Strategic Choice

Conceptual Overview

The strategic choice perspective was advanced as a corrective to the view that the way in which organizations [Page 1463]are designed and structured is necessarily determined by their operational contingencies. This view overlooked the ways in which the leaders of organizations, whether private or public, can in practice influence organizational forms to suit their own preferences. Strategic choice drew attention to the active role of leading groups who had the power to influence the constitution of their organizations through an essentially political process both within and outside those organizations. It led to a substantial reorientation of organizational analysis away from simple forms of environmental determinism and contingency analysis. It also stimulated debate on three key issues: the role of agency and choice in organizational analysis; the conceptualization of organizational environment; and the relationship between organizational agents and the environment.

Child's 1972 paper offered a model depicting the dynamics of action within extant conditions and with reference to the possibilities both for learning and negotiation as forces that may change those conditions over time. The model begins with the evaluation by decision makers of the organization's present circumstances, including the expectations placed on it by external resource providers, the trend of relevant external events, the organization's recent performance, and its internal configuration. The prior values, experience, and training of the decision makers are seen to color this evaluation to some degree. A choice of objectives for the organization is assumed to follow on from this evaluation and to be reflected in the strategic actions on which they decide. Externally oriented actions may include a move into or out of given markets or areas of activity to try and secure a favorable demand or response that will be expressed by a high consumer or client valuation of the organization's products or services. They could also include attempts to negotiate the terms of acceptable organizational performance with external resource-providers or institutions holding sanction over the organization, although this latter possibility was not considered in the 1972 paper. Internally orientated actions may involve an attempt, within the limits of resource availability and indivisibility, to establish a configuration of personnel, technologies, and work organization that is both internally consistent and compatible with the scale and nature of the operations planned. The goodness of fit that is achieved is seen to determine the level of efficiency expressed by output in relation to costs. The conjunction of efficiency with external conditions will determine the organization's overall level of performance. Performance achieved becomes in turn a significant informational input to the organization's decision makers when they next make an evaluation of the organization's position. Thus, a circular, evolutionary process is established.

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