Organizational democracy at work. Shaping participation through strategic planning in university

Journal title STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Author/s Carmela Barbera, Roberto Lusardi, Stefano Tomelleri
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2023/2
Language English Pages 32 P. 162-193 File size 565 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2023-002007
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article discusses whether and how strategic planning can promote the development and dissemination of organizational democracy in knowledge-intensive organizations. This research is inspired by the theoretical approach known as strategy-as-practice, in which strategic planning is considered a process of co-construction of meanings and actions involving multiple actors engaged in negotiation dynamics, through situational interactions in daily practice. Adopting a strategic ethnography approach from a methodological point of view, we examine the participatory strategic planning process conducted from January 2022 to April 2023 at the University of Bergamo. By analyzing ethnographic reports, formal documents, and working drafts, four strategic practices (Collective decision making, Platform and process alignment, Emotional coordination, and Organizational diplomacy) are identified as connected to two key enabling factors (synergic approach and consensus on organizational change) that can support and facilitate the spread of work environments more sensitive to the principles of organizational democracy. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Strategy-as-practice; Organizational Democracy; Higher Education; Action Research.

  1. Butera, F. (2020), “Sociotechnical systems design revisited at the end of the20th century: STS 2.0”, Studi Organizzativi, suppl. 1/2020: 102-125.
  2. Maassen P., Stensaker B. (2011). “The knowledge triangle, European higher education policy logics and policy implications”, Higher Education, 61(6): 757-769.
  3. Ansoff I.H. (1991). “Critiques of Henry Mintzberg’s ‘The Design School: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management’”, Strategic Management Journal, 12: 449-461.
  4. Balogun J., Jacobs C., Jarzabkowski P., Mantere S., Vaara E. (2014). “Placing strategy discourse in context: Sociomateriality, sensemaking, and power”, Journal of Management Studies, 51: 175-201.
  5. Barbera C., Steccolini I. (in press). “Tackling Crises and Austerity”. In: Lapsley I. & Miller P., The Resilience of New Public Management, Oxford University Press.
  6. Bertin G. (2011). Con-sensus method. Ricerca sociale e costruzione di senso. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  7. Bleiklie I., Enders J., Lepori B. (2015). “Organizations as penetrated hierarchies: Environmental pressures and control in professional organizations”, Organization Studies, 36(7): 873-896.
  8. Bryant A. (2017). Grounded theory and grounded theorizing: Pragmatism in research practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  9. Buchanan, D., Badham, R. (1999) Power, Politics and Organizational Change:Winning the Turf Game. London: Sage.
  10. Butera F. (2021). “La questione organizzativa italiana. Rigenerazione organizzativa, politica per il bene comune e la difesa sociale, formazione delle persone integrali”, Menabò di Etica e di Economia, 151, available at: https://www.eticaeconomia.it/.
  11. Capano G. (2011). “Government continues to do its job. A comparative study of governance shifts in the higher education sector”, Public Administration, 89(4): 1622-1642.
  12. Carrieri M., Nerozzi P., Treu, T. (2015). La partecipazione incisiva. Idee e proposte per la democrazia possibile nelle imprese. Bologna: Il Mulino.
  13. Charmaz K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. London: Sage.
  14. Coghlan D. (2019). Doing action research in your own organization. (5th ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.
  15. Davis A.S., Kafka A.M., González-Morales M.G., Feitosa, J. (2022). “Team belonging: integrating teamwork and diversity training through emotions”, Small Group Research, 53(1): 88-127.
  16. De Vries M., Nemec J. (2013). “Public sector reform: an overview of recent literature and research on NPM and alternative paths”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 26(1): 4-16.
  17. Denis J.L., Langley A., Rouleau L. (2007). “Strategizing in pluralistic contexts: Rethinking theoretical frames”, Human relations, 60(1): 179-215.
  18. Donna G. (2018). L’università che crea valore pubblico. Modelli di strategia, governance, organizzazione e finanza per gli atenei italiani. Bologna: Il Mulino.
  19. Enders J., De Boer H., Weyer E. (2013). “Regulatory autonomy and performance: The reform of higher education re-visited”, Higher education, 65(1): 5-23.
