Whittle-etal2015

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Whittle-etal2015
BibType ARTICLE
Key Whittle-etal2015
Author(s) Andrea Whittle, William Housley, Alan Gilchrist, Frank Mueller, Peter Lenney
Title Category predication work, discursive leadership and strategic sensemaking
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, ethnomethodology, membership categorization analysis, politics, power, strategy, structure
Publisher
Year 2015
Language English
City
Month
Journal Human Relations
Volume 68
Number 3
Pages 377–407
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0018726714528253
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Categorization is known to play an important role in organizations because categories ‘frame’ situations in particular ways, informing managerial sensemaking and enabling managerial intervention. In this article, we advance existing work by examining the role of categorization practices in discursive leadership during periods of strategic change. Drawing on data from an ethnographic action research study of a strategic change initiative in a multi-national corporation, we use membership categorization analysis to develop a framework for studying ‘category predicates’ − defined as the stock of organizational knowledge and associated reasoning procedures concerning the kinds of activities, attributes, rights, responsibilities, expectations, and so on, that are ‘tied’ or ‘bound’ to organizational categories. Our analysis shows that discursive leadership enabled a radical shift in sensemaking about organizational structure categories through a process of ‘frame-breaking’ and ‘re-framing’. In so doing, the leader co-constructed a ‘definition of the situation’ that built a compelling vision and concrete plan for strategic change. We go on to trace the organizational consequences and material outcomes of this shift in sensemaking for the company in question. We conclude by arguing that ‘category predication work’ comprises a key leadership competence and plays an important role in organizational and strategic change processes.

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