Article
Rethinking incrementalism
Gerry Johnson,
Gerry Johnson
Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.
Search for more papers by this author
Gerry Johnson,
Gerry Johnson
Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This paper discusses different notions of incremental strategic management and, on the basis of empirical data from a longitudinal study of strategic management, and existing research and theory, reconceives the subject within an ‘organization action’ framework. The paper also argues that such an approach raises important issues concerned with the management of strategic change in organizations.
References
- Abravanel, H. ‘ Mediating myth in the service of organization ideology’. In L. R. Pondy P. G. Frost, G. Morgan and T. C. Danbridge (eds), Organizational Symbolism, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1983
- Allison, G. T. The Essence of Decision, Little, Brown, Boston, 1971.
- Bartunek, J. M. ‘Changing interpretive schemes and organizational restructuring: the examples of a religious order’, Administrative Science Quarterly 29, 1976, pp. 355–372.
- Biggart, N. W. ‘The creative-destructive process of organizational change: the case of the Post Office’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 22, 1977, pp. 410–426.
- Bogdan, R. and J. S. Taylor. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1975.
- Boje, D. M., D. B. Fedor and K. M. Rowland. ‘Myth Making: a Qualitative Step in O. D. interventions’, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 18 (1), 1982, pp. 17–28.
- Bower, J. L. Managing the Resource Allocation Process: a Study of Corporate Planning and Investment, Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1972.
- Brown, R. H. ‘Bureaucracy as praxis: toward a political phenomenology of formal organizations’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 23, 1978, pp. 365–382.
- Chaffee, E. E. ‘Three models of strategy’, Academy of Management Review, 10 (1), 1985, pp. 89–98.
- Chandler, A. D. Strategy and Structure, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1962.
- Cohen, M. D., J. C. March and J. P. Olsen. A garbage can model of organization choice, Adminstrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1972, pp. 1–25.
- Crozier, H. The Bureaucratic Phenomenon, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964.
- Daft, R. L. Symbols in organizations: a dual-content framework for analysis. In L. R. Pondy, P. J. Frost, G. Morgan and T. C. Danbridge (eds), Organizational Symbolism, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1983.
- Danbridge, T. C., I. Mitroff and W. F. Joyce. ‘Organizational symbolism: a topic to expand organizational analysis’, Academy of Management Review, 5, 1980, pp. 77–82.
10.2307/257806 Google Scholar
- Davis, S. M. Managing Corporate Culture, Ballinger/Harper & Row, Cambridge, MA, 1984.
- Deal, T. and A. Kennedy. Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1982.
- Denzin, N. K. The Research Act, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, Berkshire, 1978.
- Fahey, L. ‘On strategic management decision processes’, Strategic Management Journal, 2, 1981, pp. 43–60.
- Fredrickson, J. W. ‘Strategic process: questions and recommendations’, Academy of Management Review, 8, 1983, pp. 565–575.
- Friedlander, F. ‘ Patterns, of individual and organisational learning’. In Srivastva, (ed.), The Executive Mind, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1983.
- Glaser, B. C. and A. L. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Aldine, Chicago, 1967.
- Greiner, L. E. ‘Evolution and revolution as organizations grow’, Harvard Business Review, July/August, 1972, pp. 37–46.
- Grinyer, P. H. and J. C. Spender. ‘Recipes, crises and adaptation in mature businesses’, International Studies of Management and Organisations, IX, 1979 (a), pp. 113–123.
10.1080/00208825.1979.11656274 Google Scholar
- Grinyer, P. H. and J. C. Spender. Turnaround: Managerial Recipes for Strategic Success: The Fall and Rise of the Newton Chambers Group, Associated Business Press, London, 1979 (b).
- Hambrick, D. C. ‘Environment, strategy and power within top management teams’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 1981, pp. 253–276.
- Hedberg, B. and S. Jonsson, ‘Strategy making as a discontinuous process’, International Studies of Management and Organisation, VII, 1977, pp. 88–109.
10.1080/00208825.1977.11656229 Google Scholar
- Hickson, D. J., G. R. Hinings, C. A. Lee, R. E. Schneck and J. M. Dennings. ‘A strategic contingencies theory of intraorganizational power’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 16 (2), 1971, pp. 216–229.
- Huber, G. P. and D. J. Power, ‘Retrospective reports of strategic-level managers’, Strategic Management Journal, 6 (2), 1985, pp. 171–180.
- Janis, I. L. Victims of Groupthink, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1972.
- Janis, I. L. ‘ Sources of error in strategic decision making’. In J. M. Pennings (ed.) Organizational Strategy and Change, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1985, pp. 157–197.
- Jick, T. D. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangulation in action, Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 1979, pp. 601–611.
- Johnson, G. Strategic Change and the Management Process, Blackwell, Oxford, 1987.
- Kanter, M. The Change Masters: Innovation for Productivity in the American Corporation, Basic Books, New York, 1983.
- Kotter, J. P. The General Managers, Free Press, 1982.
- Lindblom, C. E. ‘The science of muddling through’, Public Administration Review, 19, Spring 1959, pp. 79–88.
