The Prescriptive and Emergent Approaches to Strategic Management
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF STRATEGY
REASONS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING
APPROACHES TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT:
• EMERGENT APPROACH
• PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS/ TURBULENCE
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN ECONOMIC TURBULENCE
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
Strategy is the plan to achieve a set goal; it creates a direction for the future of any organization. Strategic planning is very vital to the efficiency, effective running, growth, development and continuity of a firm. Various definitions, approaches and theories have been put forward by scholars to explain strategic management, all looking at the process of strategy at different angles, from two approaches, the emergent and the Prescriptive approaches, trying to propose superiority on either approaches. Some scholars like Porter even advocate other alternative to strategic management. The truth is that, there is no best approaches just a management effort to seek out the best way for survival in this changing and dynamic business world and now in this period of economic turbulence.
What is Strategy?
From the Greek word ‘strategos’ which means ‘what the general do’, the word strategy dates back to the 1960s where scholars differentiated the schools of thought which has been influencing business life since then. Various definitions have been given to the term ‘Strategy’, according to Johnson and Scholes, strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term which achieves advantages for the firm through its manipulation of resources within a changing business environment to satisfy stakeholders. James Quinn (1998) saw strategy as the pattern or plan that integrates a firm’s major goal, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole. To
INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF STRATEGY
REASONS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING
APPROACHES TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT:
• EMERGENT APPROACH
• PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS/ TURBULENCE
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN ECONOMIC TURBULENCE
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
Strategy is the plan to achieve a set goal; it creates a direction for the future of any organization. Strategic planning is very vital to the efficiency, effective running, growth, development and continuity of a firm. Various definitions, approaches and theories have been put forward by scholars to explain strategic management, all looking at the process of strategy at different angles, from two approaches, the emergent and the Prescriptive approaches, trying to propose superiority on either approaches. Some scholars like Porter even advocate other alternative to strategic management. The truth is that, there is no best approaches just a management effort to seek out the best way for survival in this changing and dynamic business world and now in this period of economic turbulence.
What is Strategy?
From the Greek word ‘strategos’ which means ‘what the general do’, the word strategy dates back to the 1960s where scholars differentiated the schools of thought which has been influencing business life since then. Various definitions have been given to the term ‘Strategy’, according to Johnson and Scholes, strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term which achieves advantages for the firm through its manipulation of resources within a changing business environment to satisfy stakeholders. James Quinn (1998) saw strategy as the pattern or plan that integrates a firm’s major goal, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole. To
References: Capon C., 2008, Understanding Strategic Management. England, Pearson Educational Limited. Dobson p., Starkey K., and Richard J., 2004. Strategic Management: issues and cases. U.S.A., Blackwell Publishing. Grant R. M., 2008, 6th edition, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, Oxford UK, John Wiley and Sons Inc. Greenley G. H., 1989, Strategic Management. United kingdom, Prentice Hall International Ltd. Haberberg A., and Rieple A., 2001 Haugstad B., 1999, SINTEFF Industrial Management: Strategy theory: a short review of the Literature. [Online](Assessed on 10th of April 2010) Hewitt Associates (2010) Surviving and Thriving in Economic Turbulence: HR 's Response Available at: http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/nA/en-Us/Knowledgecenter/ArticlesReports/Articledetail.aspx?cid=5838, (Accessed on 8th April, 2010) Lee S., et al., 2008 Levy D. L., Alvesson M., and Willmott H., Critical Management: critical approach to strategic management, chapter 5. [Online] (Assessed on 7th of April 2010). Leitner K., 2007, The dynamics of intended, emergent and realized strategies in SMEs: A longitudinal study. Pdf. [Online] (Assessed on 3rd of April 2010). Lynch R., 2009, 5th edition, Strategic Management. England. Pearson Educational Limited. Available at: http://www.themanager.org/Strategy/strategy.htm (Accessed on 11th April, 2010) Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics, 2010 Lecture Slides