Strategists and Strategy-making: Strategic Exchange and the Shaping of Individual Lives and Organizational Futures

A "strategic exchange" framework for the analysis of the relationship between the personal strategies of strategists and the strategic direction followed by organizations is presented. The exchange relationship that strategists have with their organization and the exchange relationship between the organization and the constituencies upon which it is resource dependent is examined and some of the processes and practices that this can entail are illustrated with the case of Strath Guitars. The case study also illustrates the value of "ethnographic fiction science" as an innovative type of research account which is especially appropriate for the reporting of studies of the detailed interpersonal and social processes associated with organizational strategy-making. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.