“Strategic Decision Making, Discourse, and Strategy as Social Practice” by John Hendry Report

Article Summary

Author: Hendry, John, currently Professor of Management at the University of Reading and Head of the University of Reading Business School.

Date: 30, December 2008

Area: Strategy/Theory

Citation: Hendry, J. (2000). Strategic decision making, discourse, and strategy as social practice. Journal of Management Studies, 37:7, 955-977.

Summary

Main Point

The author of the article argues “for an integrating conceptualization of strategic decisions as elements of a strategic discourse that is itself the most prominent feature of strategy as a social practice.” (Hendry, 2000, p. 971)

1. This conceptualization can be empirically grounded.
2. The strategic discourse of decisions mediating between cognition and action can operate at the structural level of social reproduction and the instrumental or agency level of intentional communication thus providing a basis for the competing rationale, action-based and interpretive views of strategic decision making.

The conceptualization of strategic decisions as discourse has implications for both empirical research and practice.

Key Quote(s)

“… strategic decisions can be identified as part of an organizational discourse or body of language-based communications that operates both at the structural and at the communicative levels, and that constitutes a central feature of the strategic process. This strategic discourse is not the medium in which decisions are discussed and recorded, but also the medium through which interpretations are developed and expressed and strategic actions initiated, authorized and acknowledged.” (Hendry, 2000, p. 957)

Gaps or Limits to Generalizability

There is an urgent need for empirical studies aimed at understanding how the concept of strategic decisions interacts with other rationalizing elements, like intentionality, response, chance, and external events.

Testable Hypothesis / Suggestion for Further Research

The research should be continued in the following spheres:

• The role of strategic decisions in the interactions between management thinking and enacted strategy;
• Ways, extent, and conditions under which strategic decisions are followed by corresponding actions;
• Extent and conditions under which strategic decisions rationalize, legitimate, and make sense of prior actions.

Both the researchers wishing to clarify the mechanisms of the process and the practitioners willing to engage in it should participate in the problem study.

The paper under analysis is valuable in terms of:

• The review of traditional and critical perspectives on strategic decision making;
• The conclusions about the integrating conceptualization of strategy as a form of social practice;
• The suggestions concerning how through this conceptualization the different issues from strategy and strategic decision making are brought together and reconciled;
• Discussion of the implications of the conceptualization for research and practice.

References

Hendry, J. (2000). Strategic decision making, discourse, and strategy as social practice. Journal of Management Studies, 37:7, 955-977.