Conflict during strategizing: a systematic literature review from a strategy-as-practice perspective.

Purpose

Conflict is a core theme in organization studies and, though pervasive in the strategy-as-practice literature, it has been a relatively peripheral phenomenon. This study aims to place conflict at the center of strategizing by systematically reviewing and synthesizing how it is conceptualized, triggered and responded to, based on the practice, praxis and practitioner (3P) framework.

Design/methodology/approach

We carried out a systematic review resulting in 69 academic publications from 2003 to 2024 that address conflict in the context of strategizing. Through in-depth qualitative analysis, we examined the sources, nature and evolution of conflict and developed a process model of practice responses to conflict during strategizing.

Findings

We found that the essence of conflict during strategizing is rooted in a foundational difference between practices, and the nature of a strategy, how a strategy was developed, and/or environmental change may catalyze the conflict. Our analysis through 3P lens led to two key contributions: (1) a typology of conflict that distinguishes between the praxis of conflict and the different practice responses of different practitioners, between individual and managerial responses; (2) a processual model that illustrates the circular and nonlinear dynamics of conflict.

Originality/value

This review brings conflict to the foreground in strategy-as-practice by integrating fragmented perspectives and developing a processual model of how conflict unfolds. This dynamic theorizing contributes to a gap in the literature, emphasizing the importance of confronting, sensemaking and sensegiving, in bringing the catalytic importance of an “Aha! moment.” In clarifying and categorizing, we operationalize and invigorate the conflict literature, providing a springboard for future research.