Navigating the Challenges of Remote Work Culture with Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategy
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| (Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels) |
Introduction:
After the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies now work remotely. Since people are separated and disconnected from the traditional office, organisational culture is even more critical. Organizational culture is the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and practises that influence employee behaviour. (Schein, 1990). Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought can help companies manage remote work culture. (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 1998). In this blog article, we'll examine remote work and organisational culture and how Mintzberg's approach can help solve some of the biggest problems.
What Is Remote Work?
Remote work, often known as working from home or working remotely (Indeed, 2023), is work performed away from a regular office setting. The idea behind remote work is that employees can do everyday duties and projects without traveling to an office daily. There are several remote employment prospects, but they all offer flexibility for an employee's work and home lives.
Figure 1: Which U.S. Industries Are Best Geared Towards Remote Working? (McCarthy, 2020)
Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought
Mintzberg is a renowned academician and author in business and management. The model depicts each school strategically and offers a critical perspective, serving as a valuable strategic management overview.
The Ten Schools of Thought model, developed by Henry Mintzberg (Mintzberg, 2005), provides a framework for understanding approaches to defining a strategy. A strategy may be a design, a plan, positioning, consumerist, cognitive (subjective), learning, power-centric, culture-centric, environment-centric, or configured.
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Figure 2: Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought (Source: Slideshare) |
The Ten Schools of Strategic Thought for Remote Work Culture
- The Design School: This institution emphasises the need of developing an organisation's strategy straightforwardly and consistently. A clear plan for preserving a positive organisational culture is crucial in a remote working environment. This can entail drafting a remote work policy specifying standards and procedures.
- The Planning School: The necessity of strategic planning and analysis is emphasised at the planning school. Organizations must continuously evaluate and analyse the efficacy of their remote work policies in a remote work environment and make improvements as necessary.
- The Positioning School:
This institution strongly emphasizes the value of securing and preserving a competitive edge in the marketplace. Organizations may stand out in a remote work environment by putting employee well-being first and fostering a supportive remote work culture.
- The Entrepreneurial School: This institution emphasises the value of creativity and taking calculated risks. Organizations can foster creativity in a remote working environment by promoting a culture of experimentation and empowering staff to take calculated risks and test out novel working methods.
- The Cognitive School:
This school strongly emphasizes the role that cognitive processes and mental models play in determining strategy. Organizations can foster a positive culture in a remote work environment by encouraging mental and emotional wellness and offering services for staff to handle stress and keep a good work-life balance.
- The Learning School:
This school strongly emphasizes the value of adaptation and ongoing learning. Organizations can promote a learning culture in a remote work setting by giving staff members opportunities for professional growth, enticing them to knowledge-share and teamwork, and offering training and development opportunities.
- The Power School:
This institution emphasises the role that influence and power play in determining strategy. Organizations may empower employees in a remote work environment by giving them the resources and tools they need to succeed and recognising their contributions to the company.
- The Cultural School:
This school strongly emphasizes how shared values and ideas can influence strategy. Organizations can foster a healthy culture in a remote working environment by encouraging open communication, collaboration, and openness among staff members.
- The Environmental School:
This institution emphasises the significance of outside variables and environmental effects in determining strategy. Organizations in remote work environments must consider external elements that could impact their employees and develop policies and practises that support employee productivity and well-being.
- The Configuration School: This institution places a strong emphasis on how organisational structure influences strategy. Organizations may need to change their organisational structure in a remote environment to support remote work better and foster a productive culture.
Conclusion
Any organisation must keep a healthy and influential culture, which is more important in remote work settings. Organizations might use Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought as a framework to handle the difficulties of preserving a supportive remote work culture. Organizations may build a happy and effective remote work environment that supports employee success and organisational success by prioritising employee well-being, encouraging transparency and communication, and cultivating a culture of innovation and learning.
Please share your ideas in the comments section about navigating the challenges of remote work culture with Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategy.
Indeed. (2023) Q&A: What Is Remote Work? [online] Available from: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/remote-work [Accessed on 2 April 2023].
