PRESCRIPTIVE & EMERGENT STRATEGIES

Prescriptive & Emergent Strategies

Prescriptive & Emergent Strategies

Literature Review

Strategic decisions are needed especially in improperly structured, complex situations. In the beginnings of the company's strategic planning has been trying to deal with such situations, especially through the design of planning processes, which is processed systematically the process of strategy formulation and strategy implementation. The work on this subject is based on a rationalist understanding of strategy formulation. It is assumed that a certain set of possible decisions. Taking into account the objectives, the best method is to choose and create an optimal means / ends relationship. This approach is reflected in the typical design of planning processes: According to the target description the environmental and business analysis to identify the problems associated with the achievement of objectives. Subsequently, solutions are found and fixed in various planning designs to be implemented by the company at the operational level. Given the central importance of planning in this process, the underlying approach is also called the theory of strategic planning.

An essential feature of this approach is that the individual planning process isolated from each other are carried out. Goal-setting - as the task of management - is separate from analysis, alternative preparation and selection. The resulting sequences undergo some point over long periods and are often used in planning departments (or in strategic management accounting) are performed. The task of the planning department is to conduct regular part of the complex and lengthy planning ensured. For this purpose a series of procedures such as Stärken/Schwächen- or portfolio analysis is developed (Alvesson and Willmott, 2005, pp. 85-112).

The argument of corporate strategic management has always existed. There are two contrasting views has been widely accepted, which are prescriptive approach and the emergent approach. It depends on the company's overall purpose and size. In the modern view of corporate management, it includes the specific long-term objectives, commercial value added and deal with the variability of the modern society. The prescriptive and emergent approaches are general recognized as the basic strategic development theories. (Poister and Streib, 1999, pp. 308-25) Both of these approaches should be adapted to the constantly changing environment, fierce competition and enterprise globalization. The powerful external pressures could prompt the companies to reduce costs, increase outputs and confirm new chances for development. Nowadays, the reason that many enterprises are forced to make huge enhancement are not only for the competition and prosperity, but also for surviving in the realities of business circumstances.

Schreyögg describes this process as prescriptive. The prescriptive approach appears in a point in time and is composed of a set of rules, completely formulated and implemented sufficient preparation. Rather than describe the decision processes that are actually observed in the company (which would correspond to a descriptive approach), are derived from a series of assumptions about the optimal course of general planning rules, which are reflected in models and test cases. In the following the methodology are explained by the formation of this strategic approach based on a typical planning cycle ...