Struggling with Translations: Do Actors Really Know how to Translate Strategies?

This paper shows empirical how actors have difficulties with translating strategy texts. The paper uses four cases as different examples of what happens, and what might be difficult, when actors translate organizational texts. In order to explore this, it draws on a translation training method from translation theory. The study shows that for those who have produced the text, it is difficult to translate a strategy where they have to change the words so others who don’t understand the
language in the text can understand it. It also shows that for those who haven’t been a part of the production, it very easy to ignore the text, when they can’t find a function for the text. Finally, it is difficult for all to find out which function the strategy has in the organization, since there are so many texts, which sometimes compete and other times the relations between the texts are unclear. The results challenge the notion that actors understand all texts and that managers per se can translate a text.