Mintzberg (1978, 1987, 1994) summarizes the non-deterministic view of
strategy admirably. He perceives strategy as a ‘pattern in a stream of activ-
ities’ and highlights the importance of the interactive process between key
players. He has emphasized the concept of ‘emergent strategies’, and a key
aspect of this process is the production of something that is new to the organ-
ization even if this is not developed as logically as the traditional corporate
planners believed was appropriate.
Kay (1999) also refers to the evolutionary nature of strategy. He comments
that there is often little ‘intentionality’ in firms and that it is frequently the
market rather than the visionary executive that chose the strategic match that
was most effective. Quinn (1980) has produced the concept of ‘logical incre-
mentalism’, which suggests that strategy evolves in several steps rather than
being conceived as a whole.
The reality of strategic management
Tyson (1997) points out that, realistically, strategy:
l has always been emergent and flexible – it is always ‘about to be’ and it
never exists at the present time;l is not only realized by formal statements but also comes about by actions
and reactions;l is a description of a future-orientated action that is always directed
towards change;l is conditioned by the management process itself.
The reality of strategic management is that managers attempt to behave
strategically in conditions of uncertainty, change and turbulence, even chaos.
The phenomenon of bounded rationality as described by Miller et al(1999)
applies – while people by their own lights are reasoned in their own
behaviour, the reasoning behind their behaviour is influenced by ‘human
frailties and demands from both within and outside the organization’. The
strategic management approach is as difficult as it is desirable, and this has
to be borne in mind when consideration is given to the concept of strategic
HRM as described in Chapter 3.
32 l The conceptual framework of strategic HRM