Similarly, the prescriptive (normative) and descriptive approaches represent two other different perspectives for formulating strategy. The prescriptive approach emphasizes explicit, planned, and logical thought processes. In this approach, the process of formulating a strategy is defined in advance and its specific components are decided before implementation. In other words, the prescriptive approach proposes the “best” way to develop and implement organizational strategies for all types of organizations.
The guidelines and procedures used in this approach were obtained from the synthesis of case studies and organization theory research. More specifically, the process of the prescriptive approach involves eight related components.
The eight components include:
Establishing the mission of an organization
Setting the objectives of the organization
Conducting the environmental scanning
Identifying the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses
Formulating alternative strategies
Choosing a strategy
Implementing the strategy
Evaluating and controlling the strategy.
Many scholars and strategists however have rejected the dispassionate prescriptive approach because they believe that different organizations in different business environments require different and not prescribed business strategies. Furthermore, according to them, the formulation of organizational strategies in the real business world is actually more complex than what has been suggested by the prescriptive approach. For instance, the prescriptive approach does not take into account the reality of managerial decision-making as well as the complexity and dynamism of the true business environment. Given this, descriptive strategists emphasize the need for organizations to examine and learn how strategy is actually being practised in real companies as well as in the real world of business.
Dissatisfied with the limitations found in the prescriptive approach, the descriptive approach was proposed. The descriptive approach is very much concerned with reality and focuses on how organizational strategies in real-life organizations are actually being formulated and implemented. In his earlier work, Mintzberg identified ten schools of thought on a strategy based on both the prescriptive and descriptive perspectives. From the ten schools, the scholar differentiated three prescriptive approaches that include; conceptual design, formal planning, and analytical positioning. The analytical positioning school resulted from his research on the content of competitive strategies. In addition, by using the descriptive approach, the scholar developed the entrepreneurial school (concerned with strategy formation as a visionary school), the cognitive school (a mental process), the learning school (an emergent process), and the environmental school (a passive process). By combining the descriptive and integrative approaches, the scholar then introduced the configuration school that helped to place the findings of the other schools in context by seeking to delineate the various stages and sequences of the strategy formation process.
Comments