Paula Jarzabkowski

Paula Jarzabkowski is a Professor of Strategic Management. Her research focuses on strategy-as-practice in complex contexts, such as regulated firms, third sector organizations and financial services, particularly insurance and reinsurance. Her research in this regard has been foundational in the establishment of the field of strategy-as-practice. She is experienced in qualitative methods, having used a range of research designs, including cross-sectional and longitudinal case studies, and drawing on multiple qualitative data sources including interviews, observation, audio and video ethnographic techniques and archival sources to study private and public sector organizations. In particular, this includes the first global ethnography – a programme of research that included the use of video methods - of the reinsurance industry.

Professor Jarzabkowski’s career has been marked by a series of prestigious fellowships that have enabled her to conduct detailed ethnographic studies of business problems. For example, in 2006-2007, funded by an AIM Ghoshal Fellowship, she conducted an audio-ethnographic longitudinal study of the paradoxical tensions involved in implementing a major strategic shift in a regulated telecommunications firm. From 2009-2012, she held the inaugural Insurance Intellectual Capital Initiative (IICI) fellowship, under which she conducted a 3-year audio and video ethnography of the global reinsurance market, which extended her skills from organisational to industry-level ethnography. From 2012-2014 she held an EC Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship at Cornell University.

Her work has appeared in a number of leading journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies and in 2005, she published the first book on strategy-as-practice, Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach (Sage).

In addition, her engagement with industry has made Professor Jarzabkowski skilled in turning academic research into applied outputs, including collaborating with industry in developing research questions, and presenting here research at industry venues and conferences. The relevance of her work was recognised recently with the prestigious 2013 ESRC Outstanding Impact on Business Award.

Professor Jarzabkowski has just released a new book with Oxford University Press, entitled 'Making a Market for Acts of God: The Practice of Risk-Trading in the Global Reinsurance Industry' based on her 3-year ethnographic study of the industry.

Fellowships

Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow, Science & Technology Studies, Cornell, Mar 2012 – Mar 2015

Memberships of Professional Organisations

Elected Board member, European Group for Organization Studies, Jul 2014 – present

Award

Economic and Social Research Council (2013) Outstanding Impact on Business Prize

Expertise

Primary Topics

Strategic Management

Industries/Professions

• financial services
• insurance
• professional services
• telecommunications

Geographic Areas

• Americas - North
• AsiaAustralia & Oceania
• Europe

Research

Paula Jarzabkowski is a Professor of Strategic Management at City University and, from 2012-2014, holds an EU Marie Curie Fellowship at Cornell University. Paula’s research focuses on strategy-as-practice in complex and pluralistic contexts, such as regulated infrastructure firms, third sector organizations and financial services, particularly insurance and reinsurance. She focuses primarily on qualitative and ethnographic research methods as a means of studying business problems. In this endeavour, she has been fortunate in winning a series of prestigious fellowships that have enabled her to conduct detailed ethnographic studies in different industries. For example, in 2006-2007, funded by an AIM Ghoshal Fellowship, she conducted an audio-ethnographic longitudinal study of the paradoxical tensions involved in implementing a major strategic shift in a regulated telecommunications firm. From 2009-2012, she held the inaugural Insurance Intellectual Capital Initiative (IICI) fellowship, under which she conducted a 3-year audio and video ethnography of the global reinsurance market, which extended her skills from organisational to industry-level ethnography. She 'enjoys' the challenge of publishing such work in leading journals. Her work has appeared in a number of such journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies and in 2005, she published the first book on strategy-as-practice, Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach (Sage).

Research Topics

Interdisciplinary advances on behavioural theories of financial risk-taking: Innovative insights from a video-ethnography of live trading

This project involves fine-grained ethnographic study of reinsurance agents during the live trading of financial risks. The ongoing financial crisis highlights the need to better understand the behaviour of financial actors and, in particular, those factors that shape their attitude to risk. Existing behavioural models have been criticised for failing to address the complexity of risk management and being overly narrow in their disciplinary focus. This Marie Curie fellowship addresses calls for interdisciplinary approaches that go beyond existing economic and financial models in order to better understand risk-trading behaviour. The overarching research aim of this Fellowship is to develop a fine-grained, interdisciplinary and methodologically innovative approach to understanding how people interact with tools and technologies in the reinsurance-trading process, and the implications of those interactions for evaluating and making decisions on risks. These are laid out in four central objectives focused on 1) conducting fine grained comparative analysis of a global ethnographic dataset; 2) produce research outputs based on this analysis to disseminate in top-tier journals focused around social and material variation in risk-trading behaviours; 3) develop inter-disciplinary frameworks to contribute to two main inter-disciplinary theoretical areas; 4) provide a methodological contribution through extending ethnographic method beyond traditional preoccupations through the use of novel technologies (such as video data). For this project I am spending 2 year in an interdisciplinary social studies of science centre, the Science & Technology Studies department at Cornell University, followed by a third year of dissemination in Europe.

