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Managing Strategic Change; The Role of Symbolic Action
Author(s) -
Johnson Gerry
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8551.1990.tb00006.x
Subject(s) - action (physics) , face (sociological concept) , strategic management , politics , order (exchange) , strategic planning , cognition , business , marketing , knowledge management , public relations , sociology , political science , psychology , computer science , social science , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , law
SUMMARY As our understanding of processes of strategic management develop, it is clear that the problems of managing major shifts in strategy, which organizations face on occasions, are of a different order to the typically incremental strategy development they follow. It is also recognized that these problems are closely linked to cognitive and cultural dimensions of organizations. Research on the management processes associated with more fundamental strategic change is still sparse, but suggests that it requires substantial cognitive shifts in which intervention, often by new corporate leaders, and political and symbolic, as well as more substantial action, is likely. This paper draws together the author's and other research in related fields, to formalize explanatory models, which link organizational inertia of strategy, more fundamental strategic change, and in particular the symbolic management activities of corporate leaders as strategic change agents.