Emergent Strategy ⇢

An emergent strategy is a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals, or despite a mission and goals.

Emergent strategy is sometimes called realized strategy. An emergent strategy or realized strategy differs from an intended strategy.

Mintzberg argues that strategy emerges over time as intentions collide with and accommodate a changing reality.

Emergent strategy is a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, “a realized pattern [that] was not expressly intended” in the original planning of strategy. When a deliberate strategy is realized, the result matches the intended course of action. An emergent strategy develops when an organization takes a series of actions that with time turn into a consistent pattern of behavior, regardless of specific intentions. “Deliberate strategies provide the organization with a sense of purposeful direction.” Emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. Mixing the deliberate and the emergent strategies in some way will help the organization to control its course while encouraging the learning process. “Organizations …[may] pursue … umbrella strategies: the broad outlines are deliberate while the details are allowed to emerge within them” (Mintzberg, 1994, p. 23-25; Hax & Majluf, 1996, p. 17).

from Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York, NY: The Free Press. 

Hax, A. C. & Majluf, N. S. (1996). The Strategy Concept and Process, A Pragmatic Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

[Some notes for a book I am working on.]

8 September 2012 23
emergent strategymintzberg

Notes

  1. gravity-rainbow reblogged this from stoweboyd and added:
    //www.des.calstate.edu/glossary.html //home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm
  2. stepwise reblogged this from productivegossip
  3. jbeltowska reblogged this from stoweboyd
  4. republicofideas reblogged this from stoweboyd
  5. productivegossip reblogged this from emergentfutures
  6. allthingssustainablyconsidered reblogged this from emergentfutures
  7. alikatblues reblogged this from emergentfutures
  8. emergentfutures reblogged this from stoweboyd
  9. paulstephenarmstrong reblogged this from stoweboyd and added:
    //www.des.calstate.edu/glossary.html //home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm
  10. stoweboyd posted this

← Previous Post Next Post →

About

Web anthropologist, futurist, author. My focus is the future, and the tectonic forces pushing business, media, and society into an unclear and accelerating future. more.

Working on longer format projects, Sign up for the newsletter.

GigaOM Research analyst and curator.

Also writing beaconstreets.com.

Contact me. or ask me a question.



My Vizify profile.

Socialogy

  • John Hagel | John offers up some great insights, like the fact that passion is lower the larger that businesses get.

  • Euan Semple | A chat with my old pal, and the author of Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do

  • Will McInnes | The author of Culture Shock and managing director of Nixon/McInnes

  • Jennifer Magnolfi | An interview with the woman who said, 'Work is not a place you go, it's a thing you do'.

    • Hot Now

  • What Drives Us? | A draft chapter of my book, discussing motivations, Maslow's hierarchy, and fluidarity.

  • Socialogy: Interview With John Hagel | I Speak with Joh Hagel about the innovation at the edge.

  • Complex organisation arises from webs of interaction among causal factors | So, it turns out that DNA is, in fact, a great metaphor for business culture, but only after you realize that DNA is not a few hundred off-on switches, but instead a universe of unknowable complexities, that we can interact with, and understand at some abstract cartoonish level, but not control, and never fully comprehend.

  • Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy’s Last Safe Haven | Paul Ford

  • Innovators Get Better With Age | Companies make a mistake by relying too much on the innoations of the young, because Nobel laureats don't come into their prime until their 50s.

    • Oldie

  • Infodemics | 2009 | Passing incomplete or inaccurate information about some risk event can make people take actions that increase the damage of the event itself.

    • Lynx theme created by Andrew Stichbury for Tumblr.