SWG 09 – Organizing as Practice:
Advancing Novel Practice-Theoretical Insights
in Organization Studies


Coordinators

Hans Berends, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ignas Bruder, Technische Universität Dresden & Hertie School, Germany
Paul Carlile, Boston University, USA
Paula Jarzabkowski, The University of Queensland, Australia, & City, University of London, United Kingdom
Kristina Lauche, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Davide Nicolini, Warwick Business School, United Kingdom
Violetta Splitter, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

The EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) 09 on “Organizing as Practice: Advancing Novel Practice-Theoretical Insights in Organization Studies” aims to provide a platform for scholars interested in applying and developing innovative practice-theoretical approaches to understanding organizational phenomena. Committing to the primacy of practice in social life (Bourdieu, 1977; Giddens, 1984; Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, Knorr-Cetina & Savigny, 2001), practice-theoretical approaches offer a particularly suitable perspective for studying organizing processes, their complex dynamics in real-life settings and the emergence of new organizational phenomena. In this SWG, we intend to create a lasting umbrella platform for all researchers interested in and engaging with practice-based theorizing to meet, foster conversations across sub-communities, and collectively advance practice-based scholarship in organization studies. The SWG strives to unite existing and emerging practice-oriented sub-communities within EGOS, with the ambition to create an attractive and vibrant space for all practice-based scholars.

Several sub-communities adopting a practice-theoretical approach already exist within EGOS. A notable example is the strategy as practice community, a stable sub-community that focuses on what people actually do when developing, executing and implementing strategy (Jarzabkowski et al., 2022). Other sub-communities have also made significant practice-theoretical contributions to various conversations within organization studies. These include scholars of leadership as practice (Realin, 2016), entrepreneurship as practice (Keating et al., 2014), inter-organizational relations (Deken et al., 2018), project organizing (Sydow, 2022), values practices (Gehman et al., 2013), routines (Feldman & Pentland, 2003) and beyond.
 
While the specialized sub-communities share a basic interest in organizing as practice, they have remained rather self-contained within EGOS, and their discussions have focused mainly on the particularities of the phenomena they study. Cross-fertilization has therefore been limited. Also, due to the fragmentation of discussions on organizing as practice in sub-communities, there have been fewer opportunities to contribute to theories of practice as such.
 
SWG 09 creates a lasting umbrella platform for researchers from all the above sub-communities and beyond interested in practice-based theorizing to meet, foster conversations across sub-communities, and collectively advance practice-based scholarship in organization studies. The plan is to unite existing and emerging practice-oriented sub-communities within
 

EGOS, with the ambition to create an attractive and vibrant space for all practice-based scholars.

An explicit aim of SWG 09 will be to use different perspectives to generate creative friction that helps to develop and incubate new ideas, theories and applications. To do so, our plan is to organize the collective exploration around four lines of inquiry that cut across the more specific phenomena researched in practice-based sub-communities:

  • Large phenomena

  • Organizing between materiality and immateriality

  • Bridging empirical work and theoretical insight and

  • Making a difference to the world with practice-based theorizing

 
With this SWG, we pursue three main objectives:

  1. We aim to create an international community of scholars that will unite various sub-communities of practice-theoretical scholarship.

  2. We seek to stimulate methodological and theoretical advancements of, and critical reflection on practice-theoretical insights on organizing.

  3. We aim to foster contributions to theories of practice to increase recognition in other disciplines (e.g., sociology, geography, urban studies, education studies, etc.), thereby elevating the relevance of organization studies as a whole.

References

  • Bourdieu, P. (1977): Outline of a Theory of Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Deken, F., Berends, H., Gemser, G., & Lauche, K. (2018): “Strategizing and the Initiation of Interorganizational Collaboration through Prospective Resourcing.” Academy of Management Journal, 61 (5), 1920–1950.
  • Feldman, M.S., & Pentland, B.T. (2003): “Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 48 (1), 94–118.
  • Gehman, J., Trevino, L.K., & Garud, R. (2013): “Values Work: A Process Study of the Emergence and Performance of Organizational Values Practices.” Academy of Management Journal, 56 (1), 84–112.
  • Giddens, A. (1984): The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
  • Jarzabkowski, P., Seidl, D., & Balogun, J. (2022): “From germination to propagation: Two decades of Strategy-as-Practice research and potential future directions.” Human Relations, 75 (8), 1533–1559.
  • Keating, A., Geiger, S., & McLoughlin, D. (2014): “Riding the Practice Waves: Social Resourcing Practices during New Venture Development.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38 (5), 1–29.
  • Raelin, J.A. (ed.) (2016): Leadership-as-Practice: Theory and Application. New York: Routledge.
  • Reckwitz, A. (2002): “Toward a theory of social practices.” European Journal of Social Theory, 5 (2), 243–263.
  • Schatzki, T.R., Knorr-Cetina, K., & von Savigny, E. (eds.) (2001): The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.
  • Sydow, J. (2022): “Studying the Management of Project Networks: From Structures to Practices?” Project Management Journal, 53 (1), 3–7.

