THE SYMBOLIC MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGIC （象征性的管理战略）.pdf

Academy of Management Journal 2006, Vol. 49, No. 6, 1173–1193. THE SYMBOLIC MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGIC CHANGE: SENSEGIVING VIA FRAMING AND DECOUPLING PEER C. FISS University of Southern California EDWARD J. ZAJAC Northwestern University This study develops a symbolic management perspective on strategic change to predict and test the antecedents and consequences of how firms frame strategic change. Using data from a sample of contemporary German corporations, we find support for our predictions that firms (1) use specific framing language that fits better with their divergent stakeholder preferences, (2) use language that decouples espousal and actual implementation of strategic change, and (3) realize positive market responses to institutionally appropriate frames of change. The topic of strategic change, defined as an alter- Stubbart, Porac, 1994; Nutt, 1998; Reger et al., ation in an organization’s alignment with its exter- 1994; Walsh, 1995). However, an important impli- nal environment (Rajagopalan Spreitzer, 1996; cation of this emerging cognitive perspective is Van de Ven Poole, 1995), has been at the center of that the success of strategic change will depend a growing literature in both the strategy and organ- not only on an organization’s ability to imple- izational theory fields (e.g., Fombrun, 1993; Gins- ment new structures and processes, but also on berg, 1988;