The Applicability of the Learning School Model of Strategy Formulation (Strategy Formulation as an Emergent Process)

Isaac Quaye¹, Abraham Osei¹, Alfred Sarbah¹, Eugene Abrokwah²

¹School of Management & Economics, University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
²School of Business, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.

DOI: 10.4236/ojbm.2015.32014                

Abstract

Great strategies are worth nothing if they cannot be implemented [1]. It can be extended to say that better to implement effectively a second grade strategy than to ruin a first class strategy with ineffective implementation [2]. Thus, effective implementation of strategies is important to the success of every entity. There are many ways of classifications of strategy. However, there are ten schools of thought that dominate recent thinking on strategy. These ten schools or models of strategy formulation were proposed by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel in their book “Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour through the Wilds of Strategic Management”. The “learning school” is one of these schools. From the perspective of this school, there is the emergence of strategies as people act individually but most of the time through concerted efforts, learning about a phenomenon as well as their entity’s competence in dealing with it. There are criticisms of this model saying there is the danger of going to the opposite extreme which may result in no strategy, lost strategy or wrong strategy. However, the study provides insight into the adoption and application of this strategy as well as the enormous benefits that accrue to learning organizations. The authors, having reviewed a vast number of literature, have summarized the concept of the learning school as “all hands-on-deck phenomenon” where individuals or employees are empowered in teams to improve their desire and ability to create and explore what they want in order to understand and manage the organization and its task environment.

Keywords

Learning School, Strategy Formulation, Emergent Process, Strategic Management

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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