Configuration School

Configuration School

Presented by: Nelum Shehzade Bahria University, Islamabad.

Main Ideas 

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Configuration & transformation: “there is a time for coherence and a time for change” Strategy is about continuity, not change Strategy is about creating stability and about the ability to occasionally dramatically change Configuration – academics Transformation – practiced by managers and prescribed by consultants

Configuration School  

There are two main sides of this school: One describes states of the organization and its surrounding context as configuration and the other one is describing the strategy-making process as transformation.

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Configuration tends to be researched and described by academics, while transformation tends to be practised by managers and prescribed by consultants.

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It has been decided to use the more practical approach of transformation, because the core issue of problem solving strategies is an innovating change process.

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The solution process is not regarded as a linear process, but as an interactive system. If one element is changed, this change can influence the other elements and the change of these elements can cause changes in the original element.

Configuration School conti.. 

An arrangement of parts or elements; "the outcome depends on the configuration of influences at the time" .

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“meta-school” which asserts that the most appropriate of the preceding schools should be adopted as the current strategic configurations.

Configuration School conti… 

This school offers the possibility of reconciliation, one way to integrate the messages of the other schools . Among the types of stages within an organization we find:

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stage of development (hiring people, establishing systems, firming up strategic positions, etc.)

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stage of stability (fine-tuning the strategies and structures, etc., in place)

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stage of adaptation (marginal changes in structures and strategic positions)

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stage of struggle (groping for a new sense of direction, whether in limbo, in flux, or by experimentation)

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stage of revolution (rapid transformation of many characteristics concurrently)

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Premises of the Configuration School Most of the time, an organization can be described in terms of some kind of stable

configuration of its characteristics: for a distinguishable period of time, it adopts a particular form of structure matched to a particular type of context which causes it to engage in particular behaviors that give rise to a particular set of strategies.

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These periods of stability are interrupted occasionally by some process of transformation—a quantum leap to another configuration.

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These successive states of configuration and periods of transformation may order themselves over time into patterned sequences, for example describing life cycles of organizations.

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The key to strategic management, therefore, is to sustain stability or at least adaptable strategic change most of the time, but periodically to recognize the need for transformation and be able to manage that dis' ruptive process without destroying the organization

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Accordingly, the process of strategy making can be one of conceptual designing or formal planning, systematic analyzing or leadership visioning, cooperative learning or competitive politicking, focusing on individual cognition, collective socialization, or simple response to the forces of the environment.

CONFIGURATIONS OF STRUCTURE AND POWER      

The Entrepreneurial Organization The Machine Organization The Professional Organization The Diversified Organization The Missionary Organization The Political Organization

TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONS     

Incremental Change Quantum Change/Revolutionary Change Evolved Change Driven Change Planned Change

CRITIQUE, OF THE CONFIGURATION SCHOOL Few real organizations are simple structures or machine bureaucracies: almost all organizations lie somewhere in the middle. Students, be they MBA or executives, mostly come from organizations which have intermediary levels of size, standardization, organic-ness and so on.

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Managers are involved in managing change, usually of degree: some growth in size, a little more innovation, maturing of this product line but not that product line and so on.

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Gives a too general picture, tries to include everything and fails to discuss anything well.

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In configurations they find stark, but simplistic caricature: simple structures, machine bureaucracy, innovating adhocracies. These models provide scant help. 

Organizations come in "many shades of gray and not just black and white"

CONTRIBUTIONS:

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Overall, the contribution of the configuration school has been evident in strategic management.

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It brings order to the messy world of strategy formation, particularly to its huge, diverse literature and practice.