Adults and children of strategy work: defining different modes of participation

Abstract

In this study, we examine participation as an issue of subjectivity and agency and focus on strategy participation also below the management ranks. We show how the strategy discourse divides the workforce into adults and children of strategy work: those who have power and abilities, and those who have not, through allocating subject and object positions in the shadows of its managerial practices. As a result, two modes for gaining access to the strategy discourse as a participant were identified: participation by inclusion and participation by admittance. We also identified a cosmetic form of participation that we call quasi-participation as well as cases of non-participation. Further, we identified subjectivities provided by the strategy discourse and subject positions of individuals that seemed to guide their choices when assuming or rejecting some of the strategy subjectivities of the discourse. To conclude, we propose a model that combines inclusion and admittance with the level of management control, and subject and object positions with the level of agency in the two participation access modes.