STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN AN ENACTED WORLD
(LINDA SMIRCICH AND CHARLES STUBBART, 1985)
Henrik Alen
Jessi Mänttäri
16.9.2014
OBJECTIVE/PERCEIVED VS. ENACTED ENVIRONMENT
Objective & Perceived
Enacted (Interpretative worldview)
Environment Independently given
Accurately /inaccurately
perceived
Enacted through social construction and interaction
processes of organized actors
Interpretative: Specific set of events and relationships
noticed and made meaningful by a specific set of
strategists
Organization Open system
Should adapt to its
environment
Socially constructed system of shared meaning
Interpretative: The degree to which a set of people share
many beliefs, values and assumptions that encourage
them to make mutually-reinforcing interpretations of
their own acts and acts of others
Task of strategic
manager
Maintain congruence
between constraints and
organizational needs
Strategy: a fit between an
organization and its
environment
Organization making, to create and maintain systems of
shared meaning that facilitate organization action
Strategists’ social knowledge constitutes their
environment
IMPLICATIONS OF THE CONCEPT OF ENACTED ENVIRONMENT FOR STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT
1) Abandoning the prescription that organizations should adapt to their environments
2) Rethinking constraints, threats and opportunities
3) Considering the primary role of the strategic managers to be the management of meaning
MANAGING IN AN ENACTED WORLD
• Process of enacting a reality1) Prior enactment
2) Thinking and acting
3) Competing enactments
• Self-reflection and challenging assumptions -> forget what you know
CRITIQUE
• Not that useful in day-to-day managing -> valuable tool in determinig and updating strategy -> eventual results of one’s impact impossible to foresee
• Role of strategic manager -> constant questoning
• Any environment can be enacted -> laws, regulations, prior enactments etc.
• Usefulness and generilizability of interpretative studies?
THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS?