Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Insights into the development of strategy from a complexity perspective

  • General Paper
  • Published:
Journal of the Operational Research Society

Abstract

This paper provides an account of an ongoing project with an independent school in the UK. The project focuses on a strategy development intervention which, from the start, was systemic in orientation. The intention was to integrate simple systems concepts and approaches into the strategy development process to: address power relations in actively engaging a wide range of stakeholders with the school’s strategy-making process; generate a range of good ideas; and make the strategy-making process transparent in order to inspire stakeholder confidence in, and commitment to, it and its outcomes. This paper describes how seeking to meet these aims entailed a series of workshops during the course of which an awareness of the relevance, in our interpretation, of Complex Adaptive Systems concepts grew.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beer S (1979). Heart of Enterprise. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer S (1981). Brain of the Firm. 2nd edn. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer S (1985). Diagnosing the System for Organizations. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger PL and Luckmann T (1967). The Social Construction of Reality. Anchor Books: New York, (new edition, Penguin Books 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • Braybrooke D and Lindblom CE (1963). A Strategy of Decision. Free Press: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant J, Darwin J and Booth C (2011). Strategy making with the whole organisation: OR and the art of the possible. Journal of the Operational Research Society 62 (5): 840–854.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley W (1967). Sociology and Modern Systems Theory. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckley W (1968). Society as a complex adaptive system. In: Buckley W (ed). Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist. Aldine Publishing Company: Chicago, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunker BB and Alban BT (1997). Large Group Interventions: Engaging the Whole System for Rapid Change. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunker BB and Alban BT (eds) (2005). Special issue on large group interventions. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 41 (1): 9–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capra F (1975). The Tao of Physics. Shambala: Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland PB (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland P and Poulter J (2006). Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology and its Use, for Practitioners, Teachers and Students. John Wiley and Sons Ltd: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cilliers P (1998). Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems. Routledge: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins JC and Porras JI (1996). Building your company’s vision. Harvard Business Review 74 (5): 65–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department for Children, Schools and Families (2010). The 21st Century School: Implications and Challenges for Governing Bodies. A report from the Ministerial Working Group on School Governance. London: DCSF.

