Strategic schools of thought Flashcards
According to the rationalist school, what is strategy?
Strategy is essentially a plan, formed through the methodological, sequential analysis of the environment, and evaluating how resources can be used to take advantage of opportunities or to address threats
What is the rationalist approach?
The rationalist approach takes a deterministic approach, and focuses on the strategic behaviour of organisation, the structure of their markets and their interactions. It is a linear approach that assumes standardised processes, mechanistic designs and clear goals
Which school of thought is referred to as the external environment school?
The rationalist school, due to it’s focus on external factors in an attempt to provide a competitive and comparative advantage
Why is the interpretative school particularly relevant to the media industries?
Because media employees are influenced by higher order needs and the industry influences both individual lives ad society as a whole, which makes a school that focuses on these symbolic, cognitive and cultural elements particularly relevant
Which approaches work closely together?
The adaptive and interpretative approaches. The adaptive approach looks at the changes that need to be made in routines, whereas the interpretative approach considers the changes needed in the organisation’s cultural and social systems
What is a criticism of the interpretative school of thought?
That it is subjective to individual organisations and cannot be generalised for wide use
What does the interpretative school of thought focus on?
It focuses on the hidden aspects of an organisation (e.g. it’s mindset, belief system, motivation) which can either help or hinder change
Why can the rationalist approach be criticised?
It fails to be flexible and fails to address the habits of mind that prevents industry players from crossing the bridge from one environment to another
What is the adaptive model particularly useful for?
Responding to technological development, as organisations need to be capable of both incremental and transformational change to be considered adaptive. There is a requirement for current success factors to be abandoned to make way for new proceesses
What are the three key themes in the field of strategy?
The effects environment has on strategy
The importance that the fit between strategy and the environment has on an organisation
The effects that strategy has on overall performance
How can organisations respond flexibly to their environment?
Through design and redesign of structure and processes
How does the adaptive school differ from the rationalist school?
Unlike the rationalist school, the adaptive school sees strategy as an evolutionary process rather than a plan to be followed, with the strategy itself emerging in the process of being implemented
What is the adaptive school of thought?
It is a model that views strategy as a process instead of a state. It places an emphasis on adaption and self-renewal. It realises that environmental change can affect market position and adapts strategies in order to keep up with new opportunities and threats that present themselves.
What does the adaptive approach assume?
It assumes that equilibrium is rare and that a strong interplay between the structure and dynamics of an industry and the structure and dynamics of an organisation exists.
What does the Five Forces Model assume?
That above average performance requires determining an optimal strategic position through close analysis of the dynamics of competitive rivalry
