Reframing productivity as a strategic challenge: A processual study of strategizing in the European automotive industry

Enhanced productivity is often considered to be the result of operational efficiency, to be achieved through the careful mapping of processes and removal of wasteful or redundant activities. However, in addition to exploiting existing resources, organizational productivity is also a strategic challenge involving the exploration of future opportunities, meaning strategy is a crucial piece of the 'productivity puzzle'. This puzzle is further complicated by increasingly rapid technological and socio-cultural changes that complicate strategic goal setting, and purposeful planning of actions, and therefore also affect productivity. My research project is animated by growing criticism of traditional, static and plan-based models of strategy which are increasingly unproductive or pathological. Drawing on more recent, 'process' theoretical ideas, I propose to investigate productivity as a strategic challenge, drawing on empirical evidence from the European automotive industry.