The logical incremental perspective
In the late 1950s Lindblomm suggested that managing strategies through logical,
sequential planning mechanisms was unrealistic. He argued that, given the complexity
of organisations and the environments in which they operate, managers cannot consider all possible options in terms of all possible futures and evaluate these against
preset, unambiguous objectives. This is particularly so in an organisational context in
which there are likely to be conflicting views, values and power bases. Rather, strategic choice takes place by comparing options against each other and considering
which would give the best outcome and be possible to implement. Lindblom called
this strategy building through ‘successive limited comparisons’, but argued that it
took place in the everyday world of managing, not through planning systems.
It is a position in many respects similar to that argued by Quinn.“ His study of nine
major multinational businesses concluded that the management process could best be
described as logical incrementalism. By this he meant that managers have a view of
where they want the organisation to be in years to come but try to move towards
this position in an evolutionary way. They do this by attempting to ensure the success
and development of a strong, secure but flexible core business, but also by continually
experimenting with ‘side bet’ ventures. This mode of strategy formulation is not seen
as the sole responsibility of top management and the corporate centre: those in the
lower levels of the organisation and the organisation’s ‘strategic subsystems’ are
actively involved. Here managers accept the uncertainty of their environment
because they realise that they cannot do away with this uncertainty by trying to
‘know’ factually about how the environment will change. Rather they seek to
become highly sensitive to environmental signals through constant environmental
scanning and by testing and developing strategies in a step by step process of experimentation and limited exposure to the business environment.