How group fitness instructor strategize

Abstract

Background The strategic management classic’s interest lie on the organization market oriented behavior. Manager is regarded a superman and the workers contradictions are ignored. Surely everyone run vested interest, yet, strategy literature lack insights about the selfish activity that happen beyond the managerial role. The strategy-as-practice perspective have risen to take seriously the taken for granted assumptions of organization performance.

Purpose The research examine the sub-organizational strategizing activity between the group fitness instructors and the management, within the Finnish health club industry. The former is a peripheral, whereas the latter is an inner organizational actor. That is to say, they struggle over strategy logics among themselves, just like husband and wife do so in their marriage. The aim hence is to see beyond the transparent overly positive activity, and uncover the nature of the relationship’s somewhat darker sides between the two parties.

Literature The theory draw the strategic management’s content, process and practice perspectives, sociologic theory’s structure and agency, tripartite framework’s praxis, practices and practitioners, and the three major natures of strategies found from the literature.

Methodology Exploratory research design is applied and five thematic interviews with the managers responsible of group fitness, actualized. The research strategy is a multiple case study albeit the strategizing experiences are bundled into a one big episodic case description, relying on the theoretical propositions. Worth mentioning, the author possesses a thirteen year industry experience so the context is very familiar.

Findings The health clubs structure firmly promote the top-down strategy and the instructors lack equity. The management monopoly is realized only within time but the instructors lack fortitude to depart since instructing itself is a nice thing. Consequently, the instructors strategize bottom-up by hampering the management performance (control). Management then punishes the disobedient instructors by misallocating the resources. Nevertheless, the conducts of agency might be accepted if this is seeing more profitable than simply restricting it from happening. Instructor thus is a bifurcated strategist. That is, even though they do not rationally possess any power, yet they possess something irrationally. Hence, excellent sense is given of what it takes to be a group fitness manager.