Compare and Contrast the Emergent and Intended Approach to Strategic - Literature review Example

?Mintzberg, H., and Waters, J. A., (1985) Of Strategies Deliberate and Emergent, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 6, PP 257-272 The main purpose ofthe authors work is to find how strategies form in organization. Strategies in organization is conceived in terms of what the management of an organization plan to do then and in future while strategy formation is treated as an analytical process for instituting long range goals and action plans for organization. The authors have been carrying out research for over ten years on the topic and the intended audiences are the entrepreneurs and organization leadership. The topic has meet my expectations because it compares and contrast the intended strategy together with realized strategy in a diagram form, hence distinguishing deliberate strategies realized as intended from emergent strategies patterns realized in spite of intentions. The special features of the work that were helpful was the identification of different types of strategies and everyone embodying different degrees of what is called deliberateness. The authors are of high integrity; Henry Mintzber is heading the faculty of management at McGill University while James Waters is a lecture at York University in the faculty of administration studies. The authors concluded that strategies are tending towards being more deliberate in tightly coupled, centrally controlled institutions and more emergent in decentralized loosely coupled ones. According to my conclusion, strategy formation walks in two forms, deliberate and emergent. Mintzberg, H., (1990). The design school: reconsidering the basic premises of strategic Management, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11, PP.171-195 This paper focuses on one school of thought on strategic management called design school. The design put forward a simple model that views the process as a design to obtain an essential fit between external threat and opportunity and internal distinctive competence. The first article tries to distinguish between deliberate strategies from intended strategies while this article explains a design school. The intended audiences by the author are students who want to learn the model and chief executives who are planning to control it. The information meet my expectations since it contain the information on the school design context and contribution, four strategic management conditions that encourage an institution to move towards design school are explained. The helpful work was in the explanation of premises underlying the school of design since each premise explains the process of strategy formation. Mintzber who is the author is a man of high integrity and he is heading the faculty of management at McGill University. The authors concluded that the school has provided significant information on the discussion of grand strategy and it has given the notion that underlies all prescription in the field of management. I concluded that there is concurrence between external opportunity and internal capability in the field of strategic management. Ansoff, H., (1991). Critique of Henry Mintzberg's 'the design school: reconsidering the basic Premises of strategic management,' Strategic Management Journal, Vol.12 (6), PP.449-461 The main focus of this article is to critique the work done by Mintzberg's (1990) on design school of emerging strategic management. The design is evaluated using two criteria’s, methodological soundness and factual veracity, after the evaluation, it was found that the critique has deficiency by both methods. The problem of Mintzberg's work is associated with lack of logics in his presentation, his definition on strategy differs from the current practice in management and he failed to differentiate prescriptive and descriptive statement. In this critique, the author emphasis on methodological deficiencies and factual contradictions between Mintzberg's and real world of strategic management. Full description of Mintzberg's model was presented by the author and he found some valid contexts in Mintzberg's work. These include for an organization to succeed, it should use emergent strategy trial and experience process of strategy formation. The intended audiences are organization chief executive officers since they are the ones implementing the organization strategies. The works by ansoff are important to my research since it reconsider the basic premises of strategic management which was put forward by Mintzberg's and it is discussed in the first article. Igor Ansoff who is the author of this article is a respected lecturer at United States International University, California. The author concludes that the trust on Mintzberg's proofs and concepts resulted from weak methodology and contradiction in factual evidence. According to my conclusion, Mintzberg's model is a good prescription for institutions that are moving towards optimizing their performance in the filed where strategic changes are increasing and the rate of change is slower than the organization respond. Kipping, M., and Cailluet, L., (2010) Mintzberg's Emergent and Deliberate Strategies: Tracking Alcan's Activities in Europe 1928-2007, Business History Review, Vol. 84 (1), PP.99-104 The purpose of this work is to explain how Mintzberg theories of strategic management were applied in Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan); the strategies ranges from those coming as a result of deliberate internal decisions and those emerging largely as a response to outside forces. The analysis on the development of Alcan since its independence in 1928 has shown three things. This work is important to my research because the company strategies have evolved along the deliberate emergent range put forward by Mintzberg, this company has moved from emergent toward deliberate strategies mainly in response to external challenges and partly in response to the change in company leadership. Alcan slowly adopted more of deliberate strategies, imposed strategies was also present throughout. A special feature that was useful to my research is in the comparison between strategy and organization structure. The authors’ conclusion is that mergers and acquisition are part of an emergent strategy that developed in response to external problems that brought down investment. My observation in this article is that the role of highly emergent imposed strategies seems to play a significant role every time in business. Pretorius, M., and Maritz, R., (2011) Strategy making: the approach matters, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol.32 (4), PP.25-31 The purpose of this work is to explain how strategy should reflect the demand of the company environment and the way it should be shaped by business realities. The organization management in the current fast changing and challenging environment should move towards making their business dynamic and should not look like academic theories that are statically. This work is relevant to my research since it explains that emergent strategies are not necessarily deliberately planned but come into existence somewhere on the way. The deliberate and emergent view is viewed as a range with several elements. The Special features that are helpful are in the explanation that deliberate end refers to an additional rational and comprehensive approach whereas the emergent view refers to a more incremental type of approach. In contrast, the intended strategies are planned but not essentially realized while in emergent strategies, the pattern that was apprehended was not expressly intended. The authors are credible people; Marius Pretorius is an Associate Professor while Rachel Maritz is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria. The research targets the managers. The authors concluded that emergent approach towards strategy was pursued at the point where emergencies of strategies are encouraged. According to my conclusion, reflection on one aspect only when conducting strategy research deform the truth and reality of strategy making and cripples the use of strategy generally. References Ansoff, H., (1991). Critique of Henry Mintzberg's 'the design school: reconsidering the basic Premises of strategic management,' Strategic Management Journal, Vol.12 (6), PP.449-461 Kipping, M., and Cailluet, L., (2010) Mintzberg's Emergent and Deliberate Strategies: Tracking Alcan's Activities in Europe 1928-2007, Business History Review, Vol. 84 (1), PP.99-104 Mintzberg, H., and Waters, J. A., (1985) Of Strategies Deliberate and Emergent, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 6, PP 257-272 Mintzberg, H., (1990). The design school: reconsidering the basic premises of strategic Management, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11, PP.171-195 Pretorius, M., and Maritz, R., (2011) Strategy making: the approach matters, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol.32 (4), PP.25-31 Read More