Making Strategy and Organization Compatible

This book argues that for many companies organization is designed to achieve operational optimization and may be in conflict with strategic objectives. Managers may not share similar decision criteria and this may facilitate or hinder the fulfillment of certain strategies. The role of top managers is to shape to a large extent the ability of the organizational system to implement and achieve strategic objectives. This book provides breakthrough thinking on these issues by two leading academic thinkers.

Claude Michaud is Professor of Economics, INSEAD, France and Director General, CEDEP.
Jean-Claude Theonig is Professor of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD, France.

List of figures

viii

List of tables

ix

Preface

x

In Praise of Complexity

1

(10)

How to Make Things Simple in a World That is Not Simple

1

(2)

Strengths and Weaknesses of Organizational Simplicity

3

(2)

Why do Hybrid Models Offer an Advantage?

5

(2)

Managing Complexity

7

(2)

Shared Organizational Action Languages

9

(2)

Building Bridges Between Management and Strategy

11

(13)

Strategic Visions are Not Easily Put Into Practice

11

(3)

When the Gap Between Ambition and Action Becomes Deadly

14

(1)

Immediate Monopolistic Rents and Future Monopolistic Rents

15

(3)

The Need for Regeneration

18

(2)

When Hybrid Solutions and Complex Models of Organization are Needed

20

(4)

The Organizational System

24

(23)

Sharing Common Knowledge as a Coordination Mechanism

24

(4)

Strategic Options

28

(3)

Organizational Models

31

(5)

The Dynamics of Renewal

36

(6)

The Cognitive System Keeps Hybrid Models Together

42

(5)

Cognition as a Major Asset for the Firm

47

(22)

Shared References

47

(3)

Interpretation for Action

50

(3)

A Definition of Language

53

(2)

What Language is Not

55

(2)

The Role of Language in the Organization

57

(2)

The Importance of Mutual Understanding

59

(1)

Endogenous and Exogenous Languages

60

(2)

Foresight

62

(1)

Common Knowledge

63

(3)

Socialization and Trust

66

(3)

Agro: A Company in Transition

69

(26)

A Multinational Faced with Hypercompetition

69

(3)

Shared Cognition In Action: The AIG

72

(13)

Cognitive Discontinuities at Work

85

(10)

Managerial Fine-tuning

95

(41)

Dealing with Contradictions

96

(6)

Setting Out Principles for Action

102

(3)

Principles Are Not Enough

105

(2)

Transgression or Compromise?

107

(4)

Behaviours Inducing Paradoxical Effects

111

(2)

The Dilemmas of Complexity

113

(2)

When Cognitions Become Confused

115

(5)

Implementing Two or Three Organizational Models at the Same Time

120

(4)

The Usual Nightmare at the Top

124

(6)

Trusting to Luck

130

(6)

The Role of General Management

136

(21)

The Cognitive Architect of the Business

136

(3)

The Tools of Cognitive Management

139

(6)

The Quest for Foresight

145

(4)

Discretionary Codification

149

(1)

Tacit Accumulation

150

(1)

Explicit Articulation

151

(3)

The Strength of Cognitive Communities

154

(3)

Cosmophar: Excellence in Tacit Accumulation

157

(9)

The Keys to Success

157

(4)

New Challenges in a Global Economy

161

(5)

Where Management and Strategy Strengthen One Another

166

(15)

Four Fundamental Guidelines for Managing Complexity

166

(7)

Management, Firms and Competition

173

(5)

Some Brief Theoretical Implications

178

(3)

Appendix 1 How to Observe and Analyse Action Languages

181

(5)

Appendix 2 Distribution of Functions between Head Office and Units within Agro

186

(1)

Appendix 3 Simplified Organization Chart of AIG

187

(2)

Bibliography

189

(4)

Index

193

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Making Strategy and Organization Compatible

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials