preview

Pescriptive versus emergent Essay

Better Essays
Open Document

Contents Introduction 2 Placing the article in wider literature debate 2 Strengths and Weaknesses 3 Conclusion 4 Works Cited 5 Introduction When described with historical perspective since it arrived in the mid 1960s, strategic or prescriptive planning has been embraced as a way of “outflanking competitors with big plays that yield long term rent from a sustainable advantage” (Bhide, 1986). Although it faltered in the 1980s and 1990s mainly due to the unstable economy in that period and the rise of emergent strategy, it is still being practised today (John A Pearce II, 1987). Emergent strategy is the view that “strategy emerges as intentions collide with a changing reality” (Moore, 2011). This literature review places the article …show more content…

[p68]. John Oliver emphasised in his book the importance of effective use of the action learning process hence emergent strategy in developing a future business strategy. (Oliver, 2006) The inflexible nature of deliberate strategy greatly reduces its litheness for creative and reactive process. Emergent strategy therefore possesses a much greater adaptability, particularly in tentative times and more difficult business environmental conditions. However Michael Porter argues that Industry structure drives competition and profitability. Success is not determined by whether an industry is mature or emerging (Porter, 1979). This is a typically prescriptive view on strategy, as it suggests breaking down intentions into communicated steps and formularizing those steps into the structure of the organisation. This premise is contradicted by various perspectives, as they believe accumulated learning and experience provides rare advantage that is difficult for other competitors to copy (Gerry Johnson, 2008). This suggests that strategy can be crafted as organisations learn from previous success and failures. Mintzberg in ‘Crafting strategy’ promotes the idea that prescriptive strategy ‘misguides organisations that embrace it unreservedly.’[p66]. He pushes the idea that crafting strategy is a more effective representation of strategy. ‘Craft evokes traditional skills perfection through the mastery of detail....developed through experience and commitment.’[p66]. This is

Get Access
Related
Get Access