Violetta Splitter | University of Zurich, Switzerland (original) (raw)

Papers by Violetta Splitter

Research paper thumbnail of Digital strategizing as a new way of doing strategy

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 7, 2022

What happens when the processes of crafting and executing strategies become digitalized and how d... more What happens when the processes of crafting and executing strategies become digitalized and how does this process change our current understanding of how actors develop strategy? In this essay, we show that considering the dynamics and social processes related to the digitalization of the strategy making process results in an epistemological shift from digital strategy to digital strategizing. Specifically, when engaging in digital strategizing, we witness new digital practices, a change towards digital practitioners, and a new way of performing practices. In the following, we clarify key differences between digital strategy and digital strategizing and illustrate the advantages and challenges of a sociologically-informed understanding of digital strategizing.

Research paper thumbnail of Openness as Organizing Principle: Introduction to the Special Issue

Organization Studies

'Openness' has become an organizational leitmotif of our time, spreading across a growing set of ... more 'Openness' has become an organizational leitmotif of our time, spreading across a growing set of organizational domains. However, discussions within these specialized domains (e.g. open data, open government or open innovation) treat openness in isolation and specific to the particularities of those domains. The intention of this Special Issue therefore is to foster cross-domain conversations to exchange insights and build cumulative knowledge on openness. To do so, this Introduction to the Special Issue argues that openness should be investigated as a general organizing principle, which we refer to as Open Organizing. Across domains, we define Open Organizing as a dynamic organizing principle along the primary dimension of transparency/opacity and the secondary dimensions of inclusion/exclusion and distributed/concentrated decision rights. As such, Open Organizing raises an overarching problem of design, which results from more specific epistemic, normative and political challenges.

Research paper thumbnail of Lower-level employees’ participation in strategy making over time

There is a new trend towards the inclusion of lower-level employees in strategy making. Yet, such... more There is a new trend towards the inclusion of lower-level employees in strategy making. Yet, such participation is challenging as lower-level employees typically lack the resources for participation, such as requisite strategy knowledge. Drawing on a practice-theoretical perspective on resources and data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of a participative strategy process in a large insurance company, we examine the dynamics of participation of lower-level employees. In particular, we identify a recursive relation between participation and the enactment of resources. With this finding we contribute to the understanding of participation over time, extending existing research on the resources of participation.

Research paper thumbnail of The Situatedness of Practices and Knowledge: Studies on the adoption of pro-social practices and academic knowledge

www.zora.uzh.ch minded and sociable style of leading the Chair, which allowed me to gain importan... more www.zora.uzh.ch minded and sociable style of leading the Chair, which allowed me to gain important experiences, grow with my responsibilities and to have a lot of fun during my PhD studies. I also would like to thank Prof. Dr. Andreas Georg Scherer, my second supervisor, for providing important advice and constructive feedback on various presentations and drafts of the studies included in this thesis. My daily life as a researcher was made very enjoyable by my colleagues at the Chair and the members of the Chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Georg Scherer. In particular, I would like to thank

Research paper thumbnail of The Practice Turn in Management Studies: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in manageme... more Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in management domains as wide as information systems, strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship. While practice-theoretical studies in these domains share a commitment to understanding their various domains in terms of human activity, they developed relatively independently, and thus established their own idiosyncratic agendas. These agendas entail different understandings of what constitutes a ""practice-theoretical approach"" and the distinctive advantages that can be derived from engaging with it. We are now confronting a situation where leveraging and exploiting this diversity calls for a cross-domain dialogue. This symposium will serve as a platform for discussing the opportunities for cross-fertilization between the practice-theoretical approaches to strategy, information systems, leadership and entrepreneurship with the aim of advancing our understanding of the present an...

