Book contents
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Introduction: What Is Strategy as Practice?
- Part I Ontological and Epistemological Questions
- Part II Theoretical Resources: Social Theory
- Chapter 6 Structuration Theory: Giddens and Beyond
- Chapter 7 An Activity Theory Approach to Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 8 A Bourdieusian Perspective on Strategizing
- Chapter 9 A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Strategizing
- Chapter 10 A Foucauldian Perspective on Strategic Practice: Strategy as the Art of (Un)folding
- Chapter 11 A Narrativity Approach to Strategy as Practice: Strategy-Making from Texts and Narratives
- Chapter 12 Actor–Network Theory and Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 13 A Dramaturgical Framework for Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 14 Schatzki’s Practice Theory and Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 15 An Economies-of-Worth Perspective on Strategy as Practice: Dealing with Strategic Pluralism through Legitimation, Localization and Materialization
- Chapter 16 Strategy as a Performative Practice: A Self-Referential, Knowledge-Based Perspective
- Part III Theoretical Resources: Organization and Management Theories
- Part IV Methodological Resources
- Part V Substantive Topic Areas
- Index
- References
Chapter 9 - A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Strategizing
from Part II - Theoretical Resources: Social Theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2025
By
Book contents
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Introduction: What Is Strategy as Practice?
- Part I Ontological and Epistemological Questions
- Part II Theoretical Resources: Social Theory
- Chapter 6 Structuration Theory: Giddens and Beyond
- Chapter 7 An Activity Theory Approach to Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 8 A Bourdieusian Perspective on Strategizing
- Chapter 9 A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Strategizing
- Chapter 10 A Foucauldian Perspective on Strategic Practice: Strategy as the Art of (Un)folding
- Chapter 11 A Narrativity Approach to Strategy as Practice: Strategy-Making from Texts and Narratives
- Chapter 12 Actor–Network Theory and Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 13 A Dramaturgical Framework for Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 14 Schatzki’s Practice Theory and Strategy as Practice
- Chapter 15 An Economies-of-Worth Perspective on Strategy as Practice: Dealing with Strategic Pluralism through Legitimation, Localization and Materialization
- Chapter 16 Strategy as a Performative Practice: A Self-Referential, Knowledge-Based Perspective
- Part III Theoretical Resources: Organization and Management Theories
- Part IV Methodological Resources
- Part V Substantive Topic Areas
- Index
- References
Summary
Saku Mantere turns his attention to Ludwig Wittgenstein and the potential of the philosopher’s ideas for elucidating our understanding of strategy as practice. This is an important contribution in that, apart from being one of the most influential philosophers, Wittgenstein’s ideas have paved the way for the ‘practice turn’ in social science. Both Giddens and Bourdieu, for example, have been greatly influenced by Wittgenstein. Mantere focuses on the idea of the ‘language game’ as a powerful concept to make sense of SAP. He argues that language games shed more light on the discursive struggles endemic to the practice of strategy. He also maintains that the notion of ‘forms of life’, used to characterize the non-linguistic background of social practice, can direct our attention onto a number of important yet often neglected aspects of strategy. Examples from real-life strategy conversations provide concrete illustrations of these ideas.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 163 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Ansoff, H. I. (1991), ‘Critique of Henry Mintzberg’s The Design School: reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management’, Strategic Management Journal, 12: 449–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astley, W. G. and Zammuto, R. F. (1992), ‘Organization science, managers and language games’, Organization Science, 3: 443–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balogun, J., Jacobs, C., Jarzabkowski, P. Mantere, S. and Vaara, E. (2014), ‘Placing strategy discourse in context: sociomateriality, sensemaking and power’, Journal of Management Studies, 51: 175–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, D. and Elmes, M. (1997a), ‘Strategy retold: toward a narrative view of strategy discourse’, Academy of Management Review, 22: 429–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, D. and Elmes, M. (1997b), ‘On paradigms and narratives: Barry and Elmes’s response’, Academy of Management Review, 22: 847–9.Google Scholar
