From Strategy to Strategic Organization

The strategy field has historically addressed the problem of strategy as a problem of ex-ante economic calculation of pay-offs associated with alternative choices. Given the inherent intractability of such problems, at least with respect to identifying an optimum, behavioralism is in some form inevitable. However, behavioralism need not imply a lack of intentionality or even high-order design efforts. The argument proposed here is for a focus on the design of organizations as complex, adaptive systems that are more or less capable of achieving satisfactory strategic outcomes.