action on strategy in PhD projects Reflections, feedback and closing of event Literature Becker, H. S. (1974). Art as collective action. American Sociological Review, Callon, M., & Law, J. (1997). After the individual in society: Lessons on collectivity from science, technology and society. Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Chia, R., & Holt, R. (2009). Strategy without design: The silent efficacy of indirect action. Cambridge University Press (chapter 3 only). Espeland W. and Sauder, M., (2007) Rankings and reactivity: How public measures recreate social worlds. American Journal of Sociology, 113(1): 1-40 Fourcade, M. (2011). Cents and Sensibility: Economic Valuation and the Nature of Nature. American Journal of Sociology, 116(6), Gomez, M. L., & Bouty, I. (2011). The emergence of an influential practice: food for thought. Organization studies, 32(7),

8 Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard business review, 68(3), Jarzabkowski, P., & Seidl, D. (2008). The role of meetings in the social practice of strategy. Organization Studies, 29(11), Kaplan, 2011; Kaplan, S. (2011). Strategy and PowerPoint: An inquiry into the epistemic culture and machinery of strategy making. Organization Science, 22(2), Karpik, L. (2010). Valuing the unique: The economics of singularities. Princeton: Princeton University Press (chapter 1 only). Knights, D., and Morgan, G. (1991). Corporate strategy, organizations, and subjectivity: A critique. Organization studies, 12(2), Kornberger, M. (2015), Making Strategy Count: Rethinking Value in Strategy Research, working paper Kornberger, M., & Clegg, S. (2011). Strategy as performative practice The case of Sydney Strategic Organization, 9(2), Latour, B. (1986). Visualization and cognition. Knowledge and society, 6, Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and society, 19(1), Mintzberg, H. (1987). Crafting strategy. Harvard Business Review, pp ) Press. Norman, R. and Ramírez, R. (1993) From Value Chain to Value Constellation: Designing Interactive Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 71(4), Oakes, L. S., Townley, B., & Cooper, D. J. (1998). Business planning as pedagogy: Language and control in a changing institutional field. Administrative Science Quarterly, Pollock, N., and D Adderio, L. (2012). Give me a two-by-two matrix and I will create the market: Rankings, graphic visualisations and sociomateriality. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 37(8): Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review Rao, H., Monin, P., & Durand, R. (2003). Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy1. American journal of sociology, 108(4),