Building Shared Understanding through Boundary Objects.
This article presents an empirical study of over 250
company executives. The study focuses on their use of
strategy tools (management tools that support
strategy-work). The most common strategy tools are
SWOT-analysis, Balanced Scorecard applications and
spreadsheet applications, but also EIS (executive
information systems) and BI (business intelligence) were
mentioned. The executive level strategy-work is found to
be complex, embedded in social processes and contextual.
In order to find and maintain strategic advantage,
individual and collective learning processes need to
take place. Hence, the function of strategy tools is
most often to support interaction between individuals
and groups. Furthermore, there are various ways to use a
tool, some of them just cognitive, nevertheless they
contribute to shared understanding. In sum, the actual
ways of using strategy tools and the needs of the
executives are not often taken into account when
designing tools. Our study concludes with suggestions
for future strategy tool design. pdf
