Strategic Formulation Processes: An Institutional Perspective

My research addresses the question of' 'how does the institutional context impact on the individual t'raming of' strategic issuesT These early stages of' decision making represent an important area of study, setting the t'Oundations t'Or the latter stages of decision-making. I show that although both the problem formulation and strategic issue diagnosis literatures have increased our understanding of these formative stages, neither has adequately addressed how 'Institutional forces' impact on the individual fi-aming of strategic issues. My research applies an institutional perspective, drawing on Barley & Tolbert (1997) and their work on 'scripted behaviours' to address this. Institutional i sts highlight the institutional context, represented by powerful social and symbolic fOrces that influence organisations, their practices and behaviours of individual actors through the enactment of scripts. A naturalistic approach, incorporating the use of semi-structured interviews was applied. Respondents were drawn from two universities: Alpha & Beta, possessing membership of' multiple institutions: academia and law, academia and accountancy. So, the research sought to understand the role of multiple institutions on the framing of strategic issues. It was established that scripts are widely shared within the institutional settings, playing a pivotal role in the framing of strategic issues (representative of top-down institutional processes being at play) but do not operate in isolation. I draw on the work of Bartunek ( 1984) to further ground the second inter-related concept described in my thesis as 'meanings'. These enable respondents to interpret institutionally defined scripts, indicative of bottom-up institutional processes also being at play. Several contributions are made, firstly to the strategic issue and problem formulation literatures and secondly to the institutional literature by focusing on micro- institutional processes.