Beech, N. (2008), ‘On the nature of dialogic identity work’, Organization, 15: 51–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyer, J. M. (1992), ‘Metaphors, misunderstandings and mischief: a commentary’, Organization Science, 3: 467–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgelman, R. A., Floyd, S. W., Laamanen, T., Mantere, S., Vaara, E. and Whittington, R. (2018), ‘Strategy processes and practices: dialogues and intersections’, Strategic Management Journal, 39: 531–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2006), ‘Strategy as practical coping: a Heideggerian perspective’, Organization Studies, 27: 635–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2008), ‘On managerial knowledge’, Management Learning, 39:141–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornelissen, J., Mantere, S. and Vaara, E. (2014), ‘The contraction of meaning: the combined effect of communication, emotion and materiality on sensemaking in the Stockwell shooting’, Journal of Management Studies, 51: 699–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, L. (1995), ‘The Weick Stuff: managing beyond games’, Organization Science, 3: 461–6.Google Scholar
Ezzamel, M. and Willmott, H. (2008), ‘Strategy as discourse in a global retailer: a supplement to rationalist and interpretive accounts’, Organization Studies, 29: 191–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984), The Constitution of Society. Berkeley, CA: California University Press.Google Scholar
Gylfe, P., Franck, H., Lebaron, C. and Mantere, S. (2016), ‘Video methods in strategy research: focusing on embodied cognition’, Strategic Management Journal, 37: 133–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C. K. (1994), Competing for the Future. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Hardy, C., Palmer, I. and Phillips, N. (2000), ‘Discourse as a strategic resource’, Human Relations, 53: 1227–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassard, J. (1988), ‘Overcoming hermeticism in organization theory: an alternative to paradigm incommensurability’, Human Relations, 41: 247–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holt, R. and Mueller, F. (2011), ‘Wittgenstein, Heidegger and drawing lines in organization studies’, Organization Studies, 32: 67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ireland, D. R. and Hitt, M. A. (1997), ‘“Strategy-as-Story”: clarifications and enhancements to Barry and Elmes’ arguments’, Academy of Management Review, 22: 844–7.Google Scholar
Jacobides, M. G., Cennamo, C. and Gawer, A. (2018), ‘Towards a theory of ecosystems’, Strategic Management Journal, 39: 2255–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jalonen, K., Schildt, H. and Vaara, E. (2018), ‘Strategic concepts as micro‐level tools in strategic sensemaking’, Strategic Management Journal, 39: 2794–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G., Langley, A., Melin, L. and Whittington, R. (2007), Strategy as Practice. Research Directions and Resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, S. (2010), ‘Strategy and PowerPoint: an inquiry into the epistemic culture and machinery of strategy making’, Organization Science, 22: 320346.Google Scholar
Ketokivi, M., Mantere, S. and Cornelissen, J. (2017), ‘Reasoning by analogy and the progress of theory’, Academy of Management Review, 42/4: 637–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knights, D. and Morgan, G. (1991), ‘Corporate strategy, organizations and subjectivity: a critique’, Organization Studies, 12: 251–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, S. (1982), Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Küpers, W., Mantere, S. and Statler, M. (2013), ‘Strategy as storytelling a phenomenological collaboration’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 22: 83–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laine, P. and Vaara, E. (2007), ‘Struggling over subjectivity: a discursive analysis of strategic development in an engineering group’, Human Relations, 60: 29–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyotard, J.-F. (1986), The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Mantere, S. (2008), ‘Role expectations and middle manager strategic agency’, Journal of Management Studies, 45: 294–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantere, S. (2013), ‘What is organizational strategy? A language-based view’, Journal of Management Studies, 50: 1408–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantere, S. and Vaara, E. (2008), ‘On the problem of participation in strategy: a critical discursive perspective’, Organization Science, 19: 341–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauws, M. K. and Phillips, N. (1995), ‘Understanding language games’, Organization Science, 6: 322–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintzberg, H. (1978), ‘Patterns of strategy formation’, Management Science, 24: 934–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintzberg, H. (1990), ‘The Design School: reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management’, Strategic Management Journal, 11: 171–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintzberg, H. (1991), ‘Learning 1, Planning 0: reply to Igor Ansoff’, Strategic Management Journal, 12: 463–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakes, L., Townley, B. and Cooper, D. (1998), ‘Business planning as pedagogy: language and control in a changing institutional field’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 43: 257–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. (1996), ‘What is strategy?’, Harvard Business Review, 74, November–December: 61–78.Google Scholar
Powell, T. C. (2001), ‘Competitive advantage: logical and philosophical considerations’, Strategic Management Journal, 22: 875–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, M. V. H. and Pasmore, W. A. (1989), ‘Knowledge and interests in Organization Studies: A conflict of interpretations’, Organization Studies, 10: 225–39.Google Scholar
Regnér, P. (2003), ‘Strategy creation in the periphery: inductive versus deductive strategy making’, Journal of Management Studies, 40/1: 57–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rindova, V. P., Becerra, M. and Contardo, I. (2004), ‘Enacting competitive wars: competitive activity, language games and market consequences’, Academy of Management Review, 29: 670–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samra-Fredericks, D. (2003), ‘Strategizing as lived experience and strategists’ everyday efforts to shape strategic direction’, Journal of Management Studies, 40: 141–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samra-Fredericks, D. (2005), ‘Strategic practice, “discourse” and the everyday interactional constitution of “power effects”’, Organization, 12: 803–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatzki, T. R. (1997), ‘Practices and actions: a Wittgensteinian critique of Bourdieu and Giddens’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 27: 283–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatzki, T. R. (2001), ‘Introduction: practice theory’, in Schatzki, T. R., Knorr-Cetina, K., and von Savigny, E. (eds), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory: 10–23. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schildt, H. A., Mantere, S. and Vaara, E. (2011), ‘Reasonability and the linguistic division of labor in institutional work’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 20: 82–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidl, D. (2007), ‘General strategy concepts and the ecology of strategy discourses: a systemic-discursive perspective’, Organization Studies, 28: 197–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, D. A. and Sutcliffe, K. M. (2015), ‘The use of anthropomorphizing as a tool for generating organizational theories’, Academy of Management Annals, 9: 97–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, J. (2005), ‘“Inside the Moment of Managing”: Wittgenstein and the everyday dynamics of our expressive-responsive activities’, Organization Studies, 26: 113–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, J. (2008), ‘Dialogism and polyphony in organizing theorizing in organization studies: action guiding anticipations and the continuous creation of novelty’, Organization Studies, 29: 501–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrivastava, P. (1986), ‘Is strategic management ideological?’, Journal of Management, 12: 363–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsoukas, H. and Vladimirou, E. (2001), ‘What is organizational knowledge?’, Journal of Management Studies, 38: 973–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaara, E. (2010), ‘Taking the linguistic turn seriously: strategy as a multifaceted and interdiscursive phenomenon’, in Baum, J. A. C., and Lampel, J. (eds), The Globalization of Strategy Research, Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 27: 29–50. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaara, E. and Whittington, R. (2012), ‘Strategy-as-practice: taking social practices seriously’, Academy of Management Annals, 6/1: 285–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenzel, M. and Koch, J. (2018), ‘Strategy as staged performance: a critical discursive perspective on keynote speeches as a genre of strategic communication’, Strategic Management Journal, 39: 639–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, R. (2006), ‘Completing the practice turn in strategy research’, Organization Studies, 27: 613–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, R. (2007), ‘Strategy practice and strategy process: family differences and the sociological eye’, Organization Studies, 28: 1575–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, R., Jarzabkowski, P., Mayer, M., Mounoud, E., Nahapiet, J. and Rouleau, L. (2003), ‘Taking strategy seriously. responsibility and reform for an important social practice’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 12: 396–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1969–1975), On Certainty (Uber Gewissheit). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1976), ‘Cause and effect: intuitive awareness’, Philosophia, 6: 409–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar