ADMPS 3109

Maureen W. McClure

with

Thomas Conner

Superintendent

and

Deputy Director

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

School of Education

Spring 1999

McClure's office: 5K38 Forbes Quad

Office hours (1-4 MTWH by appointment)

Pittsburgh, PA 15260 US

Office phone: 1 (412) 648-7114 Fax number: 1 (412) 624-2609

The Readings:

Kevin P. Kearns ISBN 0787902284

Jim Knight ISBN 0749417269

Recommended:

WestView 1998 ISBN 0813368987

Internet resources and other recommendations:

Traditional planning

Expectations

This course focuses on emergent strategy in learning organizations. Emergent strategy is necessary when conditions are too complex for deliberate strategy that is planned and managed centrally.

Learning organizations are those where human capital is the primary source of wealth creation and technology is designed to support it. This differs from organizations where the process of technology is supported by human capital (e.g. automobile factory).

Emergent strategy is often needed by institutions with uncertain futures. Uncertainty can be created by rapidly changing legal mandates, weak or collapsed enforcement systems, weak or risky revenue streams, governing boards with limited technical expertise, or with limited professional management.

The rise of educational reform is weakening existing educational institutions domestically through displacement (charters, vouchers), and internationally through decentralization. Old public institutions are weakened by disinterest and new private institutions are too new to be strong.

Traditional industrial approaches to strategic management assume that strategy is centrally held by externally controlled senior managers who act as visionary architects designing strategy for a collective to 'build.'

This approach has limited value in human capital-based organizations that rely on extensive peer communications networks for continuous learning.

Case Building

Emergent strategy is 'situated' in an organization's history and culture. Complex strategy can often be best observed through cases. This semester we will examine two types of cases. One will be a study of emerging school governance reform domestically and internationally. The other will focus on two institutions with successful use of emergent strategy.

One will be Washington City School District in Washington, PA. This district is known for its resourceful use of limited resources.

The other is the Management of Information Technologies Center in Sarajevo, known for its resourceful use of limited resources during a complex emergency.

Emergent strategy cases rely on indicators, stories and maps. Indicators measure institutional activity in ways that make sense to others. Stories help others learn about the experience of those who create and use knowledge.

The Stories

Strategy for industrial production and war require command-based organizations that focus almost exclusively on clear, well-focused, easily summarized and observable results. Corporations exist to create profits. Armies exist to win wars. Command economies may be best managed through strong bureaucratic hierarchies that can profit from routinization of activity. Command bureaucracies are organized by collective mandate (employment at will) and require a strong consensus, chosen or coerced. This is the strategy of the oak.

Strategy for knowledge creation and generational survival require communications-based organizations that focus on networks of dialogue. Traditional academic or 'learning' economies may be best managed through professional networks that can profit from negotiated conversations.

Learning organizations are organized by negotiation and require a flexible coherence. This is the strategy of the willow.

Emergent strategy becomes important when consensus is not possible. Where consensus can be given or coerced, it is important to focus on the learning of the commanders. The assumption is made that the troops will follow.

The Maps

Strategy is a representation of communities in tension. In learning communities these tensions can be creative as colleagues assume that a different opinion may have value. In command communities, the tension can be destructive because agreement with command is assumed to be self-evident.

Disagreement is often framed either as resistance to be overcome or disloyalty to be punished.

Emergent strategy assumes that consensus is not desirable because conditions are too risky to place 'all eggs in one basket' of interpretation. Emergent strategy instead balances and considers multiple perspectives that rest on solid traditions of academic interpretation.

When the future cannot be 'seen,' it must be 'felt.' Emergent strategy balances hopes and aspirations against scientific laws. It emerges from history, from a work community's traditions and expectations.

It is not just a plan of action; it is a "way" of sustaining relationships. Strategy sustains relationships to achieve complex social ends such as profit, social cohesion and intergenerational responsibility. In some respects, the longer-term ends recede with the horizon because the community dynamically recreates them.

Mapping these complex relationships requires more than a PERT chart or a time line. The conceptual and operational worlds of strategy must be deeply integrated. During the era of industrial modernization, strategy was a function of top management. They made plans and wrote slogans. It was their responsibility to interpret the ways of the work world to employees. Employees were valued by their willingness to be dependent on these interpretations, often demonstrated through personal and institutional loyalty.

