Strategy, Action, Perception and Performance: An Evolutionary Learning Perspective on Organizations

Abstract

The paper develops the argument that strategizing can be seen as element of a process of social evolution. The argument is based on a model of systemic evolution that considers the learning process of actors (cp. Reschke 2005, Reschke and Kraus 2005). After introducing a view on strategy, which combines strategy as practice and Mintzberg’s emergent strategy view, I discuss theoretical perspectives from economics, evolutionary biology and psychology in section two. In the third section I build a link between micro- and macro-levels of social systems based on an evolutionary conception of organizational change. It is argued that Mintzberg’s argument for emergent strategy can be operationalized using a measure proposed by Goertzel. This is followed by a discussion of organizational development as evolutionary competitive process. The paper then links theoretically the strategy-as-practice perspective via Goertzel’definition of emergence and the evolution model to organizational performance outcomes.

Keywords: strategy, evolution, social evolution, performance, personal construct theory, mental representation