Charting New Territory: Positioning the UK (Lloyd's) in a changing global reinsurance landscape

Despite its history as a main financial centre for buying and selling reinsurance, Lloyd’s of London and the UK market now face major challenges arising from changes in the global landscape. These changes include technological advances in information distribution, regulatory demands for capital transparency, growing competition from other mature markets, consolidation in the insurance and reinsurance markets and increasing global demand (and associated losses) from emerging markets. As a result, many UK companies are not only accessing global reinsurance business from London but also establishing subsidiaries in other markets, seeking business in emerging markets, and striving to develop relationships with an emerging group of global cedents that are changing the way that reinsurance is bought. However, they have few frameworks or evidence-based insights to inform them about the scope of global change or its potential implications for their own business models. The primary aim of this project is to co-produce and implement a series of 10 Masterclasses with UK insurers, reinsurers and brokers that will support them in developing greater competitiveness. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/celebrating-impact-prize/prize-winners-2013.aspx

Trading risks. The role of Europe & the Asia Pacific reinsurers in the global market

This grant is part of a programme of research studies into the global reinsurance industry on the implications of profound change arising from shifts in regulation, consolidation, and increasing competition both within the reinsurance industry and from alternative capital providers. Findings have been generated for insurers, reinsurers and brokers. First, consolidation in the primary insurance market has led to: i) centralised retention of risk, which reduces the amount insurers spend on reinsurance and lowers the overall amount of premium ceded to the reinsurance industry; ii) global purchasing of large, complex multi-territory products that are not well suited to the way that most reinsurers diversify capital allocation to manage risk exposures. These changes are thus changing the nature of underwriting. Second, increasing competition amongst reinsurers is leading to searches for new opportunities. We identify six distinct strategic types of reinsurer that compete from different technical bases, with different strategic appetites and perceptions of profitability. Structural tensions abound as these reinsurers expand internationally, increasing the costs and complexity of their underwriting processes, and altering the focus of underwriting judgement. Third, brokers have increased penetration due to their consolidation into three main firms that have the critical mass and international reach to offer global services to global clients. However, brokers need to generate clearer value-propositions that differentiate the services needed by cedents and match these with different reinsurer types. Additionally, the traditional distribution channel and placement services on which they receive brokerage no longer yield the highest rents, necessitating alternative forms of remuneration for their other services.

London compared with Bermuda: an ethnographic comparison of the basis of reinsurance trading and the implications for future evolution

This ESRC/Industry-funded study compared the Lloyd’s and Bermuda reinsurance trading markets, on the basis of face-to-face and electronic forms of communication. For over 300 years, Lloyd’s of London has primarily relied on face-to-face interaction between reinsurance brokers and underwriters in the assessment and placement of reinsurance risks. Traditionally, great emphasis has been placed on these personal relationships as the basis for expert judgement on appraising risks. In newer reinsurance marketplaces, such as Bermuda, an alternative approach emerged that relies more on electronic communication between parties and the use of mathematical models to support underwriting decisions. Phase 1 evaluated the implications of face-to-face, expert-based judgement and electronic scientifically modelled judgement for high-risk, high value commercial reinsurance placement decisions. The results are in an industry report: “Trading Risk: The value of relationships, models and face-to-face interaction in a global reinsurance market”.

Conflicting regulatory and market objectives: A problem for strategy implementation

This project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, (Amount £139,302) extends existing strategy theory by examining the problem of implementing contradictory strategies inside organizations. Longitudinal qualitative data, including observation, interviews and documents, were collected over a 2-year period in 2006-07 in a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 company undergoing a major regulatory shift to functional separation that exacerbated tensions between strategic actions targeted at fulfilling regulatory objectives and those directed at market objectives. Results show variation in the work practices and legitimating accounts that balance conflicting objectives, enabling strategy implementation, and those that polarize conflict and obstruct strategy implementation. I develop process models that explain how specific structural configurations, relative power, scale of organizational interdependence and importance accorded to market or regulatory objectives, lead to these different strategy implementation outcomes. The study explained implementation of contradictory regulatory and market goals in the context of functional separation but also raised questions about the strategic implications of different organizational configurations in response to state and market demands, indicating grounds for future research.

