기술전략세미나
오퍼레이션 석사 4학기
Ayaka Oda
Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent
Henry Mintzberg and James A. Waters
1) Summary
Defining strategy as " a pattern in a stream of decision, " the authors try "to explore the
complexity and variety of strategy formation processes by refining and elaborating the
concepts of deliberate and emergent strategy." Strategy is not simply an action plan of the
future to achieve a certain goal. The strategy formation process is rather more complex than
simply followed by an implementation of the plan. By comparing intended strategy with
realized strategy, the authors realized that there are deliberate and emergent strategies. These
two strategies lie at the two ends of a continuum, and various types of real-world strategies
were identified through eleven intensive studies. Planned strategy is the closest to deliberate
strategy, and as the name suggests, the strategies are planned in advance. Central figures in
the organizations formulate their intentions and try to implement them. Because the plan is of
no use if it cannot be applied, planned strategies are formed when the environment is rather
predictable. The second type of strategy is the entrepreneurial strategy, in which the central
actor's vision plays a key role. As the name suggests, this type of strategy is more common in
young and/or small organization because a single leader has a great control. Because the
intention is not clearly specified, and the single figure can easily respond to any feedbacks,
strategies may be adapted easily to changes, relative to planned strategy. The anecdotal
evidence suggests that planned strategies often follow entrepreneurial ones. Ideological
strategy is based on strong shared values. Although the intentions are in the form of rough
vision, people resist change, and the environment shall have little effect on changing the
strategy. The condition of tight control is relaxed in the fourth strategy, the umbrella strategy.
Leadership sets the boundaries for actions, and instead of taking actions themselves, leaders
convince others to pursue a certain vision within the general guidelines. Similar to umbrella
strategy, process strategy controls the process of strategy making while leaving the content of
strategy to other actors. Thus, the leadership role is limited to setting the guideline for the
process. Unconnected strategy comes neither from a central figure nor from intentions in the
organization at large. In the consensus strategy, the condition of prior intention is dropped,
and it emerges from mutual adjustment among actors. It is the collective action that drives the
strategy. Strategies can also be derived from the environment, which is names imposed
strategy in this article. In the concluding section, the authors argue that although deliberate
strategy focuses on getting desired things done, emergent strategy opens up opportunities for
strategic learning. Because the reality is not stable, managers shall be open to such emergent
strategy to some extent.
2) Contribution
Back in 1985, when this article was written, strategy formation was perceived as "an analytic
process for establishing long-range goals and action plans for an organization." This view did
not take into account what was really happening in the real world. I believe that this article
introduced a concept that was new back in 1985; however, close to 30 years have passed, and
the content seems quite obvious in general. The authors looked at leadership intentions,
central control over organizational actions, and the role of environment to introduce eight
types of strategies. As the authors mention, there are strategies that seem to overlap in nature.
Also, there are strategies that may shift to other ones as time goes on. Looking at each of the
strategies, I think the ideological strategy is not an ideal form for most of the firms. The
authors were also unable to find examples in their study for ideological strategy. If people are
so attached to the past that they resist change, organizational inertia, which lead to less
innovativeness, occurs within a firm. If the firm wants to lead the fast-changing world, this
strategy is definitely not the one to implement. Also, as the authors mention, "virtually all
real-world strategies have umbrella characteristics." Thus, it may need to be integrated with
strategies rather than looking at it in isolation. Overall, the authors were able to contributed in
the field of strategic management and managers in the real world by arguing the importance
of strategic learning. In this fast-changing globalized world that we all face right now, the
importance of emergent strategy, adapting to any changes when necessary, seems to be the
key to success, and has become important than ever before.
3) Critique
Although the purpose of the article, which was to open up thinking about strategy formation,
seems to be met, as I mentioned in the previous section, I believe that the article needs to be
developed more. The authors mention that the eight types of strategies along the continuum
introduced in this article are not "firm or exhaustive typology." As time passes on, the
entrepreneurial strategies are suspected to become closer to planned ones. I also wonder if it
is necessary to distinguish umbrella and process strategies. In this way, the typology itself
does not seem to have value that much. I think what is important is to identify what kind of
firms shall pursue which kind of strategies, and what is the outcome of it. The overall goal for
the firm is to increase profitability or sustained competitive advantage within the industry;
therefore, managers need to know what the performance outcomes are. Also, it seems quite
obvious that in this fast-changing world, emergent, as opposed to deliberate, strategies are
better, yet strategies may have to be considered at different organizational level. At the
corporate level, the strategies may need to be open for change, whereas at the team level, for
instance, the strategies may need to be planned well in advance, (although within a certain
boundary,) in order for the collective action to take place. Also imposed strategy was simply
defined as a strategy originating in environment, I think that environment can be from end
user, to supplier, and to simply economic environment. Because these are all quite different in
characteristics, sub typologies may help both academicians and managers to have better
understanding of how to develop strategies adapting to the needs outside the organization.