Change management in complex public organizations : the strategy as practice approach in the implementation of the National Forestry Office’s objective and performance contract 2016-2020

PIs : Nathalie Carol, Mériem Fournier (UMR 1092 Laboratoire d’étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois – LERFOB / AgroParisTech)

Co-applicants : Benoit Grasser (Centre Européen de Recherche en Économie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises – CEREFIGE)

Collaboration : Direction générale de l’Office Nationale des Forêts (ONF)

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Context — The public industrial and commercial undertaking National Forestry Office (EPIC-ONF) is a key player in the implementation of the French forest related policy. As a sole manager of the public forest, it is facing four major challenges: 1) adapting forestry practices to the effects of climate change; 2) meeting wood sector needs with a continuous supply of wood; 3) providing forest recreation activities; 4) protecting and preserving biodiversity. To address these challenges, a new road map has been drawn up by ONF, The French National Federation of Forest Communities (FNCOFOR) and the State: the objective and performance contract 2016-2020 signed on the 7th. March 2016. Six priorities have been defined, among them:

• Increasing wood supply to respond to the needs of the wood sector stakeholders and to create employment (Priority 1);
• Stabilizing the workforce and supporting changes in profession (Priority 5).

Assuming that these strategic goals are agreed, the actions to be carried out to achieve them may raise either many reservations or serious opposition from ONF agents. How to understand and overcome the gap between desirable practice and its acceptance? The construction and appropriation of shared strategic understanding/meaning is considered as a major leverage point of change-management and may provide some answers. The question is then:  is the lack of shared strategic understanding/meaning the cause of this discrepancy? Furthermore, how is the strategic understanding/meaning constructed? How is it implemented locally? How is it appropriated and put into practice by ONF agents? Who are the key parties that determine what the meaning of the strategy is? Etc.

Objectives — The Strategy as Practice (SAP) is a relevant theoretical framework capable of responding to the questions we are asking here. In full development today in the business strategy science, it focuses on actors, actions and interactions as well as the context in which micro-actions operate. Strategy, according to this view, is not something that an organization has but something its members do (Golsorkhi et al 2015). The construction of strategic meaning and understanding would therefore be based on praxis/practices/practitioners interactions. Praxis is seen as a flow of micro-activities in which strategy is accomplished. Practices concern shared routines of behavior that include traditions, norms and ways of thinking, being and acting. Actors who do the work of making and executing the strategy are the practitioners (Balogun et Al. 2006). For D. Seidl, J. Balogun and P. Jarzabkowki (Balogun et al. 2006, p.4), the empirical investigation should concentrate on the link between two variables: praxis/practices, praxis/practitioners or practices/practitioners. The importance of the stakeholders’ roles in the implementation of strategic change at the ONF suggests a need to consider the practitioners. E. Volger and A. Rouzies (Vogler & Rouzies 2006) warmly invite researchers to analyze not only the top executives but also the middle managers who have a key role in strategizing but paradoxically have been poorly investigated. Therefore, in order to explain the implementation of a strategic direction at the ONF and to understand the gap between the strategy and its implementation, we propose to analyze strategic understanding/meaning building practices used by the top executives and middle managers. The survey will take place at the Great East territorial department in which public forest issues are high even predominant. We will focus on priorities 1 “Increasing wood supply“ and 5 “Stabilizing the workforce and supporting changes in profession” of the objective and performance contract 2016-2020, as requested by the ONF general directorate.

Approaches — The project studies social meanings around ONF strategic goals that are constructed in social interactions and that determine the ways of agents being and doing. In other words, it focuses on actors acting and interacting. Situations in which actions and interactions are taking place need to be kept under close watch. Therefore, participant observation and semi-structured interview will be the main methods used for data collection.

Expected results and impacts — The project pursues a dual scientific objective. Firstly, it aims to fill knowledge gaps about French forest policy management.  The second is to test the validity of the current approach to strategy in an original and under-explored field. By focusing on micro-activities of strategists, the project will also meet the concerns raised by top executives for more practical solutions that are supporting them in conducting complex change. More specifically, expected deliverables will include the following:

• management tools that will help ensure closer alignment between the strategy and its implementation;
• change to the management operational programme that will be adapted to the ONF specificities.