2.1 Strategy as a sequence of decisions
In the understanding of strategy from the viewpoint of decision-making theory there is
initially no difference between strategies and decisions. As in strategy development, a
conscious, calculated selection among alternative actions is made (Barnard, 1938;
Schimank, 2005). Even the cross-situational quality that is often ascribed to strategies
(see for example Quinn, 1988, p. 3) can also be assumed for decisions in organizations.
Every decision is not only connected to previous decisions, but is oriented to specific
rationalities and thus reproduces the organization and its structures (path-dependency
of decisions). At the same time every decision is the basis – in a structuration-theory
perspective a “resource” (Giddens, 1995) – for subsequent decisions.