O&E: Configuration school

Question 1

What is Configuration?

Answer 1

• Stable structure of the organization
• Occasional big shifts to new patterns
• Balances stability and change
• Combines ideas from other schools
• Adapts to stable, dynamic, or controlled environments

Question 2

Two Main Sides of configuration:

Answer 2

1. Configuration as a stable pattern.
2. Transformation as a strategy-making process

Question 3

Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations:

Answer 3

1. Entrepreