A rounded picture is what we need : rhetorical strategies, arguments, and the negotiation of change in a UK hospital trust

This article is concerned with the introduction of the agenda of New Public Management (NPM) within the board of a UK Hospital Trust: West London Hospital (WLH). We discuss the literature on New Public Management, including its limitations for analysing the organizational reality of implementing NPM. But we will also be drawing on discourse theory and the literature on rhetoric. The main argument in this article is that in order to understand the reality of the NPM paradigm, we need to study the rhetorical strategies of protagonists involved in the negotiation of the NPM agenda. Rhetorical strategies are means of making general viewpoints more convincing, for example, by comparing 'our' organization with similar organizations. Rhetorical strategies show patterns, which reappear in conversations and arguments made by protagonists. Specifically, we identified three rhetorical strategies justifying why and what kind of a more 'rounded picture' was required: widening the argument to include national productivity comparisons with other hospitals; widening the argument away from a narrow focus on finance toward a strategic and political perspective; and, lastly, widening the argument to look at innovation in the whole clinical process

Power and topic shifts in strategic management argumentation

The paper examines a transcript of a meeting at a large acute hospital. Conflict is avoided by means of topic shifting. Initially topics range over items about which agreement exists--the establishment of common ground. More urgent and more certain things get discussed first. Agreement and therefore finishing of a topic are signaled merely by moving on to the next topic. Conflict is avoided by use of dilemmas to identify potential agreements

The multiple temporalities of changeful organizational practice

The existing literature on organizational practice tends to underplay the influence of changeful agentic actions in strategic processes. Questions about how people exercise agency, and what types of actions might produce various types of result, remain significantly under-examined. Taking a discursive approach informed by Pragmatist thinking, we develop a theoretical argument that integrates managerial talk, agentic action, and temporality, and we extend this empirically by drawing on real-time talk in managers’ meetings. This paper contributes a multi-temporal perspective on organizational practice that weaves together the fleeting actions performed by managers’ talk, emergent sequences of actions, and retrospective reconstructions of the meanings of these actions

Constructing a strategy on the creation of core competencies for African companies

A growing number of studies on economic development have relied on the premise that international technology transfer provides a mechanism for developing competitive advantages for companies of developing countries, and Africa in particular. In this article, we focus on the explicit nature of technology transferable to LDCs to argue that conventional technology transfer alone cannot create core competencies for African companies that lead to the sustainable economic development of the continent. Drawing on insights from the resource-based view and the knowledge based perspective, we develop a conceptual framework for constructing core competencies for African companies. More specifically, we explore the under-researched linkage between core competencies and knowledge management. By examining the roots of core competency in the resource-based view and knowledge-based perspective, we identify the knowledge underpinning core competencies. We then reconcile diverse knowledge management models to propose an integrative approach towards generating such critical knowledge, based on which we further argue that African companies should build their strategy on the creation of core competencies rather than solely relying on conventional international technology transfer

The role of innovation narratives in accomplishing organizational ambidexterity

Persistent tensions arising from the exploration-exploitation paradox continuously threaten the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity. Structural, contextual and sequential solutions designed to alleviate these tensions dominate the ambidexterity literature. None of these adequately explains how top executives implement tension-alleviating managerial initiatives or how they respond in real time to tension-induced organizational perturbations. In this paper, through analysis of top management team (TMT) speeches at Procter & Gamble over a 15-year period, we show how the construction and communication of four innovation narratives – contextualizing, mutualizing, dramatizing and focalizing – reduced tensions and enhanced organizational ambidexterity. We demonstrate the importance of TMT reflexivity in devising and communicating performative narratives, illustrate the polyphonic model of narrative strategizing, and present a cyclical model suggesting that the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity is an ongoing dynamic process

The performativity of leadership talk

Leadership-as-practice holds great promise for the re-theorization of leadership in ways that reflect the dynamics of ongoing practice in the day-to-day realities of organizing. However, in order to progress this agenda there is an urgent need to develop more dynamic theories and complementary methodologies that are better able to engage with the continuities of leadership practice. This paper responds to this need firstly by teasing out the conceptual implications of the practices/practice duality, differentiating between leadership as a set of practices, and leadership in the flow of practice. Then, drawing theoretical insights from Austin and Mead, the performative effects of turning points in the flow of ordinary conversation are examined in the context of the leadership talk of a senior management team. The paper makes contributions to both theory and methodology, which are elaborated empirically to show how different types of talk relate to different phases of leadership practice

The role of innovation narratives in accomplishing organizational ambidexterity

Persistent tensions arising from the exploration-exploitation paradox continuously threaten the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity. Structural, contextual and sequential solutions designed to alleviate these tensions dominate the ambidexterity literature. None of these adequately explains how top executives implement tension-alleviating managerial initiatives or how they respond in real time to tension-induced organizational perturbations. In this paper, through analysis of top management team (TMT) speeches at Procter & Gamble over a 15-year period, we show how the construction and communication of four innovation narratives – contextualizing, mutualizing, dramatizing and focalizing – reduced tensions and enhanced organizational ambidexterity. We demonstrate the importance of TMT reflexivity in devising and communicating performative narratives, illustrate the polyphonic model of narrative strategizing, and present a cyclical model suggesting that the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity is an ongoing dynamic process

Intertextuality, rhetorical history and the uses of the past in organizational transition

This paper draws upon archival and oral history research on organizational transition at Procter &amp; Gamble (1950–2009), during which P&amp;G evolved from a multinational to a global enterprise. Intertextuality, the ways in which texts appropriate prior works to produce new texts, illuminates the practical workings of rhetorical history, accentuating interpretive agency. The uses of the past at P&amp;G involved an authorized historical account relating to socialization, invented tradition, and lessons from past experience, facilitating change within continuity. We show that in transforming from multinational to global enterprise, recognition of the value of history to strategy intensified, engendering rhetorically intense variations on time-honoured themes. Our main contribution to theory is to demonstrate how sensitivity to intertextuality casts light on the nature of organizational history as historically constructed through language, subject to the agency of skilful interpretive actors who engage in intertextual adaptation in pursuit of strategic change as purposes and contexts evolve.</p

Living up to the past? Ideological sensemaking in organizational transition

publication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleAuthor's postprint version.This article builds upon archival and oral history research on organizational change at Procter & Gamble (P&G) from 1930 to 2000, focusing on periods of transition. It examines historical narrative as a vehicle for ideological sensemaking by top managers. Our empirical analysis sheds light on continuities in the narratives they offer, through which the past emerges as a recurrent lever of strategic manoeuvres and re-orientations. This reveals that while organizational history is sometimes regarded as a strategic asset or intrinsic part of collective memory, it is also re-enacted as a shared heritage, implying responsibilities. Executives (re)interpret the past and author the future, maintaining the historical narrative while using interpellation to ensure ideological consistency over time. The interpellative power of rhetorical narrative helps to recast organizational members as participants in an ongoing drama. In this way executives claim their legitimate right to initiate and manage organizational transition