Samra-Fredericks2005
| Samra-Fredericks2005 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Samra-Fredericks2005 |
| Author(s) | Dalvir Samra-Fredericks |
| Title | Strategic practice, 'discourse' and the everyday interactional constitution of 'power effects' |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, competence, critical study, discourse, power effects, strategic practice, talk/ethno-approaches |
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| Year | 2005 |
| Language | English |
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| Journal | Organization |
| Volume | 12 |
| Number | 6 |
| Pages | 803–841 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1177/1350508405057472 |
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Abstract
This paper responds to the empirical and analytical challenge that surrounds tracing the constitution of 'power effects of corporate strategy discourse' notably documented in Knights and Morgan's seminal contribution. To meet the empirical challenge,interaction is centralized and ethnographies of strategists at-work are extended to include audiorecording their naturally occurring talk-based interactive routines over time/space. To meet the analytical challenge, the paper turns to two distinct social science traditions—Habermas' critical social theory and ethnostudies set against the stance of 'supplementation'. Habermas' schema suggests a re-conceptualization of strategic practice as a process where strategists routinely draw upon four forms of knowledge, which arguably 'makes-up' any 'Discourse'. These knowledges concern the external, social and subjective domain with the overarching knowledge being language use. Each also raises associated validity claims. While brief, the ethnomethodological perspective provides the fundamental methodology and indicates the ways further analytical texture is yielded to strategizing processes. Taken together, the paper paves the way for fine-grained studies of the everyday interactional constitution of power effects yielding that 'capillary image' of power relations. Two brief transcribed strips of interaction are reproduced from an earlier ethnography to illustrate theoretical, conceptual and analytical possibilities for critical analyses. A complexified notion of 'competence' constituting practice is maintained with the conclusion touching upon how this approach also potentially contributes to critical management education.
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