Mintzberg’s Model
Strategic Management
1. Consider Mintzberg’s model of intended and realised strategy, and discuss the extent to which corporate strategy can be planned, and the extent to which it emerges. (20 marks)
The emergent model (modernist): In the emergent model, strategy is seen as emerging in the process of action. Strategy cannot (or only to some extent) be planned and is the outcome of the organization’s struggle to survive (cp. Darwinist ideas in Population Ecology) and the adaptation to certain internal and external influences. Strategy formulation and implementation are interdependent, strategy development happens on every level within the organization. Moreover, the realized strategy, the one observable in the marketplace, may differ considerably from the intended strategy (“it emerges”). The organization is viewed from a modernist perspective, interpreted as some form of organism (“living system”). The perspective corresponds to Mintzberg’s learning school and the power school, where strategy is the outcome of intensive discussions and the balancing of power relationships.
It is beyond doubt that the strategy, which will be realized in the end, differs from the intended one at the beginning of the process. Parts of the intended strategy will not be realized, whereas emerging aspects and changes in the process (slightly or more dramatically) adjust the strategy, so that the realized strategy is different from the intended one (see figure 1).
[pic]
Figure 1: From intended to realized strategy (Mintzberg 1999, p. 30).
It becomes obvious that one cannot persist exactly on what was planned. There are to many internal and external influences in the process that render it necessary to adjust the intended strategy. On the other hand this does not necessarily mean that planning is useless at all. Planning is not necessarily about formalized analysis, but about “thinking before doing.” Thus, we can state as follows: ◆ The different strategy schools
1. Consider Mintzberg’s model of intended and realised strategy, and discuss the extent to which corporate strategy can be planned, and the extent to which it emerges. (20 marks)
The emergent model (modernist): In the emergent model, strategy is seen as emerging in the process of action. Strategy cannot (or only to some extent) be planned and is the outcome of the organization’s struggle to survive (cp. Darwinist ideas in Population Ecology) and the adaptation to certain internal and external influences. Strategy formulation and implementation are interdependent, strategy development happens on every level within the organization. Moreover, the realized strategy, the one observable in the marketplace, may differ considerably from the intended strategy (“it emerges”). The organization is viewed from a modernist perspective, interpreted as some form of organism (“living system”). The perspective corresponds to Mintzberg’s learning school and the power school, where strategy is the outcome of intensive discussions and the balancing of power relationships.
It is beyond doubt that the strategy, which will be realized in the end, differs from the intended one at the beginning of the process. Parts of the intended strategy will not be realized, whereas emerging aspects and changes in the process (slightly or more dramatically) adjust the strategy, so that the realized strategy is different from the intended one (see figure 1).
[pic]
Figure 1: From intended to realized strategy (Mintzberg 1999, p. 30).
It becomes obvious that one cannot persist exactly on what was planned. There are to many internal and external influences in the process that render it necessary to adjust the intended strategy. On the other hand this does not necessarily mean that planning is useless at all. Planning is not necessarily about formalized analysis, but about “thinking before doing.” Thus, we can state as follows: ◆ The different strategy schools