• Demonstrate understanding of strategy and leadership, and in particular the interpersonal and group processes involved in strategy and leadership in practice
• Analyze how social, cultural, and political dynamics relate to strategizing and leading in team and organizational contexts.
• Critically reflect on strategy and leadership, as well as their intersection, in theory and practice.
• Demonstrate critically reflexive strategic and leadership skills when applying course concepts to realistic business scenarios.

Practice-based approaches to understand both leadership and strategy are becoming increasingly widespread in management and organization studies. The practice perspective on strategy focuses on strategists and strategizing, rather than organizations and strategies; similarly, the practice perspective on leadership looks for leadership in the interpersonal processes that actually happen, rather than in the traits or behaviors of particular individuals. What strategy- and leadership-as-practice have in common is that they are less concerned with what (top) leaders think or do and more with what people accomplish together in the workplace. Both strategy and leadership are understood as social processes, and the focus is on the micro-level social activities, processes and practices, as well as the social, cultural, political and material contingencies that shape how strategy and leadership emerge and unfold through day-to-day experience. This course will zoom on managerial activity, including how people in the workplace ‘do strategy’ and ‘do leadership’. We will study social processes including but not limited to power and influence, group dynamics, social networks, intersubjective agency, shared sensemaking, trust, adaptive leadership, information sharing, communication and dialogue, negotiation, and co-construction of responsibilities and routines. Through simulations and role plays, we will experience (ethical) decision making, experimentation, learning by doing, crisis response, strategic interaction, global collaboration, teamwork, change-directed efforts, problem solving, and coping. We will reflect upon how strategy and leadership unfold in managerial situations where individuals face uncertainty and ambiguity, and need to work together to solve problems and achieve (common) goals.

Required materials

• Several Harvard Business Publishing simulations (approx. 15-25 USD each)
• Academic articles (posted on Canvas)

Further reading

• Cunliffe, A. L. (2004). On becoming a critically reflexive practitioner. Journal of Management Education, 28(4), 407–426.
• Golsorkhi, D., Rouleau, L., Seidl, D., & Vaara, E. (Eds.). (2015). Cambridge handbook of strategy as practice (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Johnson, G., Langley, A., Melin, L., & Whittington, R. (2007). Strategy as practice: Research directions and resources. Cambridge University Press.
• Raelin, J. A. (Ed.). (2016). Leadership-as-practice: Theory and application. Routledge.