This approach directly contradicts one of the ends of education for a sustainable culture: autonomy. A well-educated workforce not only possesses technical skills, but it must also know how to sustain social cohesion and intergenerational responsibility. In a highly uncertain world, it cannot afford to be dependent on the interpretations of a few. They may be wrong.

The move toward greater participation makes sense for many, but it raises very serious questions about power relationships. Who owns work? Mapping is one way of grappling with these complex relationships.

This will be an intensive experience designed to provide in-depth thinking about a popular subject.

This is not a course that is organized by a lecturer to impart skills. It is an immersion in an experience. In a technical model, the teacher "owns" and is often evaluated on course "organization." The approach of this course reaches for deeper reflection on how strategy can used to help make our experience meaningful.

Evaluation will be based on thoughtful participation and creative analysis. The course grade will be in based on: a) individual projects; c) class assignments and d) class participation. How does the student draw on both the "texts" and their experience in order to make sense of/in the discussion? Examples of sense-making across planning, implementation and evaluation are concepts, metaphors, heuristics and maps.

Strategy is a cultural way of thinking. It is much more than technical plans.

The Projects

There will be a series of in-class assignments.

There will be three projects. All will contain individual assignments to support a group project. The group projects will create three products.

The first will assess recent school governance reform efforts.

The second will be a website for strategic management.

The third will be comparative case study on emergent strategy.

School Governance project

The Spring term 1999 will focus on strategic assessments with a particular emphasis on school governance. In the past institutional stability was assumed, so little attention was paid to core strategy issues such as governance structures and revenue generation. No longer. Charters, vouchers, tax reform can all leave educational institutions struggling, even if surrounded by wealth and parental support.

In an unstable policy environment it is important to understand the context of strategic management and the legal mandates on which it rests.

The Website

The Comparative Case

We will study two cases this semester, one regional (Washington City School District) and one international (Management Information Technologies Center in Sarajevo). Why?

The policy structures and legal mandates on which strategy rests are often assumed, that is, taken for granted. Issues like charters, vouchers, tax reform, inclusion, governance reform, decentralization and market orientation are destabilizing the policy environment on which strategy rests. Traditional strategic management under these conditions is difficult because the building blocks for the future are very uncertain. Limited financial resources are one constraint to strategic vision. Lack of policy infrastructure is another. The Washington case examines strategic resourcefulness under conditions of limited resources. The Sarajevo case examines strategic resilience under conditions of weak policy infrastructure.

Great strategic thinking requires an ability to simultaneously manage command and emergent planning. Command planning occurs with a stable policy structure for enforcement. Emergent planning occurs in policy structures that require negotiation. I can command my teaching. I cannot command my students' learning.

Agency is a function of human capital. Weak agency businesses need to concentrate capital in order to function. Missions can be established, objectives set, resources measured, and results achieved. Weak agency occurs where resources can be owned and controlled. In placid or turbulent economic environments with weak agency, strategy can be planned and directed centrally. A steel factory is an example.

Human capital is different from natural resources and financial capital because it cannot be owned.

People cannot be, and even more importantly, should not commanded in the same causal way that a light switch can be commanded. Where human capital is a necessary economic function, but not the primary one, agency is often weak. A steel mill, for example needs large concentrations of financial and natural resources. If steelworkers left a plant, there would still be a lot left standing.

Where human capital is a primary economic function, or where per capital technology is relatively inexpensive, say in education, the arts, communications and information systems, agency is much stronger. Strong agency can resist external command because of the importance of its expertise. If lawyers left a firm, there would not be much left standing. Strong agency businesses need to communicate in order to function. They may or may not need much in the way of other forms of capital. These business exist primarily in the minds and hearts of the people whose imagination creates it.

Which is education? As we shall see, it is not an easy answer.

SCHEDULE

CLASS FORMAT

There will be two study groups, one for the readings, the other for projects.

WATCH THIS SPACE. This syllabus will be updated regularly during the semester.

Find out if your hardcopy matches the current.

Last updated: Thursday, January 21, 1999