Article Abstract:
Corporations involved in several business segments are analyzed from a managerial standpoint to assess the effectiveness of decentralized forms of management with regard to various strategic business units. Three forms of decentralization are reviewed: the build-harvest concept of management, the differentiation-low cost concept of management, and the prospector-defender concept of management. The degree of decentralization, or the amount of autonomy, enjoyed by each strategic business unit is directly related to the business strategy of that unit and the strategy of the corporation as a whole. It is concluded that multiple organization strategies exist at every level of the corporation's hierarchy.
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Article Abstract:
Using narrative theory, this article explores strategic management as a form of fiction. After introducing several key narrative concepts, we discuss the challenges strategists have faced in making strategic discourse both credible and novel and consider how strategic narratives may change within the "virtual" organization of the future. We also provide a number of narrativist-oriented research questions and methodological suggestions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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Article Abstract:
Although the effect of formal strategic planning on organization effectiveness remains an unresolved issue, a systematic critical review of 18 relevant empirical studies allows valuable insights into the planning-performance controversy. The analysis discloses controllable methodological inconsistencies and contingency variable interactions, an awareness of which can improve research designs. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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