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The symbolic management of strategic change: Sensegiving framing and decoupling (2006)
| Venue: | Academy of Management Journal |
| Citations: | 50 - 4 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Fiss06thesymbolic,
author = {Peer C. Fiss and Edward J. Zajac},
title = {The symbolic management of strategic change: Sensegiving framing and decoupling},
journal = {Academy of Management Journal},
year = {2006},
pages = {1173--1193}
}
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Abstract
This study develops a symbolic management perspective on strategic change to predict and test the antecedents and consequences of how firms frame strategic change. Using data from a sample of contemporary German corporations, we find support for our predictions that firms (1) use specific framing language that fits better with their divergent stakeholder preferences, (2) use language that decouples espousal and actual implementation of strategic change, and (3) realize positive market responses to institutionally appropriate frames of change. The topic of strategic change, defined as an alter-ation in an organization’s alignment with its exter-nal environment (Rajagopalan & Spreitzer, 1996; Van de Ven & Poole, 1995), has been at the center of a growing literature in both the strategy and organ-izational theory fields (e.g., Fombrun, 1993; Gins-berg, 1988; Hofer & Schendel, 1978; Johnson, 1987; Zajac & Shortell, 1989; for a review, see Rajago-palan & Spreitzer, 1997). An important develop-ment in this literature is that strategic change is increasingly seen as not only a shift in structures and processes, but also as a cognitive organization-
Keyphrases
strategic change symbolic management exter-nal environment rajagopalan spreitzer organization alignment symbolic management perspective cognitive organization contemporary german corporation zajac shortell appropriate frame important develop-ment actual implementation positive market response divergent stakeholder preference hofer schendel use language organ-izational theory field ven poole rajago-palan spreitzer
