The Sensegiving in the Process of Making Sense of the Strategy in Small Business Characterized as Hybrid Organizations

Authors

  • Dafne Wandressa Salvador Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR.
  • Natália Rese Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14211/regepe.v6i1.492

Keywords:

Strategy as Practice, Strategy, Sensegiving, Narrative, Organizational Hybridization.

Abstract

Through the perspective of strategy as a practice, it is important to understand the process of sensegiving in the elaboration of the sense of strategy in small companies, characterized as hybrid organizations, understood from social business. It starts from the idea that the tensions inherent in these types of organizations require a sensegiving efforts in their narratives in order for their strategy to be shared. In order to understand sensegiving in the process of making sense of strategy in hybrid organizations, this paper takes the perspective of strategy as practice and constructs its argument into two parts. It presents strategy as practice and strategizing, focusing on the process of sensegiving and in the organizational narratives. Later, it brings the institutional logic, which gives support to understand the hybrid organizations. In this context, it has opted for analyzing and collecting empirical evidence through narrative interviews and secondary documents. The chosen field of research was the social business because it was considered an ideal type of hybrid organization. Two small organizations have been studied. They are here nominated as Alfa and Beta. It has been shown that the organizational complexity of social business is due to the tension between two logics that seem to be contrasting, but that allow an organization to operate in order to achieve its sustainability, since in the case of social businesses the market logic gives support to that, it is possible to achieve social benefit. However, given this apparent duality and contrast, these organizations need to reinforce their sensegiving effort for their narratives in order to assist their audience in understanding their strategies.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Dafne Wandressa Salvador, Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR.

Mestranda em Administração pelo Programa de Pós Graduação em Administração na Universidade Federal do Paraná – PPGADM/UFPR, Curitiba.

Natália Rese, Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR.

Doutora em Administração pela Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR, Curitiba, (Brasil). Professora do Departamento de Administração Geral e Aplicada da Universidade Federal do Paraná no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração – PPGADM/UFPR.

References

Afuah, A. & Tucci, C. L. (2013). Value capture and crowdsourcing. Academy of Management Review, 38 (3): 457-460.

Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei‐Skillern, J. (2006). Social and commercial entrepreneurship: same, different, or both? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30(1): 1-22.

Babbie, E. R. (2015). The practice of social research. Nelson Education.

Barry, D., & Elmes, M. (1997). Strategy retold: Toward a narrative view of strategic discourse. Academy of Management Review, 22(2):429-452.

Battilana, J., & Dorado, S. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6): 1419-1440.

Battilana, J., & Lee, M.( 2014). Advancing research on hybrid organizing–Insights from the study of social enterprises. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1): 397-441.

Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (2010). Construção Social da Realidade. Petrópolis: Vozes.

Blog Luz Planilhas Empresariais. Disponível em:

http://blog.luz.vc/tendencias/mapeamento-de-negocios-sociais-no-brasil-infograficos. Acesso em: 15 fev.2017.

Boje, D. M. ( 1991). The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, p. 106-126.

Brown, A. D., & Thompson, E. R. (2013). A narrative approach to strategy-as-practice. Business History, 55(7):1143-1167.

Bruner, J.(1997). Atos de significação. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas.

Fenton, C., & Langley, A. (2011). Strategy as practice and the narrative turn. Organization Studies, 32(9):1171-1196.

Friedland, R., & Alford, R. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices and institutional contradictions. In W. W. Powell & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (232-263). London: University of Chicago Press.

Friedland, R., Mohr, W. J., Roose, H., & Gardinali, P. (2014). et al. The institutional logics of love: measuring intimate life. Theory and Society, 43(3-4): 333-370.

Gioia, D. A., & Chittipeddi, K. (1991). Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strategic Management Journal, 12(6): 433-448.

Gioia, D. A. Thomas, J. D., Clarck, S., & Chittipeddi, K. R. (1994). Symbolism and strategic change in academia: The dynamics of sensemaking and influence. Organization Science, 5(3):363-383.

Greenwood, R., & Hinings, C. R. (1993). Understanding strategic change: The contribution of archetypes. Academy of management Journal, 36(5):1052-1081.

Greenwood, R., & Hinings, C. R. (1988). Organizational design types, tracks and the dynamics of strategic change. Organization Studies, 9(3):293-316.

Haigh, N., & Hoffman, A. J. (2014). The new heretics: Hybrid organizations and the challenges they present to corporate sustainability. Organization & Environment, 27(3): 223-241.

Jarzabkowski, P. (2004). Strategic practices: An activity theory perspective on continuity and change. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1): 23-55.

Jarzabkowski, P. (2005). Strategy as Practice: An Activity Based Approach. Sage.

Jarzabkowski, P., & Spee, A. (2009). Strategy‐as‐practice: A review and future directions for the field. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(1): 69-95.

Leadbeater, C. (1997). The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur. Demos.

Mantere, S. (2013). What Is Organizational Strategy? A Language‐Based View. Journal of Management Studies, 50(8): 1408-1426.

Meyer, R. E., & Höllerer, M. A. (2016). Laying a smoke screen: Ambiguity and neutralization as strategic responses to intra-institutional complexity. Strategic Organization, 14(4):373-406.

Ocasio, W., & Radoynovska, N. (2016). Strategy and commitments to institutional logics: Organizational heterogeneity in business models and governance. Strategic Organization, 14(4):287-309.

O'connor, E. (2002). Storied business: Typology, intertextuality, and traffic in entrepreneurial narrative. Journal of Business Communication, 39(1):36-54.

Rouleau, L. (2005). Micro‐practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day. Journal of Management Studies, 42(7): 1413-1441.

Shaw, E. (2004). Marketing in the social enterprise context: is it entrepreneurial?. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 7(3):194-205.

Smets, M., Greenwood, R., & Lounsbury, M. (2015). An Institutional Perspective on Strategy as Practice. The Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, p. 283-300.

Søderberg, A.-M. (2003). Sensegiving and sensemaking in an integration processes. Narratives we organize by. Philadelphia, PA, USA John Benjamins.

Thornton, P., & Ocasio, W. (2008) Institutional Logics. The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (99-129). London, UK: Sage Publications. 2008.

Thornton, P.H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tsoukas, H. (2017). Don’t Simplify, Complexify: From Disjunctive to Conjunctive Theorizing in Organization and Management Studies. Journal of Management Studies, 52(3):132-153.

Vaara, E. (2010). Taking the linguistic turn seriously: strategy as a multifaceted and interdiscursive phenomenon. In: Baum, J. A. C.; & Lampel, J. Advances in Strategy Management. The Globalization of Strategy Research. London: EmeraldGroupPublishingLimited, 27: 29-50.

Weick, K. E. (1973). A Psicologia Social da Organização. São Paulo: Edgard Blicher.

Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in Organizations. Sage.

Whittington, R. (1996). Strategy as Practice. Long range planning, 29(5): 731-735.

Whittington, R. (2001). what is strategy-and does it matter?. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Whittington, R. (2002). The work of strategizing and organizing: for a practice perspective. Strategic Organization, 1(1):117-126.

Whittington, R. (2006). Completing the practice turn in strategy research. Organization Studies, 27(5):613-634.

Published

2017-04-01

How to Cite

Salvador, D. W., & Rese, N. (2017). The Sensegiving in the Process of Making Sense of the Strategy in Small Business Characterized as Hybrid Organizations. REGEPE Entrepreneurship and Small Business Journal, 6(1), 128–159. https://doi.org/10.14211/regepe.v6i1.492

Issue

Section

Research Articles