Strategy as Practice
An Activity Based Approach
- Paula Jarzabkowski - Aston University, UK
Marketing Strategy & Theory
`Paula Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield' - Organization Studies
`Pioneering work. As the first book in the new strategy-as-practice field, it offers readers both innovative models and exemplary field research' - Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management, Said Business School, Oxford
'Extends and develops the emerging fields of strategy and practice as well as activity theory. It also demonstrates empirically, using University settings, how activity theory is itself bounded by the wider contexts of organisation, embedded routines and the heavy hand of history' - David C. Wilson, University of Warwick
`An insightful book that would be of use to people interested in the actual practices of strategy and strategizing' - Organization
Bridging the gap between what managers actually do and organizational strategies, this book provides an activity-based framework for studying strategy as practice, with empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of this framework in real terms.
'Given the book is the first to deal with 'strategy-as-practice' in depth, it becomes vital to set the contours of the field and lay the path for future research, both achieved in an admirable fashion. More importantly, it also raises several questions and forces the reader to embark on an invigorating thought process -the hallmark of an interesting book for the serious reader.'
Srinivas Gunta
IIMB Management Review
Reviews for Higher education Market:
'This volume will appeal to researchers, students and those engaged in
strategic management in higher education. The case study material
provides a detailed portrait of the ways in which senior managers engage
in strategic development. Overall, the volume provides rich insights on
strategic management in higher education'
-Professor Bob Burgess, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leicester
'This is a completely original account of three contrasting universities' approach to creating and managing strategy in modern conditions. The problem of multiple strategies which interact with one another will be recognised by every practitioner but have not been described in this way before." Strategy as Practice" represents an important contribution to higher education literature because it theorises decisions and strategies which are for the most part instinctive responses to external realities'
- Professor Michael Shattock was Registrar of the University of Warwick before taking up his Visiting Professorship at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he is Director of the MBA in Higher Education Management.
Overall, I found this book insightful and intriguing. As an interested
outsider, I appreciated the aim of the activity-based framework and its key
concepts. While I believe that many scholars will similarly recognize the
significance of the theoretical apparatus developed, the real value of the book
lies in the fact that it raises more questions than it answers. This is especially helpful in emerging areas of research, and in this case, Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the
continued growth of this subfield.
Jarzabkowski’s book is a welcome contribution and introduction to the emerging strategy-as-practice research community. Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield.
