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Dancing in the Dark: Making Sense of Managerial Roles during Strategic Conversations

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  • Florence Allard-Poesi

    (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)

Abstract

This article explores how managers make sense of their strategic roles when confronted with contradictory expectations from top management. Relying discourse analysis (DA), we analyze extracts of conversations between a director and a team of managers as they strive to elaborate a strategic project for a large association within the social sector. Our research complements prior research on managerial roles in showing that the sensemaking of managerial roles relies on the construction and contestation of scripted descriptions of the organization and its environment; 2/ demonstrating how the managers and the director both contribute to the fabric of contradicted versions of the managerial roles and 3/ how participants' will to power contribute to the " dance " observed.

Suggested Citation

  • Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the Dark: Making Sense of Managerial Roles during Strategic Conversations," Working Papers hal-01145772, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01145772
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01145772
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Florence Allard-Poesi & Hervé Laroche, 2018. ""This is serious": enacting authority during managerial conversations," Post-Print hal-01789839, HAL.

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