Strategic Management Education in Practice: Patterns and Drivers of Adoption in Domestic and International UK Business School Alumni

Based on a survey of 12 UK business school alumni, the project has investigated the main drivers to tool adoption amongst alumni who are involved in the strategy process. First we investigated what tools are most commonly adopted and identified the main reasons why the most popular tools are used. The analysis of interaction effects between variables enabled us to identify moderating factors that influence the expected selection and combination of tools, such as function, organizational processes and perceptions of value. In order to explain the pattern of adoption of strategy tools we examined the effect of educational, social, political and tool-design factors on tool adoption. Also, in order to identify additional reasons why alumni use tools, we analysed the relationship between frequency of use and perceived value of different tools in decision-making or ability to deliver superior outcomes We also examined the main reasons for non-adoption, which was found to be influenced by a range of moderating variables including perceptions of value. Finally, we developed a statistical framework to measure the propensity of individual with different characteristics (education, job function, sector of activity) to adopt different strategy tools.

Books (3)

• Smith, W.K., Lewis, M.W. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-875442-8.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Spee, A.P. (2015). Making a Market for Acts of God: The Practice of Risk Trading in the Global Reinsurance Industry. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-966476-4.
• Jarzabkowski, P. (2005). Strategy as practice: An activity-based approach. ISBN 978-1-4462-1577-7.

Chapters (4)

• Jarzabkowski, P. and Wolf, C. (2015). An activity theory approach to strategy as practice. Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, Second Edition (pp. 165–183). ISBN 978-1-139-68103-2.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Smets, M., Bednarek, R., Burke, G. and Spee, A.P. (2013). Institutional Ambidexterity: Leveraging Institutional Complexity in Practice. In Lounsbury, M. and Boxenbaum, E. (Eds.), Institutional Logics in Action, Part B - Research in the Sociology of Organizations (pp. 37–61). Emrald Insight.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Matthiesen, J. and Van De Ven, A.H. (2009). Doing which work? A practice approach to institutional pluralism. Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations (pp. 284–316). ISBN 978-0-511-59660-5.
• Jarzabkowski, P. (2008). Strategy-as-practice. The SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization (pp. 364–378). ISBN 978-1-84920-039-4.

Journal Articles (51)

