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Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process
This book is an ethnographic analysis of the social fabric and internal dynamics of one such neighborhood: Miyamoto-cho, a pseudonym for a residential and commercial district in Tokyo where the author carried out fieldwork from June 1979 to May 1981, and during several summers since. It is a study of the social construction and maintenance of a neighborhood in a society where such communities are said to be outmoded, even antithetical to the major trends of modernization and social change that have transformed Japan in the last hundred years. It is a study not of tradition as an aspect of historical continuity, but of traditionalism: the manipulation, invention, and recombination of cultural patterns, symbols, and motifs so as to legitimate contemporary social realities by imbuing them with a patina of venerable historicity. It is a study of often subtle and muted struggles between insiders and outsiders over those most ephemeral of the community's resources, its identity and sense of autonomy, enacted in the seemingly insubstantial idioms of cultural tradition.
- GenresBusinessManagement
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1978
7 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Raymond E. Miles
9 books1 followerSelected Papers and Publications
- Collaborative Entrepreneurship, Stanford University Press, 2005. With Grant Miles and Charles C. Snow.
- Fit, Failure, and the Hall of Fame: How Companies Succeed or Fail, with Charles Snow. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
- “Network Organizations: New Concepts for New Forms.” California Management Review(Spring 1986).
- Organization by Design: Theory and Practice, editor and contributor, with J. Jelinek and J. Litterer. Plano, Texas: Business Publications, Inc., 1986.
- Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process, with Charles C. Snow. McGraw-Hill, 1978. (Japanese, German and Chinese language editions). Reissued, with commentary, in the Stanford Business Classics series, 2003.
- Theories of Management: Implications for Organizational Behavior and Development. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
- Organizational Behavior: Research and Issues, editor and contributor, with George Strauss, et al. Wadsworth, 1976; IRRA, 1974.
- “Human Relations or Human Resources.” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1965).
- Author of over 60 articles and book chapters.
- Collaborative Entrepreneurship, Stanford University Press, 2005. With Grant Miles and Charles C. Snow.
- Fit, Failure, and the Hall of Fame: How Companies Succeed or Fail, with Charles Snow. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
- “Network Organizations: New Concepts for New Forms.” California Management Review(Spring 1986).
- Organization by Design: Theory and Practice, editor and contributor, with J. Jelinek and J. Litterer. Plano, Texas: Business Publications, Inc., 1986.
- Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process, with Charles C. Snow. McGraw-Hill, 1978. (Japanese, German and Chinese language editions). Reissued, with commentary, in the Stanford Business Classics series, 2003.
- Theories of Management: Implications for Organizational Behavior and Development. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
- Organizational Behavior: Research and Issues, editor and contributor, with George Strauss, et al. Wadsworth, 1976; IRRA, 1974.
- “Human Relations or Human Resources.” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1965).
- Author of over 60 articles and book chapters.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 2, 2021
Fantastic Foreword for a Standard in the Field and a Reflexive Source of Research - Finding this edition of Miles and Snow’s classic book was a pleasant welcome surprise for this reviewer. In addition to the original work, there is an excellent foreword by Donald Hambrick that puts its contribution to organization studies into perspective.
The book itself describes the manner in which organizations adapt to their environment pursuing four basic strategy types: Defenders (prosper through stability, reliability, efficiency), Prospectors (thrive on stimulating and/or meeting new product – market opportunities), Analyzers (more innovative than Prospectors vs. Defenders, but more cautious and deliberate than Prospectors), and Reactors (vacillate in approach).
Familiar with the concepts, this reviewer appreciated the way Hambrick shows how Michael Porter subsequently presented his similar generic strategies on cost leadership, differentiation emphases and ways to map value chain activities. He was also delighted with the connection to Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema’s description of 3 strategic value orientations or “Disciplines of Market Leaders” (operational excellence, product leadership, customer intimacy) much like those presented by Miles and Snow.
