Miles and Snow
Organizational Types
Miles and Snow, based on an in-depth cross-industry study of a relatively small sample or large corporations, developed a theory that there are three superior performing business types and all others are average or less than average. Their theory holds that in order to be superior, there must be a clear and direct match between the organization's mission/values (their definition), the organization's strategies (their basic strategy set), and the organization's functional strategies (their characteristics and behavior).
"Defenders are organizations
Basic strategy set:
- Aggressively maintain prominence within its chosen market segment
- Ignore developments outside of this domain
- Penetrate deeper into current markets
- Normally, growth occurs cautiously and incrementally
Characteristics & behavior:
- Single core technology, often vertically integrated, updates current technology to maintain efficiency
- Stable structure and process
- Dominant coalitions are finance and production
- Planning is intensive, not extensive
- Promote from within
- Functional structure
- Extensive division of labor and high degree of formalization
- Centralized control
- Vertical information flows
- Simple and inexpensive coordination
- Managers evaluated on efficiency versus the past
"Prospectors are organizations
Basic strategy set:
- Broad domain, in a continuous state of development
- Monitors a wide range of environmental conditions, trends, and events
- Creators of change in their industries
- Growth primarily from new markets and new products
- Uneven, spurt-like growth
Characteristics & behavior:
- Not efficient
- Changing structure and technology
- Frequent prototype production, multiple technologies
- Technologies in people not machines
- Dominant coalitions are marketing and research and development
- Key executives as likely to come from outside as inside
- Executive tenure is shorter than defenders
- Planning is broad, not intensive
- Product based structure
- Less division of labor, low formalization
- Control is results-oriented
- Info flow to decentralized decision-makers
- Complex and expensive coordination
- Conflict directly confronted and resolved
- Managerial appraisal versus similar organizations
"Analyzers are organizations
Basic strategy set:
- A mixture of products and markets, some stable, others changing
- Successful imitation through extensive marketing surveillance
- Avid follower of change
- Growth normally occurs through market penetration
- Growth may also occur through product and market development
Characteristics & behavior:
- Dual technology core, moderate efficiency
- Dominant coalition is marketing, applied research, and production
- Planning is both intensive and comprehensive
- Structure is matrix, functional and product
- Control difficult; must be able to trade off efficiency and effectiveness
- Coordination is both simple and complex
- Managerial is dual efficiency versus past, effectiveness versus similar organizations
"Reactors are organizations
Basic strategy set (1 of 3):
- Management fails to articulate a viable organizational strategy
- Management articulates an appropriate strategy, but technology, structure, and process are not linked to strategy appropriately
- Management adheres to a particular strategy-structure relationship that is not relevant to the environment
Source: Miles, Raymond E. and Snow, Charles C. (1978). Organizational strategy, structure, and process. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
See also:
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