Strategy's negotiability, reasonability, and comprehensibility : A Case Study of how Central Strategists Legitimize and Realize Strategies without Formal Authority
Journal
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
ISSN
0899-7640
ISSN-Digital
1552-7395
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2011-12
Author(s)
Jaeger, Urs
;
Kreutzer, Karin
Abstract
This paper presents results of an embedded comparative case study about central strategists realizing strategies in a large nonprofit organization characterized by decentralized and inverse structures. Inverse structures lead to a paradoxical situation in which strategists of a nonprofit's central office have to make deliberate decisions about resource allocation while having no authority over the implementation of strategic decisions. Legitimation is a crucial element in the creation and realization of new strategies. We thus ask the question: How do strategists achieve the legitimation and realization of strategies without formal authority? The findings show that, in all of the observed four strategies - also in the process of formalization, strategists of the central office built on emergent strategies which they supported in their legitimation by three steps: First strategists supported the strategy's negotiability (pragmatic legitimation), continued supporting its reasonability (moral legitimation), and finally its comprehensibility (cognitive legitimation).
Language
English
Keywords
legitimation
strategic planning
emergent strategy
formal authority
comparative case study
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publisher place
London UK
Volume
40
Number
6
Start page
1020
End page
1047
Pages
28
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
63902