The Authenticity of Organisational Narratives and the Co-production of Knowledge in Strategy Implementation

Organisations and their members rely on knowledge to help them develop and achieve strategic goals. However, perceptions of what constitutes relevant, valid, and strategically important knowledge often differ. When new members join an organisation, they face a challenge: they must help implement strategies based on knowledge that may not align with their own work experiences and beliefs. Taking a social actor perspective, this chapter explores how organisations and their members co-produce knowledge for strategy implementation. Through a case study on the introduction of telehealthcare, we examine how various actors collaborated to build an evidence base for integrating telehealth into both organisational processes and patient care. We highlight the organisation’s dominant role in shaping expectations about what counts as relevant evidence and the difficulties this posed for its members. Additionally, we explore how prevailing narratives and judgments about the authenticity of evidence, along with a lack of existing knowledge, complicate the process of implementing strategy in practice.