The Construction of A Strategic Issue: Issue Selling as A Narrative Process

Romain Vacquier; Lionel Garreau; Stéphanie Dameron

doi:10.37725/mgmt.2024.5778

Romain Vacquier TSM Research, UMR CNRS 5303, Université Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse, France
Lionel Garreau DRM, UMR CNRS 7088, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France
Stéphanie Dameron DRM, UMR CNRS 7088, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.2024.5778

Keywords: Issue seeling, Narratives, Strategic processes, Middle management

Abstract

For the past 30 years, the issue-selling movement has uncovered the vast repertoire of actions by which ‘sellers’ persuade a decision-maker that an issue is strategic. While these works have a rational and teleological conception of this phenomenon, implying that the strategic scope of the issue is given ex ante, other research in strategy shows that such scope is a social and discursive construction based on interactions between various actors. This article proposes a model of issue selling as an emergent narrative process. Based on a qualitative survey of 42 middle managers, using semistructured interviews, we show this process starts with a phase of incremental elaboration, in which the seller informally shares narrative fragments with a network of actors, followed by a phase of interpretation, in which the seller formally presents his or her narrative to a decision-maker, coherently articulating previously collected narrative fragments. We also show that the passage between these two phases is allowed by what we call the ‘strategic construction’ of the narrative. These results help to show that issue selling is a less solitary and rational process than previous work suggests.

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Author Biographies

Romain Vacquier, TSM Research, UMR CNRS 5303, Université Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse, France

Romain Vacquier, an assistant professor at the Toulouse School of Management (Université Toulouse Capitole), specializes in researching how individuals and groups navigate and react to criticism within and outside organizations. His work delves into topics such as negative social evaluations like organizational stigma or scandal, as well as internal dynamics like issue selling.

Lionel Garreau, DRM, UMR CNRS 7088, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France

Lionel Garreau is associate professor in strategy and organization at University of Paris Dauphine, PSL, DRM (UMR 7088). He is in charge of the Executive PhD program. His work focuses on the construction of meaning in organizations and its articulation with strategy, in particular with strategic practices that convey meaning and hybrid business models. He is a member of mission committees of mission-driven companies and has been a member of several academic boards (Dauphine Foundation Board of Directors, AIMS Board of Directors, AIMS Scientific Committee, EDBA Council Board of Directors, etc.). His work has been published in various journals such as Strategic Organization, British Journal of Management, Information & Organization, Revue française de gestion, M@n@gement, etc.

Stéphanie Dameron, DRM, UMR CNRS 7088, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France

Stéphanie Dameron is a professor at Paris Dauphine-PSL university, where she co-directs the master of strategy (101). Her research focuses on cooperative relationships within and between organizations, as well as higher education systems. She has led the “strategy practice” interest group at the Strategic Management Society, served as deputy editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Management and, for a decade, established and led the Economic Intelligence and Strategy Chair at the Dauphine Foundation. Previously serving as recteur of the Académie d’Amiens and later heading a ministerial cabinet, she is currently expanding her research on state-company relations.

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