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Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2005

This paper intends to describe the evolution of the strategic decision-making processes in organizations and propose an integrate view to these processes. This paper seeks to make a number of contributions to the literature on strategy development processes. It explores a multidimensional conceptualization of strategy development and inquires specific process characteristics, such as creativity, development of resources and rationality. Further, the paper provides a critical evaluation of the nature of the relationship between decision-making and performance. Finally, the author emphasizes the need for identifying the different levels of analysis, the need for a continuous temporal analysis, the need for evaluating the events with their natural complexity In summary, the author argues that what is needed in strategy field are "process" models which are more environment-focused. In doing this, the paper highlights promising directions for the development of process models by drawing upon lessons learned in organization-focused strategy process research, taking as an example the development of the "decision-making school" as it moved from a content focus to a process focus.

Journal of Management Studies, 1976

CORPORATE strategy is viewed as a set of guidelines or policy heuristics developed as a response to the contingencies faced by a firm. If the environment is rich in contingencies, as when it is dynamic, complex, and uncertain, the firm's corporate strategy is likely to be comprehensive or multi-faceted. If the environment is not rich in contingencies, as when the environment is stable or predictable, the strategy is likely to be quite limited in scope. Data from seventy-nine firms are consistent with this contingency view of corporate strategy. When the perceived importance of each of several activities is correlated with the perceived magnitudes of different forms of competition and technological change experienced by the firm, it is found that (i) the associations between these techno-economic environmental variables and the importance of these activities are generally positive; and (ii) there are striking differences, as between the techno-economic variables, in their relationships with the importance of four areas of strategic import that are secured by classifying these activities by function. The observed relationships are explained in terms of contingencies that the techno-economic variables may create for the firm. Plans for further research are briefly outlined. with certainty.2 Moore, in the business context, views strategy as the modus operandi for dealing with complex socioeconomic conditions.3 Simon focuses on the constraining influence of past decisions as they affect the consideration of action alternatives in the f~t u r e .~ Braybrooke and Lindblom argue that, depending on the system's tolerance for magnitude of change and the understanding of cause-effect relationships in the organization's environment, there can be entirely different processes of decision-making.6 For example, when the tolerance for magnitude of change is low and the cause-effect understanding is high, one is likely to have what they call synoptic or highly analytic and expertise-based decision-making. At the other extreme, where the tolerance for magnitude of change is high and the cause-effect understanding is low, decision-making is likely to be inspirational in character, as in revolutions, crises, and grand opportunities. Somewhere between these extremes is disjointed incrementalism or 'muddling through', something that Cyert and March in their version of it have characterized as subject to quasi-resolution of conflict, uncertainty avoidance, problemistic search, and organizational learning.6 Mintzberg has conceptualized the strategy-making process as being either entrepreneurial, characterized by active search, growth orientation, centralized decision-making, dramatic attempts at leaping forward, etc.; or 'muddling through', characterized by 'satisficing', decentralization, uncertainty avoidance, passivity, etc.; or characterized by planning and explicit computation of costs and benefits, something that falls between the entrepreneurial and the 'muddling through' models on the dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, proactiveness, growth orientation, etc.7 Presumably, different environmental and organizational conditions account for the differences in the processes by which strategy gets developed. As far as normative aspects of corporate strategy are concerned, Druckere and Ansoff have emphasized the strategic importance of the firm deliberating upon what business it should be in. They perceive corporate strategy as being dominated by the decision to choose the firm's product market.

Human Relations, 2020

Emergence of a firm's strategy is of central concern to both Strategy Process (SP) and Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) scholars. While SP scholars view strategy emergence as a long-term macro conditioning process, SAP advocates concentrate on the episodic micro 'doing' of strategy actors in formal strategy planning settings. Neither perspective explains satisfactorily how process and practice relate in strategy emergence to produce tangible organizational outcomes. The conundrum of reconciling the macro/micro distinction implied in process and practice stems from a shared Substantialist metaphysical commitment that attributes strategy emergence to substantive entities. In this article, we draw on Process metaphysics and the practice-turn in social philosophy and theory to propose a Strategy-in-Practices (SIP) perspective. SIP emphasizes how the multitude of coping actions taken at the 'coal-face' of an organization congeal inadvertently over time into an organizational modus operandi that provides the basis

Administrative Science Quarterly, 1987

Excerpt] More recently, organizational strategists have begun to turn their attention to issues of internal as well as external organizational relations and to examine many of the traditional assumptions underlying strategic analyses, with an increasingly critical eye. This book reflects such changes, both in the diversity of approaches taken by different authors and in the challenges that are posed to extant wisdom of the strategy literature.

Journal of Marketing, 1994

By examining marketing's strategic role through the lenses of managers operating throughout the organizational structure, researchers and strategists can gain special insights. Adopting a structural-cognitive perspective, the authors employed a longitudinal design, coupled with snowball sampling, to explore the beliefs and changes in beliefs of key actors in a major strategic decision. The results show a dramatic conflict across functions in the interpretation of a proposed new strategy and its consequences. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of the results for the study of managerial thought worlds, organizational learning, and strategy development. E merging marketing and strategic management conceptualizations depict strategic decisions as rather disorderly and disjointed processes around which competing functional areas and actors at different hierarchical levels contend (Anderson 1982; Hutt, Reingen, and Ronchetto 1988; Pennings 1985). However, "much of the discussion of strategic marketing continues to reflect an economically rational view of managerial decision making and organizational behavior" (Walker, Ruekert, and Roering 1987, p. 13). In particular, Ruekert and Walker (1987a, p. 1) observe that the marketing literature ''largely ignores or assumes away the political processes, jockeying for influence, conflicts, and communication difficulties'' that arise during decision making and implementation. Thus, very limited empirical attention has been given to examining the partisan interplay between marketing and other functional units as strategies are formed, even though the traditional paradigms of marketing are expanding to incorporate negotiated exchanges with internal and external coalitions (Day 1992; Day and Wensley 1983; Webster 1992). Understanding such partisan interplay is critical to understanding the role that marketing performs in negotiating strategy with other functional units. Managers, representing various functional areas, are likely to perceive a strategic decision from perspectives that originate in different functional subcultures, different beliefs about desired ends and their means of achievement, and different self-identities and selfinterests (

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023

The article presents the results of a critical analysis of methodological approaches to the formation of organizational development strategies.

