How do managers, according to Ralph Stacey (‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, 1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2), control the long-term future of creative organizations?
They can control it. In such systems long-term plans, and vision of future, can produce desired long-term effects
They cannot control it. The long-term future of creative organizations is absolutely unknowable
They can absolutely control it. By creating the requirements of their customers, managers have power over the organization’s long-term future
They cannot control it, but they can undertake some adaptive steps, and decrease the level of unpredictability.
In his article ‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, Stacey (1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2) argues that, even if chaos means disorder in behavior at the specific level, there is a recognizable qualitative pattern, at the general level, that makes it possible for humans to cope with chaos. What metaphor does he employ to describe this general pattern?
Snowflakes
Amoebae
Rain drops
Space.
According to Stacey (1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2), in his article “Strategy as order emerging from chaos”, the major difficulty that managers face, in open-ended strategic situations, is to identify and select the real issues, problems, and opportunities. On what must an organization rely in order to find an appropriate and creative aspiration?
Existing company and industry recipes
Budget and planning systems
Organizational institutional knowledge
Individuals’ experience-based intuition.
Stacey (1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2), in his article ‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, argues that organizational memory, business philosophy and industry recipe all have a powerful effect on the company’s survival and success. What does an innovative organization need to do, with this frame of reference, on the long-term?
For an organization to be innovative, its frame of reference has to be deeply institutionalized in its structure, systems, and processes
For an organization to be innovative, its frame of reference has to be continually challenged and changed
For an organization to be innovative in the long-term, it has to adapt its business philosophy to widely acceptable industry recipe
For an organization to be innovative, it has to nurture its prevailing frame of reference, and its development has to be path-dependent.
According to Stacey (1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2). in his article ‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, all effective businesses use negative, or damping, feedback systems to control and regulate their day-to-day activities. What organizational systems utilize negative feedback?
Cross-functional teams
Informal communication
Budgetary and planning systems
Training systems.
According to Stacey (in ‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, 1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2), organizations are a huge web of feedback loops between people. Therefore, they are capable of chaotic, as well as stable, behavior. What types of behaviors (or changes) lead an organization to success?
Fine adjustments, where managers do not alter systems and structures but promote stability of the internal infrastructure, and maintain the fundamental nature of the organization
Discontinuous, radical change where managers alter systems and structures, in the way that they promote creative destructions
Continuous, evolutionary change, where managers alter systems and structures in the way that they avoid either disintegration, or bureaucratization, of organizational activities
Experimentation and exploration of new opportunities, where managers promote turnarounds at the business level, rather than at the corporate level.
Learning from self-organizing processes, what does Stacey argue (in ‘Strategy as order emerging from chaos’, 1993, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 9.2), in his article, is sometimes the best thing a manager can do?
Managers should not encourage conflict in organizations. Conflict creates chaos and disenables innovation
Organizations can produce controlled behavior when no one is in control
Managers should not expose their organizations to highly competitive and risky situations
Managers should impose some type of control upon organizations.