• Jarzabkowski, P.A. and Lê, J.K. (2017). We Have To Do This and That? You Must be Joking: Constructing and Responding to Paradox Through Humor. Organization Studies, 38(3-4), pp. 433–462. doi:10.1177/0170840616640846.
• Spee, P. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2017). Agreeing on what? Creating joint accounts of strategic change. Organization Science, 28(1), pp. 152–176. doi:10.1287/orsc.2016.1105.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Kaplan, S., Seidl, D. and Whittington, R. (2016). If you aren’t talking about practices, don’t call it a practice-based view: Rejoinder to Bromiley and Rau in Strategic Organization. Strategic Organization, 14(3), pp. 270–274. doi:10.1177/1476127016655998.
• Bednarek, R., Burke, G., Jarzabkowski, P. and Smets, M. (2016). Dynamic Client Portfolios as Sources of Ambidexterity: Exploration and Exploitation Within and Across Client Relationships. Long Range Planning, 49(3), pp. 324–341. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2015.12.003.
• Tsanakas, A. (2016). Making a Market for Acts of God: The Practice of Risk-Trading in the Global Reinsurance Industry. JOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, 83(2), pp. 501–504. doi:10.1111/jori.12160.
• Spee, P., Jarzabkowski, P. and Smets, M. (2016). The Influence of Routine Interdependence and Skillful Accomplishment on the Coordination of Standardizing and Customizing. ORGANIZATION SCIENCE, 27(3), pp. 759–781. doi:10.1287/orsc.2016.1050.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Kaplan, S., Seidl, D. and Whittington, R. (2015). On the risk of studying practices in isolation: Linking what, who and how in strategy research. Strategic Organization, 14(3), pp. 248–259. doi:10.1177/1476127015604125.
• Smets, M., Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G.T. and Spee, P. (2015). Reinsurance trading in Lloyd's of London: Balancing conflicting-yet-complementary logics in practice. Academy of Management Journal, 58(3), pp. 932–970. doi:10.5465/amj.2012.0638.
• Lê, J.K. and Jarzabkowski, P.A. (2015). The Role of Task and Process Conflict in Strategizing. British Journal of Management, 26(3), pp. 439–462. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12076.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Cabantous, L. (2015). Conducting global team-based ethnography: Methodological challenges and practical methods. Human Relations, 68(1), pp. 3–33. doi:10.1177/0018726714535449.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Kaplan, S. (2015). Strategy tools-in-use: A framework for understanding "technologies of rationality" in practice. Strategic Management Journal, 36(4), pp. 537–558. doi:10.1002/smj.2270.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G. and Spee, P. (2015). Constructing Spaces for Strategic Work: A Multimodal Perspective. British Journal of Management, 26(S1), pp. S26–S47. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12082.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Bednarek, R. (2015). Towards a social-practice theory of competition. 75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2015 pp. 720–725. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2015.102.
• Smets, M., Burke, G., Jarzabkowski, P. and Spee, P. (2014). Charting new territory for organizational ethnography : Insights from a team-based video ethnography. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(1), pp. 10–26. doi:10.1108/JOE-12-2012-0056.
• Balogun, J., Jacobs, C., Jarzabkowski, P., Mantere, S. and Vaara, E. (2014). Placing Strategy Discourse in Context: Sociomateriality, Sensemaking, and Power. Journal of Management Studies, 51(2), pp. 175–201. doi:10.1111/joms.12059.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Cabantous, L. (2014). Changing competitive dynamics in the reinsurance industry: implications of changes in buyer behavior for reinsurance executives. The Journal of Financial Perspectives, 2(1), pp. 27–38.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Lê, J.K. (2014). Producing persuasive findings: Demystifying ethnographic textwork in strategy and organization research. Strategic Organization, 12(4), pp. 274–287. doi:10.1177/1476127014554575.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Cabantous, L. (2014). Conducting Global Team-based Ethnography: Methodological Challenges and Reflections. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014(1), pp. 16809–16809. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2014.16809abstract.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Pinch, T. (2013). Sociomateriality is 'the New Black': Accomplishing repurposing, reinscripting and repairing in context. Management (France), 16(5), pp. 579–592.
• Smets, M. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2013). Reconstructing institutional complexity in practice: A relational model of institutional work and complexity. Human Relations, 66(10), pp. 1279–1309. doi:10.1177/0018726712471407.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Lê, J.K. and Van de Ven, A.H. (2013). Responding to competing strategic demands: How organizing, belonging, and performing paradoxes coevolve. Strategic Organization, 11(3), pp. 245–280. doi:10.1177/1476127013481016.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Paul Spee, A. and Smets, M. (2013). Material artifacts: Practices for doing strategy with 'stuff'. European Management Journal, 31(1), pp. 41–54. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2012.09.001.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Giulietti, M., Oliveira, B. and Amoo, N. (2013). "We Don't Need No Education"-Or Do We? Management Education and Alumni Adoption of Strategy Tools. Journal of Management Inquiry, 22(1), pp. 4–24. doi:10.1177/1056492612460588.
• Jarzabkowski, P.A., Lê, J.K. and Feldman, M.S. (2012). Toward a theory of coordinating: Creating coordinating mechanisms in practice. Organization Science, 23(4), pp. 907–927. doi:10.1287/orsc.1110.0693.
• Sillince, J., Jarzabkowski, P. and Shaw, D. (2012). Shaping strategic action through the rhetorical construction and exploitation of ambiguity. Organization Science, 23(3), pp. 630–650. doi:10.1287/orsc.1110.0670.
• Spee, A.P. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2011). Strategic planning as communicative process. Organization Studies, 32(9), pp. 1217–1245. doi:10.1177/0170840611411387.
