Strategy as Practice and the Role of Middle Manager in Organizations: The future of the field

Abstract

Research on strategy as practice (SAP) or strategizing focuses on understanding the development of strategy as a situated and socially acquired activity, based on the interaction between various actors and micro activities carried out by people within the organization (Jarzabkowski, 2005; Whittington, 2006). In this scenario, middle manager (MM) plays the role of an articulator in the strategy formation process and sensemaking activities (Balogun; Johnson, 2004; Rouleau, 2005). Since both research topics are gaining notoriety in the scientific community, we conducted a systematic analysis of the literature on SAP and the role of the MM inside organizations, covering the scientific production related to the subject between 2005 and 2015. This resulted in the selection of 77 relevant articles from the Web of Science^TM Core Collection database. This set of articles may serve as a milestone to future theoretical background studies, to assist scholars leading new researches related to SAP and the role of MM since this study indicates an avenue concerning the relations and behaviors of the practitioners in the action of making strategy in different levels of involvement in that process.