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Book Details
Abstract
Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics remains unique amongst strategic management textbooks by taking a refreshingly alternative look at the subject. Drawing on the sciences of complexity as well as a broad range of social scientific literature, Stacey and Mowles challenge the conceptual orthodoxy of planned strategy, focusing instead on emergence and the predictable unpredictability of organisational life.
Ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate study, this critically detailed account deals with current issues, raising the challenge of complexity within practice and theory.
New to this edition:
- The literature from past editions is refreshed and updated.
- More examples are given from contemporary organisational life and social life more generally.
- The canon of thinkers who inform complex responsive processes of relating is broadened and deepened.
- There is engagement with new developments in organisational theory such as process organisation studies and practice schools.
- There are updated sections on rhetoric, paradox and recognition.
- A focus on what strategic management might mean from the perspective of complex responsive processes.
Ralph Stacey is Professor of Management at the Business School, University of Hertfordshire. He is a supervisor on the innovative Doctor of Management programme at the University of Hertfordshire and the author of a number of books and papers on complexity and organisation.
Chris Mowles is Professor of Complexity and Management at the Business School, University of Hertfordshire. He is director of, and supervisor on, the innovative Doctor of Management programme at the University of Hertfordshire and the author of two books and a number of papers on complexity and organisation.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| Title Page | iii | ||
| Copyright Page | iv | ||
| Brief Contents | v | ||
| Contents | vii | ||
| List of boxes | xiii | ||
| List of tables | xiv | ||
| Preface | xv | ||
| Chapter 1 Strategic management in perspective: a step in the professionalisation of management | 2 | ||
| 1.1 Introduction | 2 | ||
| 1.2 The origins of modern concepts of strategic management: the new role of leader | 6 | ||
| 1.3 Ways of thinking: stable global structures and fluid local interactions | 15 | ||
| 1.4 Outline of the book | 21 | ||
| Further reading | 26 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 26 | ||
| Chapter 2 Thinking about strategy and organisational change: the implicit assumptions distinguishing one theory from another | 28 | ||
| 2.1 Introduction | 28 | ||
| 2.2 The phenomena of interest: dynamic human organisations | 29 | ||
| 2.3 Making sense of the phenomena: realism, relativism and idealism | 33 | ||
| 2.4 Four questions to ask in comparing theories of organisational strategy and change | 39 | ||
| Further reading | 41 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 41 | ||
| Part 1 Systemic ways of thinking about strategy and organisational dynamics | 42 | ||
| Chapter 3 The origins of systems thinking in the Age of Reason | 48 | ||
| 3.1 Introduction | 49 | ||
| 3.2 The Scientific Revolution and rational objectivity | 51 | ||
| 3.3 The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant: natural systems and autonomous individuals | 52 | ||
| 3.4 Systems thinking in the twentieth century: the notion of human systems | 57 | ||
| 3.5 Thinking about organisations and their management: science and systems thinking | 59 | ||
| 3.6 How systems thinking deals with the four questions | 63 | ||
| 3.7 Summary | 64 | ||
| Further reading | 64 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 64 | ||
| Chapter 4 Thinking in terms of strategic choice: cybernetic systems, cognitivist and humanistic psychology | 66 | ||
| 4.1 Introduction | 67 | ||
| 4.2 Cybernetic systems: importing the engineer’s idea of self-regulation and control into understanding human activity | 68 | ||
| 4.3 Formulating and implementing long-term strategic plans | 74 | ||
| 4.4 Cognitivist and humanistic psychology: the rational and the emotional individual | 82 | ||
| 4.5 Leadership and the role of groups | 86 | ||
| 4.6 Key debates | 87 | ||
| 4.7 How strategic choice theory deals with the four key questions | 91 | ||
| 4.8 Summary | 96 | ||
| Further reading | 98 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 98 | ||
| Chapter 5 Thinking in terms of organisational learning and knowledge creation: systems dynamics, cognitivist, humanistic and constructivist psychology | 100 | ||
| 5.1 Introduction | 101 | ||
| 5.2 Systems dynamics: nonlinearity and positive feedback | 102 | ||
| 5.3 Personal mastery and mental models: cognitivist psychology | 105 | ||
| 5.4 Building a shared vision and team learning: humanistic psychology | 111 | ||
| 5.5 The impact of vested interests on organisational learning | 116 | ||
| 5.6 Knowledge management: cognitivist and constructivist psychology | 117 | ||
| 5.7 Key debates | 120 | ||
| 5.8 How learning organisation theory deals with the four key questions | 122 | ||
| 5.9 Summary | 125 | ||
| Further reading | 126 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 126 | ||
| Chapter 6 Thinking in terms of organisational psychodynamics: open systems and psychoanalytic perspectives | 128 | ||
| 6.1 Introduction | 129 | ||
| 6.2 Open systems theory | 129 | ||
| 6.3 Psychoanalysis and unconscious processes | 132 | ||
| 6.4 Open systems and unconscious processes | 137 | ||
| 6.5 Leaders and groups | 140 | ||
| 6.6 How open systems/psychoanalytic perspectives deal with the four key questions | 143 | ||
| 6.7 Summary | 147 | ||
| Further reading | 148 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 148 | ||
| Chapter 7 Thinking about strategy process from a systemic perspective: using a process to control a process | 150 | ||
| 7.1 Introduction | 151 | ||
| 7.2 Rational process and its critics: bounded rationality | 151 | ||
| 7.3 Rational process and its critics: trial-and-error action | 154 | ||
| 7.4 A contingency view of process | 158 | ||
| 7.5 Institutions, routines and cognitive frames | 159 | ||
| 7.6 Process and time | 161 | ||
| 7.7 Strategy process: a review | 163 | ||
| 7.8 The activity-based view | 165 | ||
| 7.9 The systemic way of thinking about process and practice | 170 | ||
| 7.10 Summary | 174 | ||
| Further reading | 174 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 175 | ||
| Chapter 8 A review of systemic ways of thinking about strategy and organisational dynamics: key challenges for alternative ways of thinking | 176 | ||
| 8.1 Introduction | 177 | ||
| 8.2 The claim that there is a science of organisation and management | 178 | ||
| 8.3 The polarisation of intention and emergence | 188 | ||
| 8.4 The belief that organisations are systems in the world or in the mind | 191 | ||
| 8.5 Conflict and diversity | 195 | ||
| 8.6 Summary and key questions to be dealt with in Parts 2 and 3 of this book | 199 | ||
| Further reading | 200 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 200 | ||
| Chapter 9 Extending and challenging the dominant discourse on organisations: thinking about participation and practice | 202 | ||
| 9.1 Introduction | 203 | ||
| 9.2 Second-order systems thinking | 205 | ||
| 9.3 Social constructionist approaches | 216 | ||
| 9.4 Communities of practice | 220 | ||
| 9.5 Practice and process schools | 223 | ||
| 9.6 Critical management studies | 226 | ||
| 9.7 Summary | 228 | ||
| Further reading | 228 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 229 | ||
| Part 2 The challenge of complexity to ways of thinking | 230 | ||
| Chapter 10 The complexity sciences: the sciences of uncertainty | 238 | ||
| 10.1 Introduction | 239 | ||
| 10.2 Mathematical chaos theory | 241 | ||
| 10.3 The theory of dissipative structures | 244 | ||
| 10.4 Complex adaptive systems | 247 | ||
| 10.5 Different interpretations of complexity | 257 | ||
| 10.6 Summary | 263 | ||
| Further reading | 264 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 265 | ||
| Chapter 11 Systemic applications of complexity sciences to organisations: restating the dominant discourse | 266 | ||
| 11.1 Introduction | 266 | ||
| 11.2 Modelling industries as complex systems | 267 | ||
| 11.3 Understanding organisations as complex systems | 276 | ||
| 11.4 How systemic applications of complexity sciences deal with the four key questions | 289 | ||
| 11.5 Summary | 291 | ||