  20. Gilbert J.A., Ivancevich J.M. (1999). “Organizational Diplomacy: The Bridge for Managing Diversity”, Human Resource Planning, 22(3).
  21. Grandori A. (2016). “Knowledge-intensive work and the (re)emergence of democratic governance”, Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(2): 167-181.
  22. Grandori A. (2022). “Constitutionalizing the corporation”, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 78: 57-76.
  23. Grant R.M. (2016). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Chichester (UK): John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
  24. Kallio T.J., Kallio K.M., Blomberg A. (2020). “From professional bureaucracy to competitive bureaucracy–redefining universities’ organization principles, performance measurement criteria, and reason for being”, Qualitative research in accounting & management, 17(1): 82-108.
  25. Hargrave T.J., Van de Ven A.H. (2017). “Integrating dialectical and paradox perspectives on managing contradictions in organizations”, Organization Studies, 38(3-4): 319-339.
  26. Harrison J.S., Freeman R.E. (2004). “Is Organizational Democracy Worth the Effort?”, The Academy of Management Executive, 18(3): 49-53.
  27. Kilduff M. & Tsai W. (2003). Social networks and organizations. London: Sage.
  28. Jarzabkowski P. (2004). “Strategy as practice: recursiveness, adaptation, and practices-in-use”, Organization studies, 25(4): 529-560.
  29. Jarzabkowski P., Balogun J., Seidl D. (2007). “Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective”, Human relations, 60(1): 5-27.
  30. Jarzabkowski P., Paul Spee A. (2009). “Strategy‐as‐practice: A review and future directions for the field”, International journal of management reviews, 11(1): 69-95.
  31. Johnson G., Melin L., Whittington R. (2003). “Micro strategy and strategizing: towards an activity‐based view”, Journal of management studies, 40(1): 3-22.
  32. Maassen P., Stensaker B. (2019). “From organised anarchy to de‐coupled bureaucracy: The transformation of university organisation”, Higher Education Quarterly, 73(4): 456-468.
  33. Mantere S. (2008). “Role expectations and middle manager strategic agency”, Journal of Management Studies, 45: 294-316.
  34. Mantere S., Vaara E. (2008). “On the problem of participation in strategy: a critical discursive perspective”, Organizational Science, 19: 341-58.
  35. Middlehurst R., Teixeira P.N. (2012). Governance within the EHEA: dynamic trends, common challenges, and national particularities. In Curaj A., Scott P., Vlasceanu L., Wilson L. (eds.) European higher education at the crossroads. Dordrecht: Springer.
  36. Mintzberg H. (1987). “The strategy concept I: Five Ps for strategy”, California management review, 30(1): 11-24.
  37. Narayanan V.K., Fahey L. (1982). “The micro-politics of strategy formulation”, Academy of Management Review, 7: 25-34.
  38. Osborne S.P. (2006). “The new public governance?”, Public Management Review, 8(3): 377-387.
  39. Paul Spee A., Jarzabkowski P. (2011). “Strategic planning as communicative process”, Organization studies, 32(9): 1217-1245.
  40. Ritzer G. (2021). The McDonaldization of society: Into the digital age. London: Sage.
  41. Rhodes R. (1997). Understanding Governance. Buckingham: Open University Press.
  42. Sacconi L., Denozza F., Stabilini A. (2019). “Democratizzare l’economia, promuovere l’autonomia dei lavoratori e l’uguale cittadinanza nel governo dell’impresa: una proposta”, Studi Organizzativi, 1/2019: 149-178.
  43. Sennett R. (2012). Together: The rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  44. Shattock M. (2013). “University governance, leadership and management in a decade of diversification and uncertainty”, Higher Education Quarterly, 67(3): 217-233.
  45. Steiner G.A. (2010). Strategic planning. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  46. Turabik T., Atanur Baskan G. (2020). “The relationship between organizational democracy and political behaviors in universities”, Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 12(5): 1135-1146.
  47. Vaara E., Sorsa V., Pälli P. (2010). “On the force potential of strategy texts: a critical discourse analysis of a strategic plan and its power effects in a city organization”, Organization, 17(6): 685-702.
  48. Vaara E., Whittington R. (2012). “Strategy-as-practice: Taking social practices seriously”, Academy of Management Annals, 6(1): 285-336.
  49. Vesa M., Vaara E. (2014). “Strategic ethnography 2.0: Four methods for advancing strategy process and practice research”, Strategic organization, 12(4): 288-298.

Carmela Barbera, Roberto Lusardi, Stefano Tomelleri, Organizational democracy at work. Shaping participation through strategic planning in university in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2/2023, pp 162-193, DOI: 10.3280/SO2023-002007