All or nothing? Strategizing practices and outcomes in strategy tool development processes

This study analyzes strategy tool development inside organizations, invoked as a response to pluralistic and ambiguous environments. Drawing on an extensive ethnographic study conducted at a multidivisional engineering and construction company we advance theory related to strategy tools-in-use. We explain the strategy tool development process, detailing constitutive practices such as ‘articulating’, ‘challenging’, ‘debating’ and ‘modifying’, that drive this process and unpack the unintended affordances of strategy tool creation. We argue that these affordances, which emerge throughout the tool development process, serve as enablers of collaborative strategizing by creating reflective and discursive spaces for strategy work. The paper sheds new light on the value of toolmaking and how this activity can help organizations navigate complex strategic problems.