Volume 19, Number 2 Article by Manu Parashar June, 2007
Organizational Evolution and Strategic Management : By Rodolphe Durand, Sage Publications, 2006, pp 190, Price: £ 22.99 (paper :
The rather onerous task that this book seeks to perform is the development of a comprehensive theory that combines strategic management with organisational evolution across levels of analysis. The accomplishment of such a task requires a wide sweep of existing change and adaptation literature from diverse fields. The integration of such diverse literature based on a myriad assumptions is understandably fraught with dangerous theoretical problems. Fortunately, the author is well equipped to handle these challenges, having written on these issues in top journals. The book, as far as its intentions go, promises to be an interesting read.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part, entitled ‘Positioning the Questions’, sets the agenda for the entire book. Critical definitions that are to be used in the entire book specifically of organisational evolution, strategy and strategic management are provided. The taxonomy of various change/adaptation/fit notions under the umbrella term of evolutionary notions is developed. This is a comprehensive taxonomy that includes notions like fit, deviation and metamorphosis, which is quite useful and deals with concepts like teleology.
The second part, ‘Building the Checklist Appraisal Grid for Evolutionary Models’, is where the author does a comprehensive literature review. There is a review of the three most influential theories in biology – the theories of Lamarck, Darwin and Spencer. There is also a review of various evolutionary theories starting with Campbell’s VSR (variation-selection-retention) model. Population ecology, evolutionary economics and dynamic capabilities are reviewed as extrinsic, combined and intrinsic approaches to organisational evolution. This leads to a review of the co-evolutionary approach that formed the basis of the author’s model development in the last section. The end result of this exercise is that a checklist is built up on conceptual issues, cautions, limitations and challenges on which any evolutionary model can be appraised.
Overall, I would recommend this book very highly to all those who have any interest in the futures market – be it from an academic view point or a practical view point. It will serve as an important addition to their collection and be of real value.
The book has many positives. It traces the origin of organisational evolutionary theories from biology. Key theories are reviewed and compared, providing a solid background for anyone trying to explain organisational phenomena from an evolutionary perspective. The author states that organisational theorists have borrowed unevenly from these theories with ideas sometimes being ascribed to scholars who had very little to do with them. The fact that organisational theorists sometimes stretch the evolution analogy using reasoning from biology to buttress their theories is presented as a major pitfall. The fact that Darwin’s model of evolution is VIS (variation-inheritance-selection) and not VSR may come as a surprise to some.
The OES model itself that the author comes up with seems to explain the extant evolutionary phenomena adequately. The appeal of the model lies in the fact that using the co-evolutionary perspective it manages to bring in a multilevel perspective. Levels of resources and capabilities, organisation and market form a part of the model. This makes strategy and strategic management an integral part of the model. The fact that each of the levels has an effect on the selection criteria of other levels is an interesting thought and intuitively close to the evolutionary reality. The model also makes a break from the use of biological analogies and is purely an organisational model of evolution. The whole process of theorising is detailed, rigorous and thorough.
The OES model itself that the author comes up with seems to explain the extant evolutionary phenomena adequately. The appeal of the model lies in the fact that using the co-evolutionary perspective it manages to bring in a multilevel perspective. Levels of resources and capabilities, organisation and market form a part of the model. This makes strategy and strategic management an integral part of the model. The fact that each of the levels has an effect on the selection criteria of other levels is an interesting thought and intuitively close to the evolutionary reality. The model also makes a break from the use of biological analogies and is purely an organisational model of evolution. The whole process of theorising is detailed, rigorous and thorough.
The successful integration of literature from fields like dynamic capabilities, evolutionary economics, population ecology and co-evolutionary perspective provides a holistic view of this field. The OES model in a sense is a holistic view of simultaneous evolution taking place at multiple levels. This is an important contribution in that it makes a comprehensive view of these processes possible. The appraisal grid that the author has developed to appraise evolutionary models is also an important contribution. It will be an invaluable tool for any scholar or student to check for any inconsistencies in the evolutionary model that they are trying to test.
Such a comprehensive model often suffers from the problem of being too complex. Weick1 has proposed the GAS (generalisability, accuracy and simplicity) model of theorising. There is a trade-off involved in theory building. The model is visualised as a clock with ‘general’ at 12 o’ clock, ‘simple’ at 8 o’clock and ‘accurate’ at 4 o’clock. Because the metaphor used is a clock, all the three cannot be achieved simultaneously. Weick himself is partial to 10 o’clock theorising, which comes up with theories that are simple and generalisable. Parsimony and explanation of extant phenomenon is combined here. The problem with complex theories usually is that the large number of variables and complex causality make it difficult for practice to gain any direct benefit. While these models have accuracy and generalisability, lack of simplicity makes them unwieldy.
The OES model is complex, with fourteen arrows that explain relationships. The complexity itself means that any practitioner would find it difficult to manage these relationships. There is a section at the end that tries to overcome this problem by providing the practitioners with a checklist for diagnosing the level at which the organisation needs to influence selection criteria. But the checklist is very broad and not quite adequate. While explaining the evolutionary phenomenon comprehensively, the nested model is too complex to be wielded by anyone but theoreticians.
Overall, this is an important book for scholars in the fields of organisation theory, economics and strategy. It manages to combine literature from diverse fields and provide a comprehensive explanation of organisational evolution. This book can serve as both a reference book as well as a book to ignite ideas for further research.
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