What Are the 5 Types of Strategic Management?
April 13, 2023
Are you curious about the different types of strategic management and how they can help your organization thrive in a rapidly changing business landscape? You’re in luck!
Today, we’ll explore the five types of strategic management – linear, adaptive, interpretive, expressive, and transcendent – and their respective advantages, nuances, and challenges.
We’ll also discuss the importance of having a strong strategic management strategy that supports ongoing adaptations guided by market insights, competitive advantages, and customer feedback. By the end of this blog, you’ll have a better understanding of strategic management and be ready to implement the right organizational strategy for your organization’s success.
5 types of Strategic Management
Let’s dive into the 5 types of strategic management businesses can incorporate across industries to drive sales, growth, and long-term success.
- Linear Strategic Management
Linear strategic management is the most common and conventional of the five types of strategy in business. Linear strategic management relies on building decision-making processes based on logic and rationality, allowing organizations to react effectively to unexpected changes and disruptions.
Organizations interested in implementing a linear strategic management strategy should begin by conducting a fundamental strength and weakness analysis to identify potential internal, external, and competitive challenges that may arise. Then, they should use these insights to plan strategic and rational responses that can be leveraged in the event that the identified challenges come to fruition.
It’s important to note that the processes and plans created by linear strategic management rarely impact the products or services offered by an organization. Instead, strategic linear management seeks to respond to issues like increased competitive pressure with tactics like improved marketing, more sophisticated sales strategies, and enhanced customer service.
- Adaptive Strategic Management
Adaptive strategic management is another common type of strategic management. Much like strategic management, adaptive management aims to arm organizations with the ability to respond effectively to unexpected shifts or changes in their market or competitive environment.
Adaptive strategic management hinges on implementing, reviewing, and iterating management strategies to continuously update, refine, and improve an organization’s approach to emerging challenges. Advantages gained by adaptive strategic management are by nature temporary and rely on continuing experimentation to maintain the edge they create over competitors.
- Interpretive Strategic Management
Interpretive strategic management is a type of management strategy that may not be as commonly used as others, but it can still have a significant impact.
By using an organization’s mission and values as a framework for decision-making, interpretive strategic management helps ensure that new initiatives align with the overall goals of the organization.
Additionally, interpretive strategic management fosters more innovative and experimental environments by viewing decision-making as an ongoing process rather than a rigid, formulaic responsibility.
This approach promotes a commitment to adaptation based on continuous insights into the market, customer needs, and performance, which can give organizations a competitive edge over those relying on more linear approaches.
- Expressive Strategic Management
Expressive strategic management is an evolved take on both adaptive and interpretive strategic management.
Expressive strategic management prioritizes taking a proactive approach to adapting to changes in an organization’s internal and external environments while remaining committed to upholding and communicating the mission and vision behind the larger organization.
Expressive strategic management can be challenging to implement effectively, but organizations that manage to do so are positioned to regularly take advantage of emerging trends while remaining true to the mission, values, and vision that drives their company.
- Transcendent Strategic Management
Transcendent strategic management is the highest level of strategic management.
Organizations can adopt transcendent strategic management after they have successfully implemented and mastered the other four strategies. After gaining an in-depth understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each strategic management style, they can then create a unique and multi-faceted strategy that incorporates the strengths of each of the four management styles.
Strategic Management Strategy
Now that we’ve discussed the 5 types of strategic management, let’s take a look at strategic management strategy as a whole.
Strategic management is an ongoing process that involves setting goals for an organization, creating action plans to achieve those goals, and efficiently allocating resources to support the different departments involved in working towards the objectives.
Effective strategic management requires a strong emphasis on continuous adaptation and iteration based on market insights and customer feedback. With a strong strategic management strategy in place, organizations can remain competitive and achieve their goals in an increasingly dynamic business landscape.
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