Tracking Strategies: Toward A General Theory

Description: There is a great deal of practice, discussion, and publication about strategy, but surprisingly little investigation of the processes by which strategies actually form in organizations. Henry Mintzberg, one of the world's leading thinkers and writers on management, has over several decades examined the processes by which strategies have formed in a variety of contexts, and this book collects together his findings. Defining realized strategy - the strategy an organization has actually pursued - as a pattern in a stream of actions, this investigation tracked strategies in organizations over long periods of time, usually three or four decades, and in one case, a century and a half. This revealed the patterns by which strategies form and change in organizations, the interplay of 'deliberate' with 'emergent' strategies, and the relationships between leadership, organization, and environment in the strategy formation process. An introductory chapter considers the term strategy, and the various ways it has been and can be used, and then introduces the studies.These are reported in the next ten chapters, with descriptions and conclusions about the strategies were formed over time, and how they combined to establish periods in the history of the organization. These studies range across business (six studies), government (two studies), an architectural firm, and a university, as well as one professor in that university. They include U.S. strategy in Vietnam (1950-1973), Volkswagenwrk (1937-1972), and the National Film Board of Canada (1939-1975). The final chapter, entitled 'Toward a General Theory of Strategy Formation', weaves these findings together in two themes. First is strategy formation in different forms of organization: Strategic Planning in the Machine Organization, Strategic Visioning in the Entrepreneurial Organization, Strategic Learning in the Adhocracy Organization, and Strategic Venturing in the Professional Organization. The second theme considers stages in the formation of strategies, from Initiation through Development to Renewal. Table of Contents: 1. Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent; 2. Patterns in Strategy Formation (Volkswagenwerk and U.S. Strategy in Vietnam); 3. Tracking Strategies in an Entrepreneurial Firm (Steinberg retail chain); 4. Strategy Formation in an Adhocracy (National Film Board of Canada); 5. Into the Mind of the Strategist (Canadian Lady garment company); 6. Does Planning Impede Strategic Thinking? (Air Canada); 7. Tracking Strategies in the Birthplace of Canadian Tycoons (The Sherbrooke Record newspaper); 8. Mirroring Canadian Industrial Policy (Dominion Textile Company); 9. Strategy of Design (Arcop architectural firm); 10. Strategic Management Upside Down (McGill University); 11. The Illusive Strategy (Professor Henry Mintzberg at McGill University); 12. Toward a General Theory of Strategy Formation; Appendix: Steps in Research on Strategy Formation