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Top Teams and Strategy in a UK University

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  • Paula Jarzabkowski
  • David C. Wilson

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of an in‐depth study of how a top management team (TMT) puts strategy into practice in a UK university. A study of the top team in Warwick University was conducted to analyse how strategy was formulated and implemented. The results suggest that a combination of two broad theoretical lenses provides useful analytical insight. These are strategy as practice and strategy as process. The main elements of this university’s strategy result from an interplay of localized routines and patterns of action within an organizational context, which both produces and is a product of such actions. The TMT itself was found to be clearly identifiable and stable in composition. The team exhibited identifiable patterns of strategic thinking and acting. However, the role of organizational structure was also found to be a key influence on the actions and processes of the TMT with strong central control tendencies in the team being counterbalanced by devolved operational control to individual departments. The data also reveal inter‐relationships between organizational structures and the TMT in four key areas: direction‐setting, monitoring and control, the alloca‐ tion of resources, and processes of interaction. The overall conclusion is that to understand how strategy is practised, analysis needs to focus on how patterns of action are associated with the characteristics of both the team and the wider organization. The nature and characteristics of these patterns can be related to how strategy is put into practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Jarzabkowski & David C. Wilson, 2002. "Top Teams and Strategy in a UK University," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 355-381, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:39:y:2002:i:3:p:355-381
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6486.00296
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    Cited by:

    1. Lionel Garreau & Raphaël Maucuer, 2015. "The mise-en-sens tactics of civil society organizations to influence strategy," Post-Print hal-01787991, HAL.
    2. David Tegarden & Linda Tegarden & Wanda Smith & Steve Sheetz, 2016. "De-Fusing Organizational Power Using Anonymity and Cognitive Factions in a Participative Strategic Planning Setting," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-29, January.
    3. Edoardo Ongaro & Ewan Ferlie, 2019. "Exploring Strategy-Making in ‘Non-New Public Management’ Public Services Settings: The Case of European Union Agencies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Patrick Regnér, 2003. "Strategy Creation in the Periphery: Inductive Versus Deductive Strategy Making," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 57-82, January.
    5. Christina Boedker, 2010. "Ostensive versus performative approaches for theorising accounting‐strategy research," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(5), pages 595-625, June.
    6. Gary Bowman & R. Bradley MacKay, 2020. "Scenario planning as strategic activity: A practice‐orientated approach," Futures & Foresight Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(3-4), September.
    7. Elaine Farndale & Veronica Hope-Hailey, 2009. "Personnel Departmental Power: Realities from the UK Higher Education Sector," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(4), pages 392-412.
    8. MacIntosh, Robert & MacLean, Donald & Seidl, David, 2008. "Strategy Workshops and Strategic Change," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 2145, University of Munich, Munich School of Management.
    9. Guerrero, Maribel & Cunningham, James A. & Urbano, David, 2015. "Economic impact of entrepreneurial universities’ activities: An exploratory study of the United Kingdom," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 748-764.
    10. Norio Sawabe & Kohji Yoshikawa & Kosuma Shinohara, 2010. "Accounting and Emotion:A Case Study of a Financial Institution," Discussion papers e-09-008, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.
    11. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4820 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Darbi, William Phanuel Kofi & Knott, Paul, 2016. "Strategising practices in an informal economy setting: A case of strategic networking," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 400-413.
    13. Ericson, Mona, 2014. "On the dynamics of fluidity and open-endedness of strategy process toward a strategy-as-practicing conceptualization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-15.
    14. Egert Valmra & Ergo Metsla & Rando Rannus & Marko Rillo, 2006. "Towards a Practical Model of Strategy-as-Practice," Working Papers 138, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology.

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