  • Dyson RG, Bryant J, Morecroft J and O’Brien F (2007). The strategic development process. In: O’Brien FA and Dyson RG (eds). Supporting Strategy: Frameworks, Methods and Models. John Wiley and Sons: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eden C and Ackermann F (2000). Mapping distinctive competencies: A systemic approach. Journal of the Operational Research Society 51 (1): 12–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eden C, Ackermann F, Bryson JM, Richardson GP, Andersen DF and Finn CB (2009). Integrating modes of policy analysis and strategic management practice: Requisite elements and dilemmas. Journal of the Operational Research Society 60 (1): 2–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espejo R (1996). Requirements for effective participation in self-constructed organizations. European Management Journal 14 (4): 414–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espejo R and Harnden R (1989). The Viable System Model: Interpretations and Applications of Stafford Beer’s VSM. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foote JL, Gregor JE, Hepi MC, Baker VE, Houston DJ and Midgley G (2007). Systemic problem structuring applied to community involvement in water conservation. Journal of the Operational Research Society 58 (5): 645–654.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friend J and Hickling A (2005). Planning Under Pressure: The Strategic Choice Approach. 3rd edn. Elsevier: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens A (1984). The Constitution of Society. Polity Press: Cambridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer RJ, Edwards JS and Tapinos E (2012). Examining the strategy development process through the lens of complex adaptive systems theory. Journal of the Operational Research Society 63 (7): 909–919.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson S (2007). Becoming misrepresentations in strategy and time. Management Decision 45 (1): 131–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodgkinson GP, Whittington R, Johnson G and Schwarz M (2006). The role of strategy workshops in strategy development processes: Formality, communication, co-ordination and inclusion. Long Range Planning 39 (5): 479–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland JH (1992). Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, (1st edn, 1975, The University of Michigan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Holman P, Devane T and Cady S (eds) (2007). The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource to Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems. Berrett-Koehler Publishers: San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horlick-Jones T and Rosenhead J (2007). The uses of observation: Combining problem structuring methods and ethnography. Journal of the Operational Research Society 58 (5): 588–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houghton L and Metcalfe M (2010). Synthesis as conception shifting. Journal of the Operational Research Society 61 (6): 953–963.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoverstadt P (2008). The Fractal Organization—Creating Sustainable Organizations with the Viable System Model. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howick S and Eden C (2011). Supporting strategic conversations: The significance of a quantitative model building process. Journal of the Operational Research Society 62 (5): 868–878.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson MC (2003). Creative Holism for Managers. Kluwer/Plenum: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson MC (2009a). Managing the tensions created by mixing methods: Comments for Eden et al from a critical systems perspective. Journal of the Operational Research Society 60 (9): 1297–1299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson MC (2009b). Fifty years of systems thinking for management. Journal of the Operational Research Society 60 (1): 24–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn T (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd edn University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana HR and Varela FJ (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Reidel Publishing Co.: Dordrecht, MA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Midgley G (2000). Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers: London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Midgley G (2011). Theoretical pluralism in systemic action research. Systemic Practice and Action Research 24 (1): 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Midgley G and Richardson KA (2007). Systems thinking for community involvement in policy analysis. Emergence: Complexity & Organization 9 (1–2): 167–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Midgley G, Munlo I and Brown M (1998). The theory and practice of boundary critique: Developing housing services for older people. Journal of the Operational Research Society 49 (5): 467–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J (1989). An introduction to autopoiesis—Implications and applications. Systems Practice 2 (2): 159–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J (1995). Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis. Plenum Press: London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mitleton-Kelly E (2003). Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations—The Application of Complexity Theory to Organisations. Pergamon/Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan G (1986). Images of Organization. Sage: Beverley Hills, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan G (1997). Images of Organization. Sage: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organ DW and Ryan K (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behaviour. Personnel Psychology 48 (4): 775–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ormerod RJ (2011). The relationship between operational research and systems thinking. Journal of the Operational Research Society 62 (1): 242–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pidd M (2010). Why modelling and model use matter. Journal of the Operational Research Society 61 (1): 14–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rouwette EAJA (2011). Facilitated modelling in strategy development: Measuring the impact on communication, consensus and commitment. Journal of the Operational Research Society 62 (5): 879–887.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz M (2009). Strategy workshops facilitating and constraining strategy making. Journal of Strategy and Management 2 (3): 277–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith CA, Organ DW and Near JP (1983). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature and antecedents. Journal of Applied Psychology 68 (4): 653–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stacey RD (2000). Complexity and Management: Fad or Radical Challenge to Systems Thinking? Routledge: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stacey RD (2001). Complex Responsive Processes in Organisations: Learning and Knowledge Creation. Routledge: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stacey RD (2003). Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics. 4th edn. Prentice-Hall: Harlow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Styhre A (2002). Non-linear change in organizations: Organization change management informed by complexity theory. Leadership & Organization Development Journal 23 (5/6): 343–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svarstad H, Petersen LK, Rothman D, Siepel H and Wätzold F (2008). Discursive biases of the environmental research framework DPSIR. Land Use Policy 25 (1): 116–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsoukas H and Hatch MJ (2001). Complex thinking, complex practice: The case for a narrative approach to organizational complexity. Human Relations 54 (8): 979–1013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ulrich W (1983). Critical Heuristics of Social Planning. John Wiley and Sons: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van de Ven A and Delbecq AL (1971). Nominal versus interacting group processes for committee decision-making effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal 14 (2): 203–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky L (1978). Mind in Society. Harvard University Press: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • White L (2002). Size matters: Large group methods and the process of operational research. Journal of the Operational Research Society 53 (2): 149–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittington R, Molloy E, Mayer M and Smith A (2006). Practices of strategising/organising: Broadening strategy work and skills. Long Range Planning 39 (6): 615–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson B (1990). Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications. 2nd edn. Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jennifer Wilby who helped facilitate the workshops and Gerald Midgley who commented on a draft of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull, East Yorkshire, UK

    Amanda Gregory

  2. Pocklington School, East Yorkshire, UK

    Mark Ronan

Authors
  1. Amanda Gregory
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Ronan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gregory, A., Ronan, M. Insights into the development of strategy from a complexity perspective. J Oper Res Soc 66, 627–636 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2014.27

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2014.27

Keywords

Search

Navigation