• Balogun, J., Jarzabkowski, P. and Vaara, E. (2011). Selling, resistance and reconciliation: A critical discursive approach to subsidiary role evolution in MNEs. Journal of International Business Studies, 42(6), pp. 765–786. doi:10.1057/jibs.2011.13.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Kaplan, S. (2010). Taking "strategy-as-practice" across the Atlantic. Advances in Strategic Management, 27, pp. 51–71. doi:10.1108/S0742-3322(2010)0000027006.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Mohrman, S.A. and Scherer, A.G. (2010). Organization studies as applied science: The generation and use of academic knowledge about organizations introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 31(9-10), pp. 1189–1207. doi:10.1177/0170840610374394.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Sillince, J.A. and Shaw, D. (2010). Strategic ambiguity as a rhetorical resource for enabling multiple interests. Human Relations, 63(2), pp. 219–248. doi:10.1177/0018726709337040.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Balogun, J. (2009). The practice and process of delivering integration through strategic planning. Journal of Management Studies, 46(8), pp. 1255–1288. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00853.x.
• Spee, P.A. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2009). Strategy tools as boundary objects. Strategic Organization, 7(2), pp. 223–232. doi:10.1177/1476127009102674.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Spee, A.P. (2009). Strategy-as-practice: A review and future directions for the field. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(1), pp. 69–95. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2008.00250.x.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Whittington, R. (2008). A strategy-as-practice approach to strategy research and education. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(4), pp. 282–286. doi:10.1177/1056492608318150.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Whittington, R. (2008). Directions for a troubled discipline: Strategy research, teaching, and practice-introduction to the dialog. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(4), pp. 266–268. doi:10.1177/1056492608318148.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Kaplan, S. (2008). Using strategy tools in practice: An exploration of "technologies of rationality" in use. Academy of Management 2008 Annual Meeting: The Questions We Ask, AOM 2008 .
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Seidl, D. (2008). The role of meetings in the social practice of strategy. Organization Studies, 29(11), pp. 1391–1426. doi:10.1177/0170840608096388.
• Jarzabkowski, P. (2008). Shaping strategy as a structuration process. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), pp. 621–650.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Whittington, R. (2008). Hard to disagree, mostly. Strategic Organization, 6(1), pp. 101–106. doi:10.1177/1476127007087155.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Sillince, J. (2007). A rhetoric-in-context approach to building commitment to multiple strategic goals. Organization Studies, 28(11), pp. 1639–1665. doi:10.1177/0170840607075266.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J. and Seidl, D. (2007). Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. Human Relations, 60(1), pp. 5–27. doi:10.1177/0018726707075703.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Fenton, E. (2006). Strategizing and Organizing in Pluralistic Contexts. Long Range Planning, 39(6), pp. 631–648. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2006.11.002.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Wilson, D.C. (2006). Actionable Strategy Knowledge:. A Practice Perspective. European Management Journal, 24(5), pp. 348–367. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2006.05.009.
• Jarzabkowski, P., Mohrman, S., Scherer, A.G., Nowotny, H., Rynes, S.L. and Whitley, R. (2006). Organization studies as applied science: The generation and use of academic knowledge about organizations. Organization Studies, 27(9), pp. 1411–1413. doi:10.1177/0170840606070945.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Searle, R.H. (2004). Harnessing diversity and collective action in the Top Management Team. Long Range Planning, 37(5), pp. 399–419. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2004.07.006.
• Jarzabkowski, P. (2004). Strategy as practice: Recursiveness, adaptation, and practices-in-use. Organization Studies, 25(4), pp. 529–560. doi:10.1177/0170840604040675.
• Whittington, R., Jarzabkowski, P., Mayer, M., Mounoud, E., Nahapiet, J. and Rouleau, L. (2003). Taking Strategy Seriously: Responsibility and Reform for an Important Social Practice. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12(4), pp. 396–409. doi:10.1177/1056492603258968.
• Jarzabkowski, P. (2003). Strategic practices: An activity theory perspective on continuity and change. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1), pp. 23–55. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.t01-1-00003.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Wilson, D.C. (2002). Top teams and strategy in UK university. Journal of Management Studies, 39(3), pp. 355–381. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00296.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Bone, Z. (1998). A 'how-to' guide and checklist for peer appraisal of teaching. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 35(2), pp. 177–181.
• Jarzabkowski, P. and Bednarek, R. Toward a Social Practice Theory of Relational Competing. Strategic Management Journal

Editorial Activities (8)

• Discourse and Strategic Management: The Potential, Challenges and Future Direction. Special Issue of Journal of Management Studies, Special Editor, 2014 – present.
• Academy of Management Review, Member of Editorial Board, 2011 – present.
• Strategic Management Journal, Member of Editorial Board, 2009 – present.
• Academy of Management Journal, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – 2013.
• Journal of Management Studies, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – 2012.
• Organization Science, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – 2010.
• Scandinavian Journal of Management, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – present.
• Organization Studies, Member of Editorial Board, 2005 – 2013.