Understanding strategy through narrative and, complexity theory

Whilst a wide body of literature exists on organisational strategy formulation and implementation, it remains not well understood how a responsive strategy evolves and communicated to counteract dynamic market processes. This thesis, at the micro level, shall, through the lens of the theories of Narrative and Complexity, investigate the appropriation of these theoretical domains towards a greater understanding of strategy, both in communicating and implementing it, which is lacking across the strategy and organisational literature. The conceptual framework reviews the duality of the macro and microelements of strategy to illustrate a more storied, meaningful strategic discourse model for the practicing manager. To this end, this thesis has taken Complexity Theory adopted by Goodwin, Kaufmann and Stacey as well as Narrative Theory through the interpretation of Ricoeur to analysis the self-organising and social interaction aspects of the organisation. From the macro or Market Process perspective, this study has drawn on the teachings of the School of Austrian Economics to better understand the dynamic market processes and discovery of entrepreneurial innovation within the hotel industry. The proposed methodology and research process uses Ethnography. This participative enquiry involves issued-focussed interviews to identify factors seen to optimise strategic capabilities and to describe the effect of these factors. Finally, it aims to generate a strategy development framework, principally for hotels, but equally applicable for other industries and organisations to develop the resonances being advocated by Complexity Theory and Narrative awareness.