Because of these connections, links to earlier management concepts and those that have come since make this volume especially valuable. For instance, one can see the similarities with Geoffrey Moore’s recent reissue of his “Crossing the Chasm” (3rd edition) description of technology adoption with Miles and Snow’s adaptive cycle – businesses cycling through entrepreneurial problem (selecting/adjusting product market domain), engineering problem (producing and delivering products – services), administrative problem (establishing roles, relationships, organizational processes). In many ways, this book can help enrich other such parallels with research by various scholars on topics such as configuration analysis, organizational fit, strategic human resource management, and multi-firm network organizations.
For such a reflexive and useful source of research consult “Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process” (Stanford Business Books edition).
The book itself describes the manner in which organizations adapt to their environment pursuing four basic strategy types: Defenders (prosper through stability, reliability, efficiency), Prospectors (thrive on stimulating and/or meeting new product – market opportunities), Analyzers (more innovative than Prospectors vs. Defenders, but more cautious and deliberate than Prospectors), and Reactors (vacillate in approach).
Familiar with the concepts, this reviewer appreciated the way Hambrick shows how Michael Porter subsequently presented his similar generic strategies on cost leadership, differentiation emphases and ways to map value chain activities. He was also delighted with the connection to Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema’s description of 3 strategic value orientations or “Disciplines of Market Leaders” (operational excellence, product leadership, customer intimacy) much like those presented by Miles and Snow.
Because of these connections, links to earlier management concepts and those that have come since make this volume especially valuable. For instance, one can see the similarities with Geoffrey Moore’s recent reissue of his “Crossing the Chasm” (3rd edition) description of technology adoption with Miles and Snow’s adaptive cycle – businesses cycling through entrepreneurial problem (selecting/adjusting product market domain), engineering problem (producing and delivering products – services), administrative problem (establishing roles, relationships, organizational processes). In many ways, this book can help enrich other such parallels with research by various scholars on topics such as configuration analysis, organizational fit, strategic human resource management, and multi-firm network organizations.
For such a reflexive and useful source of research consult “Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process” (Stanford Business Books edition).
September 14, 2008
“Books and articles come and go, endlessly. But a few do stick, and this book is such a one. Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process broke fresh ground in the understanding of strategy at a time when thinking about strategy was still in its early days, and it has not been displaced since.”
—David J. Hickson, Emeritus Professor of International Management & Organization, University of Bradford School of Management
Miles' and Snow's seminal work was originally published in 1978, and that was the edition I read many years ago. An updated edition was published a few years ago by Stanford Business Classics, which I would recommend.
Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process was, as few professional books can claim to be, an instant classic. It took bold steps into the relatively new field of strategic management, informed by the growing field of organizational behavior. Adaptation to environment is a central theme of the book, and it introduced a theoretical framework that has helped to guide and focus research in the area for three decades. Four different strategic responses to environment are theorized by Miles and Snow. They incude "defenders," "prospectros," "analyzers," and "reactors." The authors examine and describe each type, and their pros and cons, and fit them into an overarching framework that allows not only for testing of their hypohteses, but for extensions and further developments of their theoretical work. Thirty years later, that work is still vigorously moving forward.
—David J. Hickson, Emeritus Professor of International Management & Organization, University of Bradford School of Management
Miles' and Snow's seminal work was originally published in 1978, and that was the edition I read many years ago. An updated edition was published a few years ago by Stanford Business Classics, which I would recommend.
Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process was, as few professional books can claim to be, an instant classic. It took bold steps into the relatively new field of strategic management, informed by the growing field of organizational behavior. Adaptation to environment is a central theme of the book, and it introduced a theoretical framework that has helped to guide and focus research in the area for three decades. Four different strategic responses to environment are theorized by Miles and Snow. They incude "defenders," "prospectros," "analyzers," and "reactors." The authors examine and describe each type, and their pros and cons, and fit them into an overarching framework that allows not only for testing of their hypohteses, but for extensions and further developments of their theoretical work. Thirty years later, that work is still vigorously moving forward.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews