Understanding competitiveness through life experiences – A strategy-as-practice approach

Qazi, K; Abualqumboz, M

Abstract

Practitioners learn and enact typical ways of thinking, understanding and viewing (interpreting) things in their surroundings (fields). The paper argues that by viewing competitiveness as something done by people and not a deliberate-emergent process has the potential to provide a fresh insight as to why competitive advantage is difficult to attain, maintain and plan. Therefore, it is advocated that the nature of competitiveness be explored through the practice theory lens. It is further suggested that due to the reflexive nature of practice theory, this approach allows investigation of the network of social practices, thus bridging the understanding of how social structures and human agency link together to clarify why people do what they do. In translating Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and reflexivity the research has captured the layered intersubjective and interdependent nature of (12 practitioner interviews) becoming competitive. By doing so, the intimate understanding of the way in which practitioners organise, produce and legitimise competitiveness is captured.

Citation

Qazi, K., & Abualqumboz, M. Understanding competitiveness through life experiences – A strategy-as-practice approach. Presented at BAM2019: Building and sustaining high performance organisations during uncertain times, Aston University, Birmingham, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: BAM2019: Building and sustaining high performance organisations during uncertain times
• Conference Location: Aston University, Birmingham, UK
• End Date: Sep 5, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 5, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 5, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 8, 2020
• Book Title: BAM2019 conference proceedings : Building and sustaining high performance organisations during uncertain times
• ISBN: 9780995641327
• Publisher URL: https://www.bam.ac.uk/sites/bam.ac.uk/files/contribution606.pdf
• Related Public URLs: https://www.bam.ac.uk/bam2019-proceedings
• Additional Information: Access Information : The published version of this paper is freely accessible using the link above.; Event Type : Conference