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STRATEGY FORMULATION AS A LEARNING PROCESS: AN APPLIED MANAGERIAL THEORY OF STRATEGIC BEHAVIOR Author(s): H. Igor Ansoff Source: International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 7, No. 2, STRATEGY FORMULATION (SUMMER 1977), pp. 58-77 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41103851 Accessed: 12-09-2017 13:15 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms

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STRATEGY FORMULATION AS A LEARNING

PROCESS: AN APPLIED MANAGERIAL THEORY OF STRATEGIC BEHAVIOR

H. Igor Ansoff (United States)

The Overall Model

The theory of strategic behavior here described is formulated to fill a gap in the current management literature between a

number of unidisciplinary, abstract, academic perceptions and a growing literature of prescriptive techniques for managing the relationship between complex organizations and turbulent environments. The task attempted is twofold: (1) to

integrate the key, relevant, unidisciplinary, theoretical concepts into a multidisciplinary framework; and (2) to make this framework readily applicable to the solution of current and urgent managerial problems. At this time no attempt will be made to popularize the result in language acceptable to managers who have not had previous exposure to the key theoretical and problem-solving concepts found in the economic, sociological, and management literatures. H. Igor Ansoff is Justin Potter Professor of Management at the Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. This paper is a brief summary of the first part of a book entitled Theory and Technology for Managing in Turbulent Environments, to be published in England by The Macmillan Press, Ltd., and in the United States by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 58

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Strategy Formulation as a Learning Process 59 The key disciplinary sources and the specific concepts borrowed or adapted from them are illustrated in Figure 1. As this figure shows, the key relational paradigm is taken from Chandler, who postulated a dynamic sequential relationship between the "environment," a business firm's strategic behavior in the environment ("strategy"), and the consequent changes in the internal configuration ("structure"). 1 . Chandler f s * paradigm : "Environment"

"Structure"-^

2. Microeconomic theory: survival, strategic budgeting, economic effectiveness

3. Sociotechnical systems: culture-capability, technology

4. Systems theory: environmental turbulence, organizational openness, variety 5. Politics of decision processes: power balance in organizational change

6. Psychology of individual behavior: aspirations, risk propensities, differences in psychological profiles 7. Sociology of organizational response to stress: myopia, inertia, drift 8. Strategic management: managerial thrust in change Figure 1. Origins of the theory.

The paradigm is expanded in two ways:

*Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1962) Strategy and Structure. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.

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60 H. Igor Ansoff (United States)

1. Alternative possible sequences of cha ment-strategy-structure are added.

2. The class of organizations studied is enlarged to include not only the "private" firm but also other environment-serving

organizations (ESO) (university, hospital, government-owned firms, ser vice -deli very branches of the government). This is a class of organizations that exists for the purpose of providing goods/services to the environment and that is dependent

for its survival, at least in part, on the proceeds of its "sales." The basic model of strategic behavior of such organizations is illustrated in Figure 2. The square boxes are behaviordetermining concepts, and the round and oval shapes are interactional components of strategic behavior by the ESO. Because of limitations of space, we shall rely on a series of diagrams and flow charts for tracing the relationships among the several modules of Figure 2. Unfortunately, much of the work of interpreting their contents must be left to the reader. Environment

As Table 1 illustrates, the focus of this theory is on environmental turbulence, which is defined by the five attributes listed in the left-hand column. The five levels of turbulence identified

at the head of the columns are used as "standard states," not only of the environment but also of strategic behavior and of internal configuration of the ESO. Three environmental settings are studied: (1) a state of steady turbulence in which the environment remains at a given level of turbulence; (2) a "drifting" environment which gradually "heats up" or "cools off"; and (3) an environment in which turbulence suddenly shifts (e.g., invention of the transistor, or formation of the OPEC petroleum consortium). Three types of ESO suben vironment are recognized: (1) the commercial environment, with which the ESO exchanges goals/ services and money; (2) the subsidy environment, which provides financial support to the ESO; and (3) the political environment, which legitimizes the ESO and sets the rules for its behavior.

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Strategy Formulation as a Learning Process 61

ENVIRONMENT S.

N. I MARKET ' ~^' DYNAMICS I

ESO BOUNDARY w /^-r^A f PERCEPTION ' I '

A OF )/ fc S V ENVIRONMENT

ACTION ^T^pirati^ ASPIRATI POTENTIAL >X -*i ASPIRATI0N ) / thrust POWER ' x ^^

STRUCTURE ' ^ ^^ ^^^ ^S, BUDGET I ' ^^ Vvf ACTI0N | I

' "Nx I TRIGGER J |

/ STRATEGIC ' ""^O^ ' 4

V BEHAVIOR J ( Vb

Figure 2. Model of ESO behavior.

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62

lis i ä lit t

Hi I -"HI I

I

B ■a

jiiiîf ¿Hjl 1 si 1 « ¿il

II t|i « | «„ }}!

■3. Optimal strategic productivity in environment a is (SP)a.

(SP)b = (SP)a X (ST)ab x (AP)cb x Tdb Figure 4. Effectiveness of strategic behavior. The same variables affect the choice of the thrust used by the

ESO. But this theory postulates that the choice is equally affected by the political force-field in which the ESO operates. The model of the power structure is illustrated in Figure 5. The upper left-hand part shows the control that gives individuals or groups power to influence the behavior of an ESO. The upper right-hand part shows four principal constituencies that exercise power on the five behavior attributes shown in the oval. The table at the bottom shows three basic power con-

figurations chosen for analysis of their impact on strategic behavior.

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Strategy Formulation as a Learning Process 67 Power Sources General management Control

1.

of

/*

Law

"X

[

j

2. Societal norms V J 3. Actions ^^jT^

4. Resources/ ^f knowledge ^-^. S* ^' /^"^' 5. Job security ( ^-^. J( Aspiratio 6. Charisma ^-^^^f -Perception ofl Tp

7. Withholding of Middle ^ environment

e£fort ^-^ -Budgeting ^-^

(^ ^- W-Strategic W V-^ J y behavior V-^ lower man- -strategic

agement transforma-

Environment

Power Environ- General Middle-lower Tech-

structure ment management management nocracy Autocratic 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - -

Decentralized 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 3, 4 4, 7 Distributed 1, 2, 4 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 3, 4, 5, 7 3, 4, 5, 7 Figure 5. Model of power structure.

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68 H. Igor Ansoff (United States) Aspirations The theory attempts to reconcile and integrate several different conceptions of goal/objective behavior found in the literature. The differences are found on two levels. On one

level there is an ambiguity about whether organizations that do or do not make their objectives explicit can be said to have objectives. We avoid this ambiguity by replacing the concept of objectives by the concept of aspiration level, which is always observable. This is defined at the bottom of Figure 6. % of ESO Serving a Market

Typical Distribution of Not-for-Profitf

^^^ ~****^ ^^, ■■ «^Typical Distribution of

^r ^v ^^ ^^*x^Bus1ness Firms

.

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