Neither Completing the Practice Turn,Nor Enriching the Process Tradition: Secondary Misinterpretations of a Case Analysis Reconsidered

Abstract

In an attempt to display the power of his meta-theoretical framework to fill in key gaps in ‘the practice turn in strategy research’, Whittington (2006) drew upon our previously published case study account of a failed strategy process workshop (Hodgkinson and Wright 2002), arguing that as strategy practitioners we were inept in our praxis, seeking to apply practices that were ill-suited to the organizational context in which we were operating. In response, we demonstrate that his analysis is based on a series of misconceptions and unwarranted inferences. Providing additional background information, we clarify our involvement and reinforce our original interpretation of the case.