Emergent strategy development for organizations

The professional field of strategic management distinguishes several different schools, among them the prescriptive and emergent approaches (Lynch, 2000). Although theorists distinguish different approaches (e.g., Idenburg, 1993; Mintzberg, 1987), in order to look more closely at emergence in strategic processes we highlight the distinctions between the rational planning and emergent schools, particularly in regard to issues of language and time. Our article proceeds as follows. We briefly review the literature of emergent strategy and the Delphic oracle, with particular attention to the ways in which the latter reflects current thinking about ambiguity, complexity, emergence, and strategy. We then take a closer look at the function of different symbolic and temporal approaches to the learning requirements of emergent strategy, and we propose that oracle can be usefully seen as a type of learning. Based on this strategic approach to learning and emergence, we make a series of propositions for future research.