Senior strategists’ self-narratives: positioning occupational background to frame strategic identity

Although much of the strategy scholarship to date has examined the narratives of strategists primarily in terms of how they shape the work of the organization, this document explores how strategists frame their occupational backgrounds to position their self-narratives. Self-narratives, therefore, not only have the capacity to reveal the challenges experienced by individuals but also the senses of self that emerge in response. Their sense of self constructs their professional identity as strategists, which we denominated strategic identity. We analyzed the self-narratives from 47 senior strategists operating across a variety of sectors and geographies, who took very different paths to obtain their current full-time, in-house strategy positions. This analysis showed that senior strategists frame their self-narratives in order to highlight, downplay, or selectively emphasize aspects of their occupational backgrounds. Consequently, they can position strategic identity as technical, humanistic, and processual identity respectively according to present necessities and previous experiences. Understanding how strategists frame their occupational backgrounds to construct their identities is an important issue for organizations’ hiring decisions. Due to their strategic skills, organizations hire strategists with a varied occupational background for leadership positions, in which their identity has to be framed strategically.