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Garfinkel on strategy: Using ethnomethodology to make sense of “rubbish strategy”

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  • Neyland, Daniel
  • Whittle, Andrea

Abstract

This paper has three aims. First, it presents what the term ethnomethodology means and explains some of its central concepts and tenets. Second, the paper illustrates an ethnomethodological approach to studying strategy by drawing on a fieldwork study of the development of a waste management strategy in a UK Local Authority, conducted by the first author. Third, the distinctive approach that ethnomethodology takes to the study of social organization is presented in order to outline what it could offer to the understanding of strategic organization in particular. The paper concludes by discussing the insights that ethnomethodology can offer in the strategic management field, including existing applications and potential future lines of enquiry, particularly in the field known as Strategy-as-Practice. The conclusion advocates a move away from rational analytic models, proclamations and prescriptive treatments of strategy towards studying the more mundane work that enables strategic action to take place, notably the production of accounts of various kinds. It is argued that through accounts, members produce the social facts that generate ‘strategies’ of various kinds. This necessitates studying fact production ‘in flight’. Strategic organization is thereby conceptualised as an ongoing achievement of member’s ethno- methods for producing it.

Suggested Citation

  • Neyland, Daniel & Whittle, Andrea, 2018. "Garfinkel on strategy: Using ethnomethodology to make sense of “rubbish strategy”," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 31-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:53:y:2018:i:c:p:31-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2017.03.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Damon Golsorkhi & Linda Rouleau & David Seidl & Eero Vaara, 2010. "Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice," Post-Print hal-02298145, HAL.
    2. Dalvir Samra‐Fredericks, 2003. "Strategizing as Lived Experience and Strategists’ Everyday Efforts to Shape Strategic Direction," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 141-174, January.
    3. Brown, Andrew D., 2018. "Making sense of the war in Afghanistan," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 43-56.
    4. Linda Rouleau & Julia Balogun, 2011. "Middle Managers, Strategic Sensemaking, and Discursive Competence," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 953-983, July.
    5. Linda Rouleau, 2005. "Micro‐Practices of Strategic Sensemaking and Sensegiving: How Middle Managers Interpret and Sell Change Every Day," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(7), pages 1413-1441, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Faulconbridge, James R. & Muzio, Daniel, 2020. "Karl Polanyi on strategy: The effects of culture, morality and double-movements on embedded strategy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

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