STRATEGY‐MAKING IN CONTEXT: TEN EMPIRICAL ARCHETYPES

Abstract

A more encompassing form of contingency theory is proposed to study organizations and their decision‐making behaviour. Instead of looking at bivariate relationships between environmental, organizational, and decision‐ making style variables, it is suggested that researchers attempt to find a number of causal models which represent archetypal, or frequently occurring relationships amongst a broad host of such variables. In this manner, relationships are qualified by their context and a more complete picture of organizational functioning emerges. A methodology for isolating archetypes is presented and we discuss some findings which portray strategy making behaviour under different environmental and organizational states. Copyright © 1977, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved