Putting strategy into practice : top management teams in action in three UK universities : uncovering the paradox of effectiveness and inertia

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Abstract

An investigation into top management team action in the practice of strategy was
conducted within three UK universities. This study examined strategic practices from
a top team perspective in each institution over a seven year period. The aim was to
understand the processes by which top teams put strategy into practice within the
context of organisational structures that may both constrain and enable strategic
action.
A theory of practice was developed with which to guide the investigation. This
theory, and interrogation of a diverse body of organisation studies and strategic
management literature indicated a longitudinal, processual research design as
appropriate, accessing rich contextual data over embedded levels of analysis. To this
end, 49 interviews, 51 meetings observations, shadowing of key participants, and
extensive documentary and archival searches were conducted. Analysis of such data
led to the identification of three levels of analysis which are pertinent to an
understanding of top management team engagement in strategy as practice. First, the
top team process of strategic thinking and acting. Secondly, the structuring
characteristics of organisational context. Thirdly, the strategy processes which form
the interplay between top team actors and organisational context in the practice of
strategy. These levels of analysis were arranged in an explanatory framework. This
framework shows how top management teams engage in strategy as practice through
the use of situated and distributed practices which mediate between their behaviour,
the organisational contexts in which they act, and the strategic activities which are
pursued. To better model the dynamic nature of these relationships, strategy as
practice was conceptualised as occurring within an activity system. The activity
system comprised three domains, top team actors, organisational structures, and
strategic activity, mediated by practices which are situated and distributed across the
domains.
This research is underpinned by the theoretical approaches of structuration and social
becoming, which interpellate the tendency to both recursiveness and transformation in
social order. These tendencies are conceptualised as the capacity for continuity and
change in the process of putting strategy into practice. The activity system model
developed was used to explain how practices are implicated in the mediation of
continuity and change.

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