Framing Contests: Strategy Making Under Uncertainty

Organization Science - Tập 19 Số 5 - Trang 729-752 - 2008
Sarah Kaplan1
1The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104

Tóm tắt

I develop a model of framing contests to elucidate how cognitive frames influence organizational strategy making. By using ethnographic techniques to study the day-to-day practices of strategy making in one firm, I examine the ways actors attempted to transform their own cognitive frames of a situation into predominant frames through a series of interactions. Frames are the means by which managers make sense of ambiguous information from their environments. Actors each had cognitive frames about the direction the market was taking and about what kinds of solutions would be appropriate. Where frames about a strategic choice were not congruent, actors engaged in highly political framing practices to make their frames resonate and to mobilize action in their favor. Those actors who most skillfully engaged in these practices shaped the frame that prevailed in the organization. This framing perspective suggests that frames are not only instrumental tools for the ex post justification of actions taken through power, but rather are an ex ante part of the political process that produces decisions. Uncertainty opens up the possibility for new actors to gain power, and contesting frames is a way of changing the power structures in the organization. A principal contribution of the framing contests model is to locate a middle ground between cognitive and political models of strategy making, one in which frames are both constraints and resources and outcomes can be shaped by purposeful action and interaction to make meaning.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Agar M., 1980, The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography

10.4135/9781412985895

Allison G. T., 1971, Essence of Decision; Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis

10.1007/BF00145193

Barnard C. I., 1938, The Functions of the Executive

10.1287/orsc.9.6.644

10.1002/smj.4250131004

10.1002/smj.343

10.1287/orsc.14.3.312.15162

10.2307/2579890

10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.611

10.1287/orsc.11.2.212.12511

Bolman L. G., 2003, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, 3

10.1017/CBO9780511812507

Bourdieu P., 1992, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology

10.1287/mnsc.34.7.816

Bower J. L., 1970, Managing the Resource Allocation Process: A Study of Corporate Planning and Investment, 2

Bower J. L., 1979, Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning

Bucciarelli L. L., 1994, Designing Engineers

10.2307/2392619

10.2307/2393493

10.1017/CBO9780511791000.004

10.1287/orsc.13.4.442.2953

10.2307/2393951

10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.441

10.2307/2392088

10.1177/1094428102051004

10.1287/orsc.13.5.475.7814

10.5465/amr.1984.4277657

10.1017/CBO9780511791000

10.2307/2785898

Diesing P., 1962, Reason in Society; Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions

10.1146/annurev.soc.23.1.263

10.1287/orsc.3.2.179

10.1002/smj.4250131007

Dougherty D., 2002, Companion to Organizations, 849

10.5465/amr.1993.9309035145

10.2307/258557

10.2307/256434

10.2307/256337

10.1002/smj.4250130904

10.2307/256313

10.1287/orsc.1050.0138

10.1093/icc/12.4.727

10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.000425

10.1111/j.1467-6486.1992.tb00665.x

10.1177/000312240507000103

10.2307/2096398

10.1111/0735-2751.00132

Foster R. N., 2001, Creative Destruction: Why Companies that Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—And How to Successfully Transform Them

French J. R., 1968, Studies in Social Power, 259

10.1007/BF00160018

10.1017/CBO9780511803987.014

10.1287/orsc.5.3.344

10.2307/2666981

Giddens A., 1984, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration

Gilbert C., 2002, Harvard Bus. Rev., 80, 94

Gioia D., 1986, The Thinking Organization, 49

10.1002/smj.4250120604

10.1287/orsc.11.3.285.12496

10.5465/amr.2000.3707700

Goffman E., 1974, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, 2

10.2307/2095141

10.1177/017084068800900301

10.2307/258434

10.2307/2393533

10.2307/2393549

10.4135/9780857020277

10.1177/0002764297040004004

Huff A. S., 1990, Mapping Strategic Thought

10.2307/2392714

Jarzabkowski P., 2005, Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach, 10.4135/9781446215777

10.1017/CBO9780511618925

Johnston H., 1995, Social Movements and Culture, 217

Kaplan S., Acad. Management J.

10.1287/orsc.1050.0154

10.1093/icc/12.2.203

10.2307/2392530

Knight F. H., 1921, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

Kunda G., 1992, Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Organization

Lant T. K., 2002, Companion to Organizations, 344

Latour B., 1979, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts

10.1287/mnsc.43.7.934

Lindblom C. E., 1965, The Intelligence of Democracy; Decision Making Through Mutual Adjustment

10.2307/2392453

10.1002/smj.188

10.1353/sof.2004.0046

10.1093/soceco/1.1.71

March J. G., 1994, A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen

March J. G., 1976, Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations

10.1017/CBO9780511803987.002

10.1287/orsc.1050.0135

Nelson R. R., 1982, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199707)18:1+<187::AID-SMJ936>3.0.CO;2-K

O'Keefe D. J., 1990, Persuasion: Theory and Research

10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600

10.1145/196734.196745

10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199802)19:2<115::AID-SMJ941>3.0.CO;2-5

Pettigrew A. M., 1973, The Politics of Organizational Decision-Making

10.1111/j.1467-6486.1987.tb00467.x

Pfeffer J., 1981, Power in Organizations

Porac J. F., 2002, Handbook of Strategy and Management, 165

10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00736.x

Porter M. E., 1980, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

10.1002/smj.4250070602

10.1086/231293

Ryan C., 1991, Prime Time Activism: Media Strategies for Grassroots Organizing, 1

Schön D. A., 1994, Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies

10.1086/229967

Simon H. A., 1947, Administrative Behavior; A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization

10.1002/smj.4250080406

10.1002/9780470999103

10.2307/2095581

10.1086/210359

Strauss A. L., 1997, Grounded Theory in Practice

10.1016/S0733-558X(00)17006-5

10.2189/asqu.2005.50.1.35

10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199808)19:8<793::AID-SMJ980>3.0.CO;2-Y

10.2307/2095521

10.1016/S0742-3322(04)21003-8

Tarrow S. G., 1994, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action, and Politics

10.1086/210361

10.1002/1097-0266(200010/11)21:10/11<1147::AID-SMJ128>3.0.CO;2-R

10.1287/mnsc.42.7.939

10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00047.x

Vincenti W. G., 1990, What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History, 10.56021/9780801839740

Virany B., 1996, Organizational Learning

10.1287/orsc.6.3.280

Weick K. E., 1995, Sensemaking in Organizations

10.1287/orsc.1050.0133

10.1016/0024-6301(96)00068-4

10.2307/256474

Yin R. K., 1984, Case Study Research: Design and Methods

10.1177/1056492605275243

10.1086/226634

10.2307/2393677

Zerubavel E., 1997, Social Mindscapes: An Invitation to Cognitive Sociology