Schizoid Incoherence, Microstrategic Options, and the Strategic Management of New Organizational Forms

Special Issue

Abstract

Most musings on the strategic management of new organizational forms—e.g., loosely coupled systems, information-technology-enabled networks, and virtual organizations— exhibit two fundamental research weaknesses. First, the “new organizational formists” are insufficiently grounded in research on old organizational forms and old organizational strategies. Second, most studies of new organizational forms are insufficiently grounded in data from the new organizational forms they purport to explain. This leads to a situation in which chroniclers of an important change in organizations are too-often ignored because they are atheoretical and aempirical. This study of John Brown Engineering & Construction’s adoption of an explicit information technology strategy provides a specific research context in which to consider three related phenomena. The first phenomenon is the continual movement in organizational forms, from firms, to bureaucracies, to institutions, and—most recently—to loosely coupled systems, information-technology- enabled networks, and virtual organizations. The second phenomenon is the continued accumulation of strategic options: cost leadership, differentiation, strategic alliances, vertical integration, diversification, globalization, and merger and acquisition strategies. The third phenomenon is the notion of “schizoid incoherence,” a condition common to sensemakers, decision-makers, and strategy makers in which there are numerous possible directions to take.