Research paper thumbnail of Theorizing the ‘social’ in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowledge creation

Theorizing the 'social' in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowled... more Theorizing the 'social' in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowledge creation 2 Knowledge creation is particularly important for organizations in order to innovate and secure their existence over time (e.g., Mount & Garcia Martinez, 2014; Nonaka & von Krogh, 2009; Von Krogh, 2012). Recently, organizations typically strive to create new knowledge by setting up social media platforms (Razmerita, Kirchner, & Nabeth, 2014). Hence, there is growing scholarly interest in the role of social media, i.e. digital technologies of the Web 2.0 generation

Research paper thumbnail of Making sense of practice and giving sense to practice in management education

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014

This paper contains reflections on the basic education statistics in Tanzania with a view to high... more This paper contains reflections on the basic education statistics in Tanzania with a view to highlighting the emerging issues by making sense of data. The paper adopts document review analysis methodological procedures to reflect on the data and examine key factors that constrain the provision of basic education in Tanzania. The paper further reveals a number of factors that emerge from basic education statistics, which include the prevalence of teachers with low qualification, shortage of teaching and learning resources, prevalence of children living in vulnerable environment and the prevalence of high dropout rates. Overall, this paper interrogates the existing dilemma between educational stakeholders on policy statements such as fee free education and the smooth implementation of these statements to create a common understanding. A shared vision in redefining basic education so as to meet both national and global priorities, seems to be a vital priority. On this basis, the paper recommends a collaborative partnership in investing in education, improvement in allocating adequate financial resources in the education sector, the need to improve the livelihood of people and creating awareness among educational stakeholders on effective strategies for a smooth transition from home to school among students.

Research paper thumbnail of A Bourdieusian Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2013

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this paper develops a novel approach to t... more Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this paper develops a novel approach to the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to this approach, pro-social activities...

Research paper thumbnail of MOMBI im Seminar „Führung von Familienunternehmen“: Ein Beispiel aus der Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Research paper thumbnail of Open Strategy – die neue Offenheit

Fruher haben Unternehmen ihre Strategien hinter verschlossenen Turen formuliert und von oben hera... more Fruher haben Unternehmen ihre Strategien hinter verschlossenen Turen formuliert und von oben herab umgesetzt. Heute setzen viele Betriebe auf «Open Strategy». Mitarbeiter und die Offentlichkeit erhalten dabei mehr Einblick und bringen ihre Ideen in den Strategieprozess mit ein

Research paper thumbnail of The practical relevance of management research from the practitioners' perspective (WITHDRAWN)

Even though the literature on practical relevance holds that practical relevance is actively cons... more Even though the literature on practical relevance holds that practical relevance is actively constructed by practitioners who make academic knowledge relevant according to their organizational cont...

Research paper thumbnail of Balancing Continuity and Novelty: Practical Relevance from the Practitioners' Perspective

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Effective participation in Open Strategy processes: How employees get heard by senior management

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Introducing Open Strategy: Dealing with clashes between the traditional and open-strategy discourse

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Middle managers’ struggle over their subject position in Open Strategy processes

Journal of Management Studies

Research paper thumbnail of Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory and its implications for organization studies

Management, Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory

Research paper thumbnail of Employee participation in strategy making over time: Discursive competence and influence

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Digital Strategizing: Crafting Strategy in the Age of Platforms, Ecosystems, and Online Communities

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Practice-Theoretical Perspectives on Open Strategy: Implications of a Strong Programme

Cambridge Handbook of Open Strategy

Research paper thumbnail of Balancing continuity and novelty: The practical relevance of management research from the practitioners' perspective

In management research, the literature on practical relevance holds that practitioners actively c... more In management research, the literature on practical relevance holds that practitioners actively construct practical relevance. However, the practitioners' perspective on relevance has received very little scholarly attention to date. This paper puts forward a theoretical model for examining how practitioners construct academic knowledge as practically relevant based on interviews with practitioners enrolled on executive MBA (EMBA) courses. The model shows that practitioners construct academic knowledge as relevant by (1) perceiving it as congruent with their context, experiences and intuition, (2) extending their knowledge by new instruments, constructs, and means of scientific framing and (3) reconnecting it to their contexts and professional practices. This model extends the literature by showing that, in order to be considered practically relevant, academic knowledge needs to balance novelty and continuity. Additionally, the paper shows that practitioners are unlikely to perc...

Research paper thumbnail of Digital strategizing as a new way of doing strategy

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 7, 2022

What happens when the processes of crafting and executing strategies become digitalized and how d... more What happens when the processes of crafting and executing strategies become digitalized and how does this process change our current understanding of how actors develop strategy? In this essay, we show that considering the dynamics and social processes related to the digitalization of the strategy making process results in an epistemological shift from digital strategy to digital strategizing. Specifically, when engaging in digital strategizing, we witness new digital practices, a change towards digital practitioners, and a new way of performing practices. In the following, we clarify key differences between digital strategy and digital strategizing and illustrate the advantages and challenges of a sociologically-informed understanding of digital strategizing.

Research paper thumbnail of Openness as Organizing Principle: Introduction to the Special Issue

Organization Studies

'Openness' has become an organizational leitmotif of our time, spreading across a growing set of ... more 'Openness' has become an organizational leitmotif of our time, spreading across a growing set of organizational domains. However, discussions within these specialized domains (e.g. open data, open government or open innovation) treat openness in isolation and specific to the particularities of those domains. The intention of this Special Issue therefore is to foster cross-domain conversations to exchange insights and build cumulative knowledge on openness. To do so, this Introduction to the Special Issue argues that openness should be investigated as a general organizing principle, which we refer to as Open Organizing. Across domains, we define Open Organizing as a dynamic organizing principle along the primary dimension of transparency/opacity and the secondary dimensions of inclusion/exclusion and distributed/concentrated decision rights. As such, Open Organizing raises an overarching problem of design, which results from more specific epistemic, normative and political challenges.

Research paper thumbnail of Lower-level employees’ participation in strategy making over time

There is a new trend towards the inclusion of lower-level employees in strategy making. Yet, such... more There is a new trend towards the inclusion of lower-level employees in strategy making. Yet, such participation is challenging as lower-level employees typically lack the resources for participation, such as requisite strategy knowledge. Drawing on a practice-theoretical perspective on resources and data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of a participative strategy process in a large insurance company, we examine the dynamics of participation of lower-level employees. In particular, we identify a recursive relation between participation and the enactment of resources. With this finding we contribute to the understanding of participation over time, extending existing research on the resources of participation.

Research paper thumbnail of The Situatedness of Practices and Knowledge: Studies on the adoption of pro-social practices and academic knowledge

www.zora.uzh.ch minded and sociable style of leading the Chair, which allowed me to gain importan... more www.zora.uzh.ch minded and sociable style of leading the Chair, which allowed me to gain important experiences, grow with my responsibilities and to have a lot of fun during my PhD studies. I also would like to thank Prof. Dr. Andreas Georg Scherer, my second supervisor, for providing important advice and constructive feedback on various presentations and drafts of the studies included in this thesis. My daily life as a researcher was made very enjoyable by my colleagues at the Chair and the members of the Chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Georg Scherer. In particular, I would like to thank

Research paper thumbnail of The Practice Turn in Management Studies: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in manageme... more Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in management domains as wide as information systems, strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship. While practice-theoretical studies in these domains share a commitment to understanding their various domains in terms of human activity, they developed relatively independently, and thus established their own idiosyncratic agendas. These agendas entail different understandings of what constitutes a ""practice-theoretical approach"" and the distinctive advantages that can be derived from engaging with it. We are now confronting a situation where leveraging and exploiting this diversity calls for a cross-domain dialogue. This symposium will serve as a platform for discussing the opportunities for cross-fertilization between the practice-theoretical approaches to strategy, information systems, leadership and entrepreneurship with the aim of advancing our understanding of the present an...

