Towards An Organic perspective on strateg. The Mechanistic perspective, страница 17

The organic model of the strategic management process

The third and final pillar of the organic perspective is an organic model of strategic management. Based on our concept of strategy and the OESP model, the organic model revisits and extends the traditional design model.^[13] Strategic management is defined here as the superordinate and continuous organizational process for maintaining and improving the firm’s performance by managing, that is, enabling, formulating, and realizing, its strategies. In this definition, strategic management is viewed as a process, a progression, which includes the sequence of events and activities over time (Pettigrew, 1992; Van de Ven and Poole, 1995). We view strategic management as consisting of a one-time mode—dealing with a particular strategy or a single strategic decision—and a recurrent mode—dealing with a continuous stream of strategies and decisions. It is inherently prescriptive: it deals with those aspects that can be shaped by managerial initiatives. Figure 2 provides a summary form of the elements and flow of the model. Figure 3 de-aggregates the organic model of strategic management and lists its distinct emphases.

Elements of the strategic management process

Strategy formulation. This subprocess is most closely associated with the traditional notion of strategy content and formulation (Andrews, 1971), and with coordination by plan (Thompson, 1967). It therefore includes the familiar elements of scanning, problem finding, analysis and evaluation, interpretation, and choice. Our model extends the traditional view in several ways. It specifically emphasizes the planning of alternative strategic trajectories, such as in new market entry (e.g., Bogner, Thomas, and McGee, 1996); it suggests the need to evaluate the adequacy of current strategy as well as new alternatives; and it highlights the need to conduct implementation planning when such planning is deemed possible. Moreover, because of the ‘wicked’ nature of strategic issues (e.g., Mason and Mitroff, 1981), formulation includes not just analysis and synthesis but also invention, intuition, persuasion, and negotiation and does not necessarily follow a predetermined sequence of steps.

With the appropriate adjustments these main activities of strategy formulation need to be considered regardless of strategy level (a goal, a discrete posture such as a generic strategy, a single move or a sequence of moves), and regardless of organizational level (e.g., corporate). Specifically, choice and implementation planning are viewed as natural complementary parts of the same integrated whole—the strategic plan or logic. This means, for example, that the selection of a ‘related’ diversification strategy (Rumelt, 1974) is incomplete if structural coordinating mechanisms, linkages between activities, sequencing of internal and external changes, and other steps needed to implement the selection, are not considered too. Similarly, multipoint competition has a potential performance effect only if it is complemented by the requisite cross-unit communication and integration.

Strategy realization/implementation. This subprocess deals with the realization of selected goals, postures and moves, and complementary choices (such as organizational structure). When it is guided by a plan (and hence viewed as implementation), it includes the execution of strategy, its refinement to lower-level steps, and the execution of organizational choices that extend the chosen strategy. The notion of realization particularly suggests that strategy may not be a result of deliberate planning but can also emerge (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Strategy realization/implementation also includes more traditional aspects of managing internal change such as communication and support building. However, it also includes the action–interaction sequences of managing the external context of strategic change, especially the realization of strategic trajectories and the absorption of strategy into the firm’s external context.