Contributions published at Organization and Management (David Seidl)

There is a new trend towards the inclusion of lower-level employees in strategy making. Yet, such participation is challenging as lower-level employees typically lack the resources for participation, such as requisite strategy knowledge. Drawing on a practice-theoretical perspective on resources and data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of a participative strategy process in a large insurance company, we examine the dynamics of participation of lower-level employees. In particular, we identify a recursive relation between participation and the enactment of resources. With this finding we contribute to the understanding of participation over time, extending existing research on the resources of participation.

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This purpose of this research is to investigate how the power dynamics in the superior-subordinate relationship in telework arrangements change compared to traditional work modes and management practices. Two extensive literature reviews were conducted, fo-cusing on the superior-subordinate relationship in telework arrangements and the power dynamics of the aforementioned relationship. A theoretical framework for describing the power dynamics in the superior-subordinate relationship was developed based on the two literature reviews. A questionnaire was derived from the framework to systematically ex-plore the research question in and guide the nine conducted semi-structured interviews with superiors and subordinates. The generated data was analyzed using template analysis followed by a discussion of the results with respect to the relevant literature. The results of the study revealed mutual trust to be essential to high-quality superior-subordinate re-lationships, as also commonly described in literature. Mutual trust enabled teams to openly communicate with each other and enabled functioning of the relationship by rely-ing on the acknowledgement of personal responsibility by both superior and subordinates. The study hinted further that the introduction of telework arrangements often comes with an increase of transparency in organizations and a reduction of individual’s dependency on other member of the members of the organization through the strategic use of ICT, knowledge management systems and purposefully designed working areas. Furthermore, the interviews showed no clear indication of a change in the structure or hierarchy of organizations through the introduction of telework arrangements.

Früher haben Unternehmen ihre Strategien hinter verschlossenen Türen formuliert und von oben herab umgesetzt. Heute setzen viele Betriebe auf «Open Strategy». Mitarbeiter und die Öffentlichkeit erhalten dabei mehr Einblick und bringen ihre Ideen in den Strategieprozess mit ein

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In management research, the literature on practical relevance holds that practitioners actively construct practical relevance. However, the practitioners' perspective on relevance has received very little scholarly attention to date. This paper puts forward a theoretical model for examining how practitioners construct academic knowledge as practically relevant based on interviews with practitioners enrolled on executive MBA (EMBA) courses. The model shows that practitioners construct academic knowledge as relevant by (1) perceiving it as congruent with their context, experiences and intuition, (2) extending their knowledge by new instruments, constructs, and means of scientific framing and (3) reconnecting it to their contexts and professional practices. This model extends the literature by showing that, in order to be considered practically relevant, academic knowledge needs to balance novelty and continuity. Additionally, the paper shows that practitioners are unlikely to perceive as relevant ambiguous academic knowledge that is 'action expansive', i.e. that presents them with an overwhelming range of possible actions.

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