Krista Pettit

• Pettit, K.; Balogun, J.; Bennett, M., 2023, "Transforming visions into actions: Strategic change as a future-making process", Organization Studies, November 44(11): 1775 - 1799.
  Abstract: This paper draws on a longitudinal, qualitative study to develop an empirically grounded model of strategic change as a future-making process. We provide an alternative to linear models of strategic change and illustrate how, through iterative future-making cycles, an abstract vision for the future transforms into action. Our study exposes how shifts in the locus of situated actions and movement of people and ideas between organizational spaces widen participation and transform an imagined future into the everyday ways of working across an organization. We highlight the inclusionary affordances of bounded spaces as sites for interactions where movement of ideas and participants designing a desired future ‘give form’ and ‘make’ the future in the present.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01708406231171889

• Pettit, K.; Crossan, M. M., 2020, "Strategic renewal: Beyond the functional resource role of occupational members", Strategic Management Journal, June 41(6): 1112 - 1138.
  Abstract: Research summary In this qualitative study of strategic renewal at a North American news organization we reveal that the treatment of occupational members as resources in strategy literature is necessary, but insufficient. Their activities are critical for organizational survival and competition but also the work needed to maintain their occupational identity. Furthermore, the prevailing research evidence that occupational members impede strategic renewal is incomplete. Our study challenges the narrow view of occupational members as resources that constrain strategic renewal by illustrating how occupational identity ‘work’ is instrumental in facilitating and disrupting strategic renewal. Our findings emphasize the importance of adopting broader definitions of work than the functional definition used in strategic renewal research. We also highlight how the activities of non‐managerial actors contribute to strategic renewal. Managerial summary During times of change, research highlights how occupational members such as doctors, nurses, engineers and academics, disrupt and resist change. Our study demonstrates that the same cause of disruption — sustaining their distinctive occupational identity — is critical in facilitating strategic renewal. For managers, we illustrate how and why this occurs and provide practical guidance to leverage this understanding while managing change in occupationally‐dominated organizations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.3115

For more publications please see our Research Database