Introduction

This chapter examines participation in strategy research in general and in strategy-as-practice research in particular. Participation is arguably a key issue in strategy process research because it helps to create commitment to strategies, and its absence may have a negative impact on the quality of decision-making (Floyd and Wooldridge 2000). It may also take other forms, as in emergent strategies (Burgelman 1983; Mintzberg and Waters 1985) or in autonomous strategy work (Mirabeau and Maguire 2014), that are important in process studies. Participation is also a central issue in SAP research that examines the activities of multiple actors and the practices they draw upon in strategy work (Mantere 2008). From a more critical perspective, it can be seen as closely connected to subjectivity (Ezzamel and Willmott 2010; Knights and Morgan 1991) and resistance (McCabe 2010; Ezzamel and Willmott 2008). It may also be regarded as a deeper-level ethical issue in terms of (in)equality linked with organizational decision-making and managerial dominance.

Nevertheless, participation has received relatively little explicit attention in strategy research. Hence, it is the purpose of this chapter to provide an overview of research on participation. As relatively few studies have explicitly focused on this issue (Mantere and Vaara 2008), in this overview we will include a number of studies that have only touched upon participation. Our point of departure is to argue that different streams of research offer fundamentally different conceptions of strategic decision-making, strategy processes and strategic practices, and thus of participation as a social and organizational phenomenon. Accordingly, we spell out four perspectives on participation: participation as a non-issue; participation as a part of strategy process dynamics; participation as produced in and through organizational practices; and participation as an issue of subjectivity. First, within conventional strategy research, strategy has mostly been understood as decision-making accomplished by top management (Ansoff 1965; Chandler 1962; Hambrick and Mason 1984). Since they are top managers who participate in strategic practices, the participation of others is a non-issue within this stream of research. Second, strategy process studies have examined strategy both as intended and emergent (Burgelman 1983; Mintzberg and Waters 1985), which provides us with an understanding of others – especially middle managers (Floyd and Wooldridge 1992; 2000; Ketokivi and Castañer 2004) – as part of strategy-making. In this view, participation can be seen as an essential part of strategy process dynamics.