About the Coordinators

Hans Berends is Professor of Innovation and Organization in the Knowledge, Information and Innovation (KIN) department, School of Business & Economics, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His current research interests concern innovation processes, interorganizational collaboration, and digital innovation. Hands takes a process and practice perspective in his research and is seeking to advance collaborative approaches in doing qualitative research. His work has been published in leading journals, and he has co-convened multiple EGOS sub-themes, including such on practice and process approaches to interorganizational collaboration organized every other year since 2012.

Ignas Bruder is an Assistant Professor for Business Administration, especially Strategy and Business Ethics, at Technische Universität Dresden and researcher at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. In his research, he uses theories of practice to study the implicit normativity within organizations, drift processes in organizations, organization’s coping with tensions and the reproduction of large phenomena. His research phenomena of interest are currently social entrepreneurship, democracy, and organizational sustainability. Ignas is a crew member of the Practice Theory Consortium (http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/socialpractice/welcome/consortium/) and has organized four interdisciplinary conferences with the Consortium. Ignas has also co-convened practice-based sub-themes at the EGOS Colloquia 2023 and 2024.

Paul Carlile is the Senior Associate Dean for Innovation and Professor of Management and Information Systems at Boston University, Questrom School of Business, USA. In the 1990’s, Paul pioneered a practice approach to describe how knowledge is localized, embedded and invested in practice to better explain the challenges of collaboration across different expertise domains. He continued to use a practice approach to outline his pragmatic approach to knowledge and boundaries and what boundaries process can be used to address different kinds of knowledge boundaries. His work on knowledge artifacts, boundary objects, materiality and the temporal relations of structuring have also leveraged a practice-based approach. Paul’s work has been used widely and across many different social science disciplines to inform the challenges of and solutions to cross domain collaboration and innovation.

Paula Jarzabkowski is Professor of Strategic Management at University of Queensland Business School, Australia, and Bayes Business School, City, University of London, United Kingdom. She was one of the founding members of the strategy-as-practice field of research and has conducted multiple research studies in this area, spanning strategy practices by individuals, inside organizations, and those shaping the relational competitive dynamics of markets. Most recently, Paula’s research takes a qualitative, practice theory lens to understanding how people in organizations address the complex problems or ‘grand challenges’ affecting society. Her research has been published in numerous journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Strategic Management Journal. Paula is also author of several books, most recently her co-authored book “Disaster Insurance Reimagined” (together with Konstantinos Chalkias, Eugenia Cacciatori & Rebecca Bednarek; Oxford University Press, 2023), which addresses the growing threat of disaster, and to increase the links between insurance and resilience.

Kristina Lauche is the Chair of Organizational Development and Design at Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, The Netherlands. Her research draws on practice approaches to understand how people address complex problems that require interorganizational collaboration and how they engage in issue selling to pursue organizational or field-level change. Kristina has investigated such processes in the context of new product development, sustainability, healthcare, and creative industries. Her work has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and MIS Quarterly. Kristina has convened sub-themes on practices of interorganizational collaboration at EGOS Colloquia every second year since 2012.

Davide Nicolini is Professor of Organization Studies at Warwick Business School, United Kingdom, where he directs the IKON Research Centre and the PhD program. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship of BI Oslo, Norwegian Business School. His current research focuses on studying organizational attention, expertise, managerial knowing, safety and technological innovation using a practice-theoretical approach. Davide is also interested in the refinement and promotion of processual, relational and materialist research methods. In the past he used a practice-theoretical approach to study healthcare organizations, managerial work, construction sites, factories, public organizations, cybersecurity, pharmacies & scientific labs. Since 2019, he has been a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences.

Violetta Splitter is Associate Professor for Strategy at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. In her research, she focuses on open strategy from a practice-theoretical perspective. Violetta published various book chapters on different practice theories, such as Schatzki’s site ontology and Bourdieu’s praxeology and how to apply these theories in organization studies in general and to strategy as practice in particular. Violetta is a long-standing member of the Strategy-as-Practice community, is a co-founder of the Strategy-as-Practice Community Day at EGOS Colloquia (that exists for almost eleven years by now), and co-convened practice-based sub-themes at three previous EGOS Colloquia. She currently also serves as the Program Chair of the Strategy Practice Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society.