2011

Understanding Modern Warfare

In moments of reflection, both management teachers and practitioners acknowledge that choices are constrained by the availability of information, the ability to make sense of it, and the ability to communicate it. This study of strategy practice in organisations shows that choice is more than constrained; it is also socially constructed. Everyday strategy is guided by 'taken for granted' practices rooted in social reality; an objective reality that is the product of subjective processes. At the same time, practitioners construct their social reality through practice; through, for example, shared meaning, heritage, the patterning of experiences. These observations are based on a phenomenological study of strategy and innovation in three unrelated organisations all of whom regard innovation as essential for their survival: a bank, a telecommunications service provider, and a business school. Others have helped me develop my ideas. My thanks to Professor David Bloor for our discussions on Wittgenstein's and Mary Douglas' work, Professor Friso den Hertog for reading and commenting on an early draft of my 'research design and method' chapter, and Professor Lefebvre for his suggestions on organisational behaviour. My thanks also to those who shared their time and ideas with me at seminars and informal chats, particularly from: the Research Centre for Social Sciences, and the Business Studies department at the University of Edinburgh; MERIT, and the Faculty of Arts and Culture at the University of Limburg in The Netherlands; the Faculty of Applied Economic Sciences at Limburgs Universitair Centrum in Belgium. I am also very grateful to Kit Gardner and her team in the Business Studies office at Edinburgh and Corien Gijsbers at MERIT for clearing away those administrative and practical obstacles that reared up from time to time. With their help I was able to enjoy my task even more. This study was made possible through the cooperation of staff in the organisations studied. For this I am especially grateful to Robin Browning of the Bank of Scotland, Patrick Hurd of Ascom Timeplex, and David Asch of the Open Business School, for providing me with time and access to their colleagues. In many ways Katerina, my wife, has been critical to the production of this thesis. She has supported me by managing our household, reading various early drafts, and giving me the freedom to think and walk around in a distracted state preoccupied with my own thoughts. This research was funded by the Joi nt Panel of the Science and Engineering Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. I am very grateful to the Panel for their support and their belief that the marriage of my industrial background and academic research could advance our understanding of the nature of strategy and the management of innovation. CONTENTS List of Figures ix List ofAppendicies x 1959: 86). Lindblom's branch method seems descriptive of firms that develop through incremental product changes and manufacturing process improvements, and firms which Freeman (1982) might describe as following an 'imitative' strategy. These firms operate in established and stable technologies, relying on more innovative firms to develop both the technological improvements and markets. Lindblom's analysis highlights the role of social values and the futility of a determinate metaphor. However, his suggested 'successive limited comparison' approach risks producing 28 completely arbitrary outcomes in the face of a fast changing and developing environment, because he denies or significantly understates the scope for strategic intent shaping outcomes. 2.3.4 Social construction An emerging set of ideas about strategy, "emphasizes the importance of symbol manipulation, shared meaning, and cooperative actions of individuals" (Chaffee, 1985: 95). This perspective posits a more sociological view of strategic management in that managers operate on a reality which is socially constructed and manage the organisation by co¬ operative agreements or social contracts, "entered into by individuals with free will" (Chaffee, 1985: 93). Many writers both within and outwith the strategy field, equate organisations with Boulding's (1956: 205) hierarchy of general systems, in which there are eight levels. The lower levels are mechanical, moving up in complexity through the biological, with "symbolic images in human behavior" at level eight, and 'transcendental systems' at level nine. The variables determining the pattern include: language, discourse, laws, roles, ritual, custom, ceremony, norms, folklore, stories, beliefs, myths. These patterns are symbolic constructions and are the means by which organisational members make sense of their interrelationships. The validity of conceiving of strategic implications as a social construction is implicitly supported by Loveridge's study of the implementation of IT to improve services in banking, retaining, and health care. Loveridge notes that managers' subsequent interpretation of IT as having systemic significance is "shaped by earlier 'problem' applications and, often, by the crises that triggered the search for earlier IT solutions"(1990: 341). The consequences of this, as he points out, is that managers' creativity in terms of how IT may be used is guided and informed by their previous learning. Similarly, Metcalfe and Gibbons (1989) in their development of an evolutionary metaphor for technological innovation, note that firms' development options are severely constrained by their knowledge base: existing technological knowledge and ways of organisation. Moreover, Chaffee (1985: 96) notes that The Open University (1993), Board of the School ofManagement: School Plan 1994-98. The Open University (1993), Plans for Change, Leaflet. Thomson A. (1994), 'Information systems and information technology strategy committee: A preliminary report from the Advisory Group on strategy for the 'Electronic Strand' of the University', The Open University, presented as internal seminar paper March 15, 1994: 1-62.

Handbook of Strategy and Management

A central objective of this review is to update the literature on the role of contextual factors on the strategic decision-making (SDM). It reviews the theoretical underpinnings of four contextual perspectives that are thought to influence the SDM; top management characteristics, the decision-specific characteristics, the environmental determinism and the firm characteristics, as well as the key research efforts gathered together under each perspective. On the basis of this review, several directions, both methodological and substantive, for future research are highlighted and discussed.