Strategy as staged performance: A critical discursive perspective on keynote speeches as a genre of strategic communication

• Published date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2725
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Author: Jochen Koch,Matthias Wenzel

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Strategy as staged performance: A critical

discursive perspective on keynote speeches as

a genre of strategic communication

Matthias Wenzel | Jochen Koch

Management and Organization, European

University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

Correspondence

Matthias Wenzel, Management and Organization,

European University Viadrina, Große

Scharrnstraße 59, 15230 Frankfurt (Oder),

Germany.

Email: mwenzel@europa-uni.de

Research Summary: In this article, we explore how key-

note speeches come into being as a staged genre of strate-

gic communication. In our critical discursive analysis of

video data on Apple Inc.’s keynote speeches, we demon-

strate how keynote speeches are multimodally accom-

plished through the embodied enactment of four

discursive practices: referencing, relating, demarcating,

and mystifying. We show how different bodily move-

ments, which we describe as leveling and leaping gestures,

systematically contribute to constructing different concep-

tions of strategy through the enactment of these discursive

practices as a staged genre of strategic communication.

Our findings contribute to strategy-as-practice research by

extending the nascent but growing literature on genres of

strategic communication, the strategist’s body in the strat-

egy process, and the use of video-based research methods.

Managerial Summary: Firms increasingly rely on key-

note speeches to communicate their strategies. As a

result, managers invest more and more time and effort

into preparing and rehearsing their keynote speeches. But

how do managers communicate strategy in these staged

performances? Based on an analysis of Apple Inc.’s key-

note speeches, we explore the discursive and bodily pat-

terns that characterize this genre. In doing so, we

demonstrate that the coordinated use of bodily move-

ments in keynote speeches is consequential for highlight-

ing different aspects of the communicated strategy. This

shows that keynote speeches and other types of public

speeches cannot simply be scripted, but require managers

to engage in bodily rehearsal and training in order to

communicate strategies effectively.

Received: 25 August 2015 Revised: 13 June 2017 Accepted: 29 June 2017 Published on: 21 December 2017

DOI: 10.1002/smj.2725

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Authors. Strategic Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Strat Mgmt J. 2018;39:639–663. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj 639

KEYWORDS

critical discursive analysis, genre of strategic

communication, multimodality, strategy as practice,

video methods

1|INTRODUCTION

The burgeoning research on discourse in the strategy process in the strategy-as-practice field

(Balogun, Jacobs, Jarzabkowski, Mantere, & Vaara, 2014; Vaara & Whittington, 2012) has led to a

re-appreciation of Burgelman’s (2002) observation that a significant part of strategy work consists

of “strategy by speech.”That is, firms increasingly stage large-scale events to articulate, raise aware-

ness of, disseminate, rationalize, and mobilize internal and external support for their strategy

(Whittington, Yakis-Douglas, & Ahn, 2016). As a result, strategists invest more and more time in

preparing the enactment of staged genres of strategic communication, that is, institutionalized ways

of communicating a firm’s strategy that come into being through the embodied enactment of discur-

sive practices (Biehl-Missal, 2011). One important staged genre of strategic communication is the

“keynote speech,”an institutionalized means of communication that strategists instrumentally enact

to unobtrusively construct and manipulate conceptions of a firm’s strategy for larger audiences

(e.g., Biehl-Missal, 2011; Boje, Rosile, Durant, & Luhman, 2004). Partly because of their subtle

manipulative power, keynote speeches have become one of the most widely enacted staged genres

of strategic communication (Schreyögg & Höpfl, 2004).

The nascent literature on genres of strategic communication in the strategy-as-practice field,

however, focuses largely on exploring the discursive features of document-based genres of strategic

communication. Such features relate to strategic plans (Vaara, Sorsa, & Pälli, 2010) and PowerPoint

(Kaplan, 2011), among others. Therefore, although a growing literature points to the significance of

the body in enacting discursive practices in the strategy process (e.g., Balogun, Best, & Lê, 2015;

Gylfe, Franck, Lebaron, & Mantere, 2016), we know little about the discursive and bodily activities

and practices through which staged genres of strategic communication come into being (Balogun

et al., 2014). Hence, a blind spot remains around how keynote speeches are produced and re-created

as a staged genre of strategic communication (Biehl-Missal, 2011; Schreyögg & Höpfl, 2004).

This article addresses this blind spot by exploring how keynote speeches come into being as a

staged genre of strategic communication. We begin by highlighting the gaps in understanding of the

discursive and bodily activities and practices through which staged genres of strategic communica-

tion, in general, and keynote speeches, in particular, are produced and re-created. We then draw

from critical discursive analysis (e.g., Fairclough, 2003) to examine video recordings of Apple Inc.’s

keynote speeches. Our analysis highlights the tight interplay of talk and bodily movements through

which keynote speakers construct and manipulate conceptions of strategy. Specifically, we show

how the enactment of four discursive practices through different bodily movements systematically

contributes to constructing different conceptions of strategy by foregrounding and highlighting their

familiar or novel aspects, and in doing so, produces and re-creates keynote speeches as a staged

genre of strategic communication. Based on these findings, we develop a framework that

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