Environmental School

February 18, 2010

Environmental School

As a group we learned many things from the Environmental school.  These things are best summarized in 3 questions.

What is the foundation on which the model is built?

Strategy is a response to the challenges imposed by the external environment.  Where other schools see the environment as a factor, the environmental school sees it as an actor, the only actor.  The environmental schools foundation is found in the environment and has roots in the contingency theory.

Who are the leading proponents?

The following people have made huge contributions to the environmental school

Mintzberg

Danny Miller

Droge

Toulouse

Hannan

Freeman

What are the premises of the model?

1. The environment, presenting itself to the organization as a set of general forces, is the central actor in the strategy-making process

2. The organization must respond to these forces, or else be “selected out.”

3. Leadership thus becomes a passive element for purposes of reading the environment and ensuring proper adaptation by the organization.

4. Organizations end up clustering together in distinct ecological-type niches, positions where they remain until resources become scarce or conditions too hostile.  Then they die.

Contributions

The environmental school has made some important contributions to the field of strategic management these include bringing the overall view of strategy formation into balance.  The contingency theory was also a noticeable contribution.

Critique

The dimensions of the environment are often vague and aggregated.  This renders it less useful for strategy formation.   The environmental school denies real strategic choice for organizations, this is unrealistic.

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