Research paper thumbnail of Theorizing the ‘social’ in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowledge creation

Theorizing the 'social' in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowled... more Theorizing the 'social' in social media: The role of productive dialogs for collaborative knowledge creation 2 Knowledge creation is particularly important for organizations in order to innovate and secure their existence over time (e.g., Mount & Garcia Martinez, 2014; Nonaka & von Krogh, 2009; Von Krogh, 2012). Recently, organizations typically strive to create new knowledge by setting up social media platforms (Razmerita, Kirchner, & Nabeth, 2014). Hence, there is growing scholarly interest in the role of social media, i.e. digital technologies of the Web 2.0 generation

Research paper thumbnail of Making sense of practice and giving sense to practice in management education

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014

This paper contains reflections on the basic education statistics in Tanzania with a view to high... more This paper contains reflections on the basic education statistics in Tanzania with a view to highlighting the emerging issues by making sense of data. The paper adopts document review analysis methodological procedures to reflect on the data and examine key factors that constrain the provision of basic education in Tanzania. The paper further reveals a number of factors that emerge from basic education statistics, which include the prevalence of teachers with low qualification, shortage of teaching and learning resources, prevalence of children living in vulnerable environment and the prevalence of high dropout rates. Overall, this paper interrogates the existing dilemma between educational stakeholders on policy statements such as fee free education and the smooth implementation of these statements to create a common understanding. A shared vision in redefining basic education so as to meet both national and global priorities, seems to be a vital priority. On this basis, the paper recommends a collaborative partnership in investing in education, improvement in allocating adequate financial resources in the education sector, the need to improve the livelihood of people and creating awareness among educational stakeholders on effective strategies for a smooth transition from home to school among students.

Research paper thumbnail of A Bourdieusian Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2013

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this paper develops a novel approach to t... more Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this paper develops a novel approach to the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to this approach, pro-social activities...

Research paper thumbnail of MOMBI im Seminar „Führung von Familienunternehmen“: Ein Beispiel aus der Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Research paper thumbnail of Open Strategy – die neue Offenheit

Fruher haben Unternehmen ihre Strategien hinter verschlossenen Turen formuliert und von oben hera... more Fruher haben Unternehmen ihre Strategien hinter verschlossenen Turen formuliert und von oben herab umgesetzt. Heute setzen viele Betriebe auf «Open Strategy». Mitarbeiter und die Offentlichkeit erhalten dabei mehr Einblick und bringen ihre Ideen in den Strategieprozess mit ein

Research paper thumbnail of The practical relevance of management research from the practitioners' perspective (WITHDRAWN)

Even though the literature on practical relevance holds that practical relevance is actively cons... more Even though the literature on practical relevance holds that practical relevance is actively constructed by practitioners who make academic knowledge relevant according to their organizational cont...

Research paper thumbnail of Balancing Continuity and Novelty: Practical Relevance from the Practitioners' Perspective

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Effective participation in Open Strategy processes: How employees get heard by senior management

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Introducing Open Strategy: Dealing with clashes between the traditional and open-strategy discourse

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Middle managers’ struggle over their subject position in Open Strategy processes

Journal of Management Studies

Research paper thumbnail of Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory and its implications for organization studies

Management, Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory

Research paper thumbnail of Employee participation in strategy making over time: Discursive competence and influence

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Digital Strategizing: Crafting Strategy in the Age of Platforms, Ecosystems, and Online Communities

Academy of Management Proceedings

Research paper thumbnail of Practice-Theoretical Perspectives on Open Strategy: Implications of a Strong Programme

Cambridge Handbook of Open Strategy

Research paper thumbnail of Balancing continuity and novelty: The practical relevance of management research from the practitioners' perspective

In management research, the literature on practical relevance holds that practitioners actively c... more In management research, the literature on practical relevance holds that practitioners actively construct practical relevance. However, the practitioners' perspective on relevance has received very little scholarly attention to date. This paper puts forward a theoretical model for examining how practitioners construct academic knowledge as practically relevant based on interviews with practitioners enrolled on executive MBA (EMBA) courses. The model shows that practitioners construct academic knowledge as relevant by (1) perceiving it as congruent with their context, experiences and intuition, (2) extending their knowledge by new instruments, constructs, and means of scientific framing and (3) reconnecting it to their contexts and professional practices. This model extends the literature by showing that, in order to be considered practically relevant, academic knowledge needs to balance novelty and continuity. Additionally, the paper shows that practitioners are unlikely to perc...