| Further reading | 292 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 292 | ||
| Part 3 Complex responsive processes as a way of thinking about strategy and organisational dynamics | 294 | ||
| Chapter 12 Responsive processes thinking: the interplay of intentions | 302 | ||
| 12.1 Introduction | 303 | ||
| 12.2 Responsive processes thinking | 305 | ||
| 12.3 Chaos, complexity and analogy | 317 | ||
| 12.4 Time and responsive processes | 326 | ||
| 12.5 The differences between systemic process, strong or endogenous process and responsive processes thinking | 327 | ||
| 12.6 Summary | 335 | ||
| Further reading | 336 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 336 | ||
| Chapter 13 The emergence of organisational strategy in local communicative interaction: complex responsive processes of conversation | 338 | ||
| 13.1 Introduction | 340 | ||
| 13.2 Human communication and the conversation of gestures: the social act | 341 | ||
| 13.3 Ordinary conversation in organisations | 348 | ||
| 13.4 The dynamics of conversation | 355 | ||
| 13.5 Leaders and the activities of strategising | 358 | ||
| 13.6 Summary | 359 | ||
| Further reading | 359 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 360 | ||
| Chapter 14 The link between the local communicative interaction of strategising and the population-wide patterns of strategy | 362 | ||
| 14.1 Introduction | 363 | ||
| 14.2 Human communication and the conversation of gestures: processes of generalising and particularising | 366 | ||
| 14.3 The relationship between local interaction and population-wide patterns | 376 | ||
| 14.4 The roles of the most powerful | 384 | ||
| 14.5 Summary | 386 | ||
| Further reading | 387 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 387 | ||
| Chapter 15 The emergence of organisational strategy in local communicative interaction: complex responsive processes of ideology and power relating | 388 | ||
| 15.1 Introduction | 389 | ||
| 15.2 Cult values | 390 | ||
| 15.3 Desires, values and norms | 393 | ||
| 15.4 Ethics and leadership | 399 | ||
| 15.5 Power, ideology and the dynamics of inclusion–exclusion | 402 | ||
| 15.6 Complex responsive processes perspectives on decision making | 411 | ||
| 15.7 Summary | 413 | ||
| Further reading | 413 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 414 | ||
| Chapter 16 Different modes of articulating patterns of interaction emerging across organisations: strategy narratives and strategy models | 416 | ||
| 16.1 Introduction | 417 | ||
| 16.2 The emergence of themes in the narrative patterning of ordinary, everyday conversation | 421 | ||
| 16.3 Narrative patterning of experience and preoccupation in the game | 430 | ||
| 16.4 Reflecting on experience: the role of narrative and storytelling | 434 | ||
| 16.5 Reflecting on experience: the role of second-order abstracting | 436 | ||
| 16.6 Reasoning, measuring, forecasting and modelling in strategic management | 442 | ||
| 16.7 Summary | 453 | ||
| Further reading | 453 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 454 | ||
| Chapter 17 Complex responsive processes of strategising: acting locally on the basis of global goals, visions, expectations and intentions for the ‘whole’ organisation over the ‘long-term future’ | 456 | ||
| 17.1 Introduction | 457 | ||
| 17.2 Strategic choice theory as second-order abstraction | 459 | ||
| 17.3 The learning organisation as second-order abstraction | 476 | ||
| 17.4 Institutions and legitimate structures of authority | 479 | ||
| 17.5 Strategy as identity narrative | 483 | ||
| 17.6 Summary | 484 | ||
| Further reading | 485 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 485 | ||
| Chapter 18 Complex responsive processes: implications for thinking about organisational dynamics and strategy | 486 | ||
| 18.1 Introduction | 486 | ||
| 18.2 Key features of the complex responsive processes perspective | 487 | ||
| 18.3 Refocusing attention on strategy and change | 497 | ||
| 18.4 Refocusing attention on control and performance improvement | 505 | ||
| 18.5 Implications for thinking about research | 507 | ||
| 18.6 Rethinking the roles of leaders and managers | 513 | ||
| 18.7 Summary | 516 | ||
| Further reading | 517 | ||
| Questions to aid further reflection | 518 | ||
| References | 519 | ||
| Index | 545 |