The contribution of Habermas' reflexive framework to the literature on strategy as practice

This paper aims to discuss how there is a cross-pollination between the Strategy as Practice Approach (SAP), which treats communication as a practice, and Haberma's Communicative Action Theory (CAT). SAP attempts to explain how all actors involved in organizational activities carry out strategy work by appealing to specific practices present in the organizational context through their interactions with each other (Hendry, 2000; Jarzabkowski, 2003). Since actors do most of the strategy work through conversations, negotiations, textual documents, etc., SAP can be associated with literature that approaches this interaction through a discursive lens (Fenton & Langley, 2011). CAT refers to the interaction between at least two agents who have the ability to act and speak, in other words, the efforts of agents to reach agreement on their actions within a given context. Agreement is a compromise reached as a result of mutual trust, rapport and information sharing between individuals. In addition, Habermas formulated the concept of discourse ethics in order to define the universal conditions of an agreement. Through this formula, he identified the characteristics of an ideal discourse/conversation/dialogue/debate. CAT provides powerful insights for understanding the dynamics of communicative processes, which SAP as a practice pays special attention to, and for designing the conditions to support these processes. In addition, it contributes to the understanding of strategy practice.