- Lyles, M. A. ‘Formulating strategic problems—empirical analysis and model development’, Strategic Management Journal, 2, 1981, pp. 61–75.
- Martin, J. and M. E. Powers. ‘ Organizational stories: more vivid and persuasive than quantitative data’. In B. Staw (ed.) Psychological Foundations of Organizational Behavior, Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1983, pp. 161–168.
- Mason, R. O. and I. I. Mitroff. Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions. Wiley, New York, 1981.
- Meyer, A. D. ‘How ideologies supplement formal structures and shape responses to environments’, Journal of Management Studies, 19 (1), 1982, pp. 45–61.
- Meyer, J. W. and B. Rowan. ‘Institutional organizations: formal structures as myth and ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, 83, 1977, pp. 340–363.
- Miles, R. E. and C. C. Snow. Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978.
10.2307/257544 Google Scholar
- Miller, D. and P. Friesen. ‘Momentum and revolution in organizational adaptation’, Academy of Management Journal, 23 (4), 1980, pp. 591–614.
- Mintzberg, H. ‘Strategy making in three modes’, California Management Review, Vol. XVI (2), Winter 1973
- Mintzberg, H., O. Raisinghani and A. Theoret. ‘The structure of unstructured decision processes’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1976, pp. 246–275.
- Mintzberg, H. ‘Strategy formulation as a historical process’, International Studies of Management and Organization, VII (2), 1977, pp. 28–40.
- Mintzberg, H. ‘Patterns in strategy formation’, Management Science, May, 1978, pp. 934–948.
- Mintzberg, H. The Structuring of Organizations, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1979.
- Mintzberg, H. and J. A. Waters. ‘ The mind of the strategist(s)’. In S. Srivastva (ed.) The Executive Mind, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1983.
- Nelson, R. R. and S. G. Winter. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982.
- Peters, T. ‘Symbols, patterns and settings: an optimistic case for getting things done’, Organizational Dynamics, Autumn 1978, pp. 2–23.
- Peters, T. J. and R. H. Waterman, (Jr). In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, New York, 1982.
- Pettigrew, A. M. The Politics of Organisational Decision Making, Tavistock, London, 1973.
- Pettigrew, A. M. ‘Strategy formulation as a political process’, International Studies of Management and Organization, VII (2), 1977, pp. 78–87.
10.1080/00208825.1977.11656228 Google Scholar
- Pettigrew, A. M. The Awakening Giant, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1985.
- Pfeffer, J. ‘ Management as symbolic action: the creation and maintenance of organizational paradigms’. In L. L. Cummings and B. M. Staw (eds), Research in Organizational Behavior, vol 3, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1981, pp. 1–15.
- Pfeffer, J. and G. R. Salancik. ‘Organizational decision-making as a political process: the case of a university budget’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 19, 1974, pp. 135–151.
- Pondy, L. R. ‘ Union of rationality and intuition in management action’. In S. Srivastva (ed.), The Executive Mind, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1983.
- Pondy, L. R. and A. S. Huff. ‘ Budget cutting in Riverside: emergent policy re-framing as a process of analytic discovery and conflict minimization’. Presented at a Symposium on ‘The Management of Hard Times’, at the National Academy of Management, Dallas, August 1983.
- Quinn, J. B. Strategies for Change, Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1980.
- Rhenman, E. Organization Theory for Long Range Planning, Wiley, New York, 1973.
- Richardson, S. A., B. S. Dohrenwand and D. Klein. Interviewing: Its Forms and Functions, Basic Books, New York, 1965.
- Sathe, V. Culture and Related Corporate Realities, Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1985.
- Schatzman, L. and A. L. Strauss. Field Research: Strategies for a Natural Sociology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1973.
- Schein, E. H. Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1985.
- Schrank, R. and R. Abelson, Scripts, Plans and Knowledge, Hillsdale NJ: Erlabaum, 1977.
- Sheldon, A. ‘Organizational paradigms: a theory of organizational change’, Organizational Dynamics, 8 (3), 1980, pp. 61–71.
- Smircich, L. ‘ Organizations as shared meanings’. In L. Pondy et al, (eds), Organizational Symbolism, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1983, pp. 55–68.
- Spender, J. C. ‘ Strategy making in business’. PhD thesis, School of Business, University of Manchester, 1980.
- Trice, H. M. and J. M. Beyer. ‘Studying organizational cultures through rites and ceremonials’, Academy of Management Review, 9 (4), 1984, pp. 653–669.
- Turner, B. ‘Some practical aspects of qualitative data analysis: one way of organising the cognitive process associated with the generation of grounded theory’, Quality and Quantity, 15, 1981, pp. 225–247.
- Weick, K. E. The Social Psychology of Organizing, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1979.
- Weick, K. E. ‘ Managerial thought in the context of action’. In S. Srivastva (ed.) The Executive Mind, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1983.
- Wilkins, A. L. ‘ Organizational stories as symbols which control the organization’. In L. R. Pondy, P. J. Frost, G. Morgan and T. C. Dandridge (eds), Organizational Symbolism, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1983.
- Wilkins, A. L. and W. G. Ouchi. ‘Effective cultures: exploring the relation between culture and organisational performance’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 1983, pp. 468–481.