McCarthy, N. (2020) Infographic: Which U.S. Industries Are Best Geared Towards Remote
Working?, Statista Infographics. [online] Available from: https://www.statista.com/chart/21732/attitudes-towards-remote-working-on-an-individual-and-industry-level. [Accessed on 2 April 2023].
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B., & Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. Free Press.
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B., & Lampel, J. (2005). Strategy safari: The complete guide through the wilds of strategic management. FT Press.
Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45(2), 109-119.
A theoritical read and thought provoking. Would like to see you discuss the pracice of at least some of these elements in the work environment here in Sri Lankan maybe as a follow-up blog post. It will add much value as it will show the applicability your suggestions.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your feedback on the article. It's wonderful to hear you found it to be thought-provoking. I agree that it would be beneficial to examine the practical application of some of these elements in the Sri Lankan workplace in a subsequent blog post. We appreciate your suggestion.
DeleteThe post navigates the reader very well inline with the heading. The post is merely a theoretical review. I believe to add flavour to the post you need to discuss the challenges faced during covid 19 pandemic period also. What is your opinion Niluka.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your input and suggestions. While my focus was on how to better remote work using Mintzberg's ten schools of strategic thought model, I agree that detailing the challenges that people faced during the Covid-19 epidemic time would be beneficial to the article. I will surely keep your suggestion in mind for future blog postings. Thank you once more for your input!
DeleteMintzberg says that getting the better of competitors, by plotting to disrupt, dissuade, discourage, or otherwise influence them, can be part of a strategy. This is where strategy can be a ploy, as well as a plan. They are Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position, and Perspective. decentralization—Mintzberg suggests that the strategy an organization adopts and the extent to which it practices that strategy result in five structural configurations: simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalized form, and adhocracy. I think these theories definitely will help you to the challenge of remote work culture Niluka .
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! The five components of the strategy and the five structural configurations, can help develop effective business strategies. Additionally, these theories can provide valuable insights into organizational design and management, including the challenge of remote work culture. Thanks for reading and commenting on the article.
DeleteThe article provides valuable insights on how Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought can be applied to navigate the challenges of remote work culture. You effectively explain each school of thought and highlight how it can be relevant in the context of remote work. The emphasis on the importance of maintaining a positive organisational culture in remote work settings and the practical suggestions provided, such as drafting remote work policies, promoting employee well-being, fostering creativity, and encouraging learning and communication, are relevant and useful. I would like to know how can organisations effectively promote a culture of innovation and learning in a remote work environment, and what strategies can they implement to encourage transparency and communication among remote team members?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insightful comment on how Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought can be applied in a remote work culture. To answer your question, here are some concrete examples of how organisations can effectively foster an environment of innovation and learning in a remote work environment, as well as strategies to encourage transparency and communication among remote team members:
DeleteRegular check-ins and team meetings should be held to discuss project progress, challenges, and goals. Make a more personal connection between remote team members by using video conferencing. GitHub, for example, holds regular virtual "All Hands" meetings to keep everyone on the same page and provide company news updates.
Encourage open communication and transparency among remote team members by using collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams. Use these tools to communicate team updates, milestones, and progress reports. Buffer, for example, has a transparent culture in which team members publicly share their work and progress with the entire team.
In remote work environments, implementing these strategies can foster a culture of innovation, learning, transparency, and communication.
The importance of organisational culture in remote work environments is emphasised in this article, along with an explanation of how Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought can assist organisations in managing remote work culture. The article gives a thorough description of each institution and explains how it relates to the culture of remote work. For organisations looking to develop a welcoming and effective remote work environment, it offers insightful advice
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I completely agree with you that the article provides valuable insights into the importance of organizational culture in remote work environments and how Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Strategic Thought can be applied to manage remote work culture effectively. Remote work is becoming increasingly popular, and organizations must clearly understand how to maintain a positive and productive work culture in a remote environment. The article's practical advice and examples can be valuable to organizations creating a welcoming and practical remote work environment.
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