The Dynamic Responsiveness of Organizations

Organizational studies should address contemporary challenges of dealing effectively with the increasingly complex and dynamic business conditions. In this context we argue that structural features are linked to the corporate strategy process and affect the organization’s ability to respond to ongoing environmental changes. Sustainable performance arguably derives from integrative strategy-making where business opportunities are pursued as they emerge while being directed and coordinated through forward-looking analytics. This combination of decentralized responsiveness and central reasoning identifies a dynamic system of interacting fast and slow processes. The fast system observes and reacts to environmental stimuli and the slow system interprets events and reasons about future actions. When the fast and slow processes interact they form a dynamic adaptive system that allows the organization to respond to uncertain and changing conditions. We apply this model to interactions among individuals in organizations where ongoing experiential insights among dispersed operating managers interact with the forward-looking planning considerations around top-management. This identifies an organization that is able to react to frequent and often unpredictable changes and adapt.