MINTZBERG AND WHITTINGTON

Mintzberg and Whittington

Mintzberg And Whittington

Introduction

"Strategic management is the process of decision making which have high medium term to long term impact on activities of the organization including the implementation of those decisions to create value for customers and key stakeholders and to outperform the competitors". (Andrews:2000 :12)

Strategic planning is a continual process within an organisation, the people responsible for the success of strategic planning outline the desired future, then devise a strategy for making it happen. Strategic planning by its very nature is adaptive and the devisor is always developing it to be relevant for the future. Key environmental factors are predicted and their influence on the organisation looked at and then optimum measures are taken so the organisation can benefit from these environmental factors. (Araujo et al:2007 :497)

Business planning and strategic planning are two different things. Business plans are usually for an outside audience where the strategic plans are developed for internal purposes. Also strategic plans look at the 'bigger picture' where business planning looks at certain elements of an organisation.

Mintzberg's Schools of Thought

Mintzberg's Schools of Thought "Select a minimum of three of the schools of strategy identified by Mintzberg's et al (2008), undertake a comprehensive critical analysis of the underlying assumptions, perspectives and paradigms stance." (Mintzberg :Waters:2000 :465)

In 2008, Mintzberg developed these five types of management strategy into 10 “schools of thought”. These 10 schools are grouped into three categories. The first group is prescriptive or normative. It consists of the informal design and conception school, the formal planning school, and the analytical positioning school. The second group, consisting of six schools, is more concerned with how strategic management is actually done, rather than prescribing optimal plans or positions. The six schools are the entrepreneurial, visionary, or great leader school, the cognitive or mental process school, the learning, adaptive, or emergent process school, the power or negotiation school, the corporate culture or collective process school, and the business environment or reactive school. The third and final group consists of one school, the configuration or transformation school, a hybrid of the other schools organized into stages, organizational life cycles, or “episodes”.

The Design School

The Planning School

The Positioning School

The Entrepreneurial School

The Cognitive School

The Learning School

The Power School

The Cultural School

The Environmental School

The Configuration School

Whittington Schools of Thought

Business strategy according to Richard Whittington in his book "What is Strategy - and Does it Matter" has four different perspectives. He identifies these four basic "theories of action" in business strategy as follows: the classical planning approach; the efficiency-driven evolutionary approach; the craft-like processual approach; and the internationally-sensitive, systemic approach. (Whittington:2003 :117)

There are the four 'theories of action'. By knowing the differences of these theories, it would be easy to decide which theory matches your business needs. The four approaches to strategy differ in their views and perspectives.

Classical school believes in rational or objective approach. Evolutionary and Processual are doubtful that rational approach is the best strategy. Evolutionists believe that the environment is the biggest factor in business since ...