Strategic culture and its (re)construction: What role for narratives and othering?


Dagi D.

Comparative Strategy, vol.43, no.5, pp.576-590, 2024 (Scopus) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 43 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/01495933.2024.2383152
  • Journal Name: Comparative Strategy
  • Journal Indexes: Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Periodicals Index Online, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.576-590
  • Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Strategic culture has been studied to explain patterns of behavior focusing thereby almost exclusively on the impact of culture held by decision makers on strategic choices. This preoccupation with the culture-behavior nexus has resulted in overlooking the questions about the (re)construction of strategic culture and presuming it as historically given, out there, and self-evident. This article shifts the focus to the (re)construction of strategic culture and brings in narratives and othering as discursive practices that (re)construct strategic culture. By bridging strategic culture, narration, and othering, it demonstrates that strategic culture is not out there and self-evident but a set of narratives with elements of othering that constitutes and transmits distinct meanings about the self and others, and their interactions through particular storylines which frame strategic thinking as well as appropriate policy means and ends.