Strategy process as an innovative learning environment

Purpose – In many organisations a lot of effort is put into the formation of a strategy, but the implementation of strategies is lacking. This paper aims to explore the preconditions for a successful strategy process (i.e. a process which results in implementation) in the context of municipal services in Finland. As a case study, the implementation of the city strategy in the home care services in one Finnish municipality is to be examined. The practical goal is to explain, why the implementation of strategy is lacking. The theoretical purpose is to find prerequisites for successful strategy implementation. Design/methodology/approach – The project was carried out by using an action research approach. The data collection and analysis methods were qualitative, including semi‐structured interviews, visual modelling of the strategy processes and observation of group discussions during the intervention day. The content of all the ten transcribed interviews and the transcription of the intervention were systematically analysed. In the context of the city strategy process, two types of fundamental prerequisites for learning were studied: the significance given to the strategy work, and the experience of agency in the strategy process. Findings – The participants in the strategy process were divided into three different organisational levels, the experiences were consistent within organisational levels but they differed between them. Both the strategic‐ and operative‐level employees considered the strategic level as active strategy makers and the operative level as passive receivers of the strategy. Furthermore, the management‐level employees gave high significance to the strategy process, while the significance given to the strategy process by the politicians and the operative‐level employees was low. The above‐mentioned findings may be the reasons why the commitment of staff members to the strategy was low and its implementation ineffective. Practical implications – In the strategy process of the case municipality, the understanding of the strategy process seemed to be fragmented and rigid, because the spontaneous conceptions of strategy were not problematised and discussed throughout the organisation. To build up a meaningful understanding of the strategy process, the spontaneous conceptions of strategy should be processed at all levels of the organisation. Furthermore, to prevent understanding from becoming fragmentated, the strategy representations should be processed in a common process. If it is supposed to be implemented, the strategy process should be seen as a continuous and comprehensive learning process. Originality/value – The strategy process is a complex system in which many factors interact simultaneously. Despite this, the relationship between individual learning processes and the strategy process has not been researched before. The paper explores the strategy process as a holistic and systemic learning process in which individual and shared collaborative processes are intertwined.