Section Two
The other two theories provide explanations for personnel
practices that are not driven by strategy considerations.
Resource dependence and power theories explain practices
caused by power and political influences such as legislation,
unionization, control of resources, and expectations of social
responsibility. The final influence, institutional theory, explains
that practices, such as the use of inappropriate performance
evaluation dimensions, may exist because of organizational
inertia rather than conscious or rational decision making.^18
Strategy
The contemporary literature provides a number of different
definitions of strategic management. James Brian Quinn’s
definition of strategy focuses on the integration of goals,
policies, and action sequences: “A strategy is the pattern or
plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies, and
action sequences into a cohesive whole.”^19 Thus, strategy deals
with providing direction, coordinating, and providing a
decisional framework. Another role of strategy deals with the
allocation of resources. The following definition by William
Henn focuses on this aspect of strategy: “Strategy is the
concentration of resources on selected opportunities for
competitive advantage.”^20 Strategist Kenichi Ohmae has made a
similar point, “Merely allocating resources in the same way as
your competitors will yield no competitive advantage.”^21 Henn’s