Rhys Andrews – Strategic Management and Public Service Perfomance

Автор: Rhys Andrews
Название книги: Strategic Management and Public Service Perfomance
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Бизнес
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

When Raymond Miles and I, along with our colleagues Alan Meyer
and Henry Coleman, did our original research in the 1970s, the field
of strategic management did not yet exist as a formal academic discipline.
The Miles and Snow (1978) strategy typology helped to establish
the field by integrating the literature on managerial strategizing and
planning with the literature on organization theory. Our empirical
studies included firms from an industry undergoing a major transformation
(college textbook publishing), two industries adapting to various
new technologies (microelectronics and hospitals) and a stable industry
(food processing). In each industry, we identified similar patterns
in firms’ strategic choices which we labelled Prospector, Analyzer and
Defender. (We also identified ineffective patterns of strategic choices
which we labelled the Reactor.) Each of these labels indicates the strategy
the firm uses to compete in its chosen markets, and each type has
its own organization structure and management system that is specifically
suited to its strategy. Subsequently, Miles and Snow (1984) argued
that a firm’s overall strategy must fit its environment (external fit), organization
structures and management processes must align with strategy
(internal fit) and the entire organization must continually adapt in order
to maintain fit over time (dynamic fit). The three strategy types are
described as follows:
Prospectors are firms that continually develop new products, services,
technologies and markets. They achieve success by moving first relative
to their competitors, either by anticipating the market based
on their research and development efforts or by building a market
through their customer-relating capabilities.
Defenders are firms with stable product or service lines that leverage
their competence in developing process efficiencies. They search for
economies of scale in markets that are predictable and expandable.
Analyzers are firms that use their applied engineering and manufacturing
skills to make a new product better and cheaper, and they use
their marketing resources to improve product sales
Viewed from the perspective of the industry as a whole, innovation
occurs because all three strategy types are present (Miles et al., 1993).
That is, Prospectors create opportunities in the industry by developing
new technologies. Analyzers follow Prospectors into new markets but
tend to focus on those markets in which they already have products
that can be enhanced or in which they have a particular process advantage.
The unique capability of Analyzers lies in their ability to envision
the market potential for a new product or technology and their skill
in rapidly commercializing innovations. While Prospectors seek returns
based on their ability to invent, Analyzers seek returns based on their
ability to perform productmodifications and enhancements using established
technologies. For their part, Defenders focus on standardizing
the technologies and products developed by other firms while lowering
overall costs by becoming increasingly efficient.
Over the past three decades, management and marketing scholars
have examined the Miles–Snow typology’s validity and reliability
(Shortell and Zajac, 1990); the research value of the typology compared
to other prominent strategy typologies (Doty et al., 1993); the functional
attributes and performance of the strategy types in different industries
and countries (DeSarbo et al., 2005; Hambrick, 1983); how the strategy
types can be changed and redirected (Zajac and Shortell, 1989); the
relationship of each strategy type to the firm’s marketing orientation
(Olson et al., 2005; Slater et al., 2006); and the extent of the typology’s
use (Zahra and Pearce, 1990). Almost all of this research has been done
on private sector firms which begs the question of the typology’s applicability
to public organizations. This is why the book by Rhys Andrews,
George Boyne, Jennifer Law and Richard Walker is so important. More
than any other group of researchers, they have used the Miles–Snow
strategy typology to study the impact of strategic management on the
performance of public service organizations. What they report in this
book is most illuminating. First, strategic management makes a difference
in how public organizations perform, just as it does in the
private sector. Second, as might be expected, there are similarities in the
behaviour of Prospectors and Defenders across both the sectors. Third,
unlike our finding that Reactors are ineffective, this study finds that in
some limited circumstances local government service agencies perform
quite well using the Reactor approach
This book brings together the authors’ research interests over many
years. Boyne, Law and Walker worked on a research project for the
fledgling National Assembly for Wales from 1998 until 2000. This
project examined the feasibility of implementing the ‘Best Value’ regime
in Welsh local government. At the centre of this policy regime was a
system of strategic management. This project on Best Value was the
foundation for the first of a number of ESRC grants. The data reported
in this book were collected on the first of these projects, and the study
was entitled ‘Strategy and Service Improvement in Local Government’
which Andrews, Boyne, Law and Walker worked on from 2001 to 2006
(grant R000239249). Boyne and Walker secured Advanced Institute for
Management Research Public Service Research Fellowships (ESRC/EPSRC
funded) that drove forward this agenda (grant 331-25-0004 and 331-25-
0006). Boyne’s work focused on failure and turnaround in public agencies
andWalker’s on innovation. Both continued the agenda outlined in
this book by asking questions about, and providing empirical evidence
on, the performance of public agencies. Most recently Andrews, Boyne
and Walker worked on ‘How Public Management Matters: Strategy,
Networking and Local Service Performance’ (grant RES-062-23-00389)
between 2006 and 2010. This project was undertaken in association with
Kenneth J. Meier (Texas A&M University and Cardiff University) and
Laurence J. O’Toole Jr. (University of Georgia), and the authors acknowledge
the helpful thoughts and comments they have offered on the study
of strategy in public agencies.
Many of the discussions associated with our research projects, teaching
programmes and writing during this time took place in the Staff
Common Room in Aberdare Hall at Cardiff University, and were fuelled
by salads and copious amounts of tea and coffee. Beyond this, many
people have contributed to the contents of this book. Portions of this
agenda have been presented at conferences including the American
Academy of Management Meeting, British Academy of Management Conference,
International Society for Public Management Research Conference and
Public Management Research Association