Saku Mantere

Title: 
Professor of Strategy & Organization; Editor-in-Chief, Delve
Saku Mantere
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-4992
Email address: 
saku.mantere [at] mcgill.ca
Alternate email address: 
darlene.fowler [at] mcgill.ca
Address: 

Bronfman Building [Map]
1001 rue Sherbrooke Ouest
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
H3A 1G5

Degree(s): 

D.Sci. (engineering); M.Sc. (engineering); MA (philosophy)

Area(s): 
Strategy & Organization
Office: 
484
Biography: 

Saku Mantere is Professor of Strategy and Organization at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University and Director of the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management. His research focuses on strategic organizations; on questions such as what it is that makes organizations strategic and how strategic management affects organizations. He is particularly interested in strategic change, middle management agency and strategy discourse, as well as in methodological issues in management studies, such as the practice of qualitative research and reasoning in theorizing about organizations. His work has been published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Venturing and Strategic Organization.

Courses: 

MGPO 435 The Origins of Capitalism 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

MGCR 360 Social Context of Business 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

MGPO 701 Seminar in Qualitative Methods 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Areas of expertise: 

Strategy process, Strategy-as-Practice, Organizational Change, Communication, Research Methods

Group: 
Faculty
Tenured & Tenure Track
Research areas: 
Health Management
Integrated Management
Organization Identity
Organizational Theory
Strategic Management
Strategy Process
Taught previously at: 

Warwick Business School, UK; Hanken School of Economics, Finland; Rouen Business School (now NEOMA Business School), France; Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), Finland

Selected publications: 

Papers in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Kornberger, M. & Mantere, S. (2020) Thought Experiments and Philosophy in Organizational Research. Organization Theory, 1(3): 1-19.
  • Mantere, S. & Whittington, R. (2020). Becoming a Strategist: The Roles of Strategy Discourse and Ontological Security in Managerial Identity Work. Forthcoming in Strategic Organization.
  • Schildt, H.. Mantere, S. & Cornelissen, J. (2019). Power in Sensemaking Processes. Organization Studies, 41 (2), 241-265.
  • Wiedner, R. & Mantere, S, (2019). Cutting the Cord: Mutual Respect, Organizational Autonomy and Independence in Organizational Separation Processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64 (3): 659-693.
  • Mintzberg, H., Etzion. D. & Mantere, S. (2018). Worldy Strategy for the Global Climate. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 16 (4): 42-47.
  • Burgelman, R.A., Floyd, S.W., Laamanen, T., Mantere, S., Vaara, E. & Whittington, R. (2018). Strategy processes and practices: Dialogues and intersections. Strategic Management Journal, 39(3): 531–558.
  • Ketokivi, M., Mantere, S. & Cornelissen, J.P. (2017). Analogical Reasoning for Theory Progress in Organizational Research. Forthcoming in the Academy of Management Review.
  • Gylfe, P., Franck, H., Lebaron, C. & Mantere, S. (2016). Video methods in strategy research: Focusing on embodied cognition. Strategic Management Journal, 37 (1): 133-148.
  • Balogun, J., Jacobs, C., Jarzabkowski, P. Mantere, S. & Vaara, E. (2014). Placing Strategy Discourse in Context: Sociomateriality, Sensemaking and Power. Journal of Management Studies, 51 (2): 175-201.
  • Cornelissen, J., Mantere, S. & Vaara, E. (2014). The Contraction of Meaning: The Combined Effect of Communication, Emotion and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting. Journal of Management Studies, 51(5): 699–736. Winner, Best Published Paper in Organization and Management Theory, Academy of Management OMT Division.
  • Mantere, S. & Ketokivi, M. (2013). Reasoning in Organization Science. Academy of Management Review, 38 (1): 70-89.
  • Mantere, S. (2013). What is Organizational Strategy? A Language-Based View. Journal of Management Studies, 50 (8): 1408-1426.
  • Mantere, S., Aula, P., Vaara, E. & Schildt, H. (2013). Narrative Attributions of Responsibility in Entrepreneurial Failure. Journal of Business Venturing, 28 (4): 459-473.
  • Aula, P. & Mantere, S. (2013). Making and Breaking Sense: An Inquiry Into Reputation Change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(2): 340-352.
  • Küpers, W., Mantere, S. & Statler, M. (2013). Strategy as Storytelling: A Phenomenological Exploration of Embodied Narrative Practice. Journal of Management Inquiry, 22 (1), 83-100.
  • Mantere, S., Schildt, H. & Sillince, J.A.A. (2012). Reversal of Strategic Change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1) 172-196.
  • Schildt, H., Mantere, S. & Vaara, E. (2011). Reasonability and the Linguistic Division of Labor in Institutional Work. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(1): 82-86.
  • Ketokivi, M. & Mantere, S. (2010) Two Strategies for Inductive Reasoning in Organizational Research. Academy of Management Review 35, 315–333.
  • Suominen, K. & Mantere, S. (2010). Consuming Strategy: The Art and Practice of Managers’ Everyday Strategy Usage. Advances in Strategic Management, 27, 211-245.
  • Mantere, S., Pajunen, Pajunen, K &  Lamberg, J. (2009): Vices and Virtues of Corporate Political Activity. Business and Society, 48, 105-132.
  • Mantere, S. & Vaara, E. (2008). On the problem of participation in strategy: A critical discursive perspective. Organization Science, 19, 341-358.
  • Mantere, S. (2008). Role Expectations and Middle Manager Strategic Agency. Journal of Management Studies, 45, 294-316.
  • Mantere, S. & Sillince, J. (2008) Strategic Intent as a Rhetorical device. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 23: 406-423.
  • Mantere, S., Sillince, J.A.A. & Hämäläinen, V. (2007) Music as a Metaphor for Organizational Change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 20, 447-459.
  • Mantere, S. (2005) Strategic practices as enablers and disablers of championing activity. Strategic Organization 3 (2): 157-184. Recipient of the SO!What award, for best paper in 2005.

