February 18, 2010

Group Summary of the Configuration School

Posted in Safari Book Summaries at 11:36 pm by strategicthgr3

What is the foundation upon which the model is built?

Strategy formation is a process of transforming the organization from one type of decision-making structure into another.
Who are the leading proponents of the model?

A.D. Chandler, McGrill University Group, R.E. Milles & C.C. Snow
What is the basic model?

This school sees strategy formation as a process transformation
What are the premises of the model?

  1. most of the time, an organization can be described in terms of some kind of stable configuration of its characteristics:  for a distinguishable period of time, it adopts a particular form of structures matched to a particular type of context which causes it to engage in particular behaviors that give rise to a particular set of strategies
  2. these periods of stability are interrupted occasionally by some process of transformation – quantum leap to another configuration
  3. these successive states of configuration and periods of transformation may order themselves over time into patterned sequences, for example describing life cycles of organizations
  4. the key to strategic management, therefore, is to sustain stability or at least adaptable strategic change most of the time, but periodically to recognize the need for transformation and be able to manage that disruptive process without destroying the organization.
  5. accordingly, the process of strategy making can be one of conceptual designing or formal planning, systematic analyzing or leadership visioning, cooperative learning or competitive politicking, focusing on individual cognition, collective socialization, or simple response to the forces of the environment; but each must be found at its own time and in its own context
  6. the resulting strategies take the form of plans or patterns, positions or perspectives, or else plays, but again, each for its own time and matched to its own situation
What are the criticisms of the model?

Polarized between two approaches favoring either radical or incremental change.  Pattern is in the eye of the beholder.  If you describe the reality by using configurations, you are distorting the reality in order to explain it.
What are the major contributions of the model to the field?

Strategy organizational shape are closely integrated and should be reconciled.  An organization can be described in terms of some stable configuration of its characteristics, which it adopts for period of time in a particular type of context.  This causes it to behave in particular ways, that give rise to a particular set of strategies.  The periods of stability are interrupted occasionally by some process of transformation.

Environmental School

Posted in Safari Book Summaries at 9:30 pm by strategicthgr3

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.