Systems Perspective on Strategic Planning

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Describe how a meta-organizational perspective on strategy represents a natural progression in the development of a systems perspective on strategy.

To examine this request, I will first look at the systems perspective of strategic management. Secondly, I will look at the meta-organizational perspective on strategic management and then, finally, how the concepts are intertwined.

Systems Perspective of Strategic Management

Of the numerous approaches published on strategic management, for example:
Henry Mintzberg, Joseph Lampel, and Bruce Ahlstrand. (2008). Strategy Safari: A Complete Guide Through the Wilds of Strategic Management. Pearson Education Canada. 2nd Edition., the approaches have been viewed as reductionist and have led to the questioning of the effectiveness of strategic management.

Examining why strategic planning fails will put this into perspective. The reasons why they fail involve - more defined - acts of neglect, miscommunication or non-communication, deliberate lack of involvement, and specific contextual concerns for that organization.

You can refer to:
Henry Mintzberg. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. Harvard Business School.

You can find it online at:
http://www.ryerson.ca/~rmichon/mkt731/reading/Mintzberg.pdf

On page 111, Mintzberg states "The failure of strategic planning is the failure of systems to do better than, or even nearly as well as, human beings."
Mintzberg elaborates that systems process hard information but humans can internalize and synthesize that information. Therefore, it is the results of human beings, or strategic planners, who put structure to the systems.

To elaborate on Mintzberg's models or "schools," Mintzberg sees strategy formation as processes. From a systems perspective, these processes represent partial approaches to strategic management. The systems methodologies that would be worth noting are:

-Viable System Methodology
This participative methodology emphasizes the role and activity of stakeholders in the system. This system seeks to reduce the potential of ...