‘Strategic Management in (a) Crisis?’ Uncertainty, Imprecision & the Incomplete as Axioms in Building Appropriate Theory

This Paper argues that a key task in understanding crisis situations lies in how their general manifestations penetrate into and affect individual enterprises. One transmission mechanism for moving crisis around is studied here: uncertainty based on incomplete propositions (enthymemes). The challenges posed by incompletely specified commerce are traced, using Latourian tools of relational materiality. Conventional approaches to enterprise planning born of strategic management theory may be a barrier to dealing with the incomplete, but their overthrowing is likely to evoke considerable conflict. The Paper concludes with some practical lines for organising a new approach to managing with enthymemes.