The unforeseen future by strategy gurus : the interplay between sense making, sense giving, and the role of language

Abstract

Strategy gurus play a crucial role in the field of strategy due to their knowledge and contributions to the development and execution of strategy. In the preceding decades, debates have been sparked on guru identities, particularly in terms of interpreting un-foreseeable future events. Gurus demonstrate their prognostic abilities, through the use of narratives and an emphasis on numerous phenomena and concepts, compared to novices. In contrast, sense-making research is currently conducted in all disciplines, particularly to comprehend how human thoughts, behaviors, and actions operate and interact with one another. However, research in the field of sense-making and guru event predictions is viewed as a potential future area of study, particularly in terms of the role that communication and language play in the process.

This research is conducted to determine how strategy gurus make sense of future events and how they maintain control of the process when their predictions are inaccu-rate. The study will employ a grounded theory research approach, particularly the Gi-oia method, to determine how gurus interpret events. The study will concentrate on four strategy gurus who participated in the process of predicting the Ukraine-Russia war of 24 February 2022. The study will concentrate on post-analysis narratives until April 9, 2023, in order to better comprehend the process of how gurus ensure control over inaccurate predictions.

The empirical findings identify eight sense-making and sense-giving strategies. The gurus foresee the future using prospective, retrospective, and strategic sense-making while providing meaning through identity, metaphorical framing, cognition, semiotic interpretation, and pragmatism-heuristics. Finally, a conceptual framework will be developed to illustrate the interaction between sense-making and sense-giving. It will also be discussed in the study how the power of gurus, particularly the discursive and authoritative power of their guru status, can moderate the process.