Books and Edited Volumes

  • Aula, P. & Mantere, S. (2008) Strategic Reputation Management. New York: Routledge.

Chapters in Books

  • Mantere, S. & Wiedner, R. 2020. Change that Concludes. Forthcoming in A. Van De Ven & M.S. Poole (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Change and Innovation, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Mantere, S. 2017. Reasoning with qualitative data: Balancing a theoretical contribution. In R. Mir & S. Jain (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Qualitative Research in Organization Studies. New York: Routledge.
  • Mantere, S. 2017. Mintzberg’s pattern: middle managers in a polyphonic strategy process. In B. Wooldridge & S.W. Floyd (eds.). Handbook of Middle Management Strategy Process Research. Northampton, MA: Edgar Elgar.
  • Franck, H. & Mantere, S. 2013. Coping with ethical tensions through irony. In R.T. By and B. Burmes (eds.). Organizational Change, Leadership and Ethics: Leading Organizations towards Sustainability. New York: Routledge.
  • Mantere, S. How the ‘Strategy-Bug’ helped me make sense of 301 interviews. Forthcoming in A. Carlsen & J.E. Dutton (eds.) Generativity in Doing Qualitative Research. Copenhagen Business School Press.
  •  Mantere, S. Strategy Practice as a Form of Life: A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Studying Strategy-as-Practice. Forthcoming in D. Gorsorhki, L. Rouleau, D. Seidl & E. Vaara (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Carlsen, A. & Mantere, S. (2007) Pragmatism. In S.R. Clegg and J.R. Bailey (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies. London: Sage.
Awards, honours, and fellowships: 

Awards

  • Best Published Paper in Organization and Management Theory (with Joep Cornelissen and Eero Vaara), Academy of Management OMT Division.
  • SO!What award (Best paper award for the journal Strategic Organization), 2010
  • MBA lecturer of the year (University of Oulu eMBA program), 2009
  • Hanken teaching award, 2007
  • (With co-author Pekka Aula) Pro Oeconomia award (20.000€) for the best business book in Finland 2005-2006.

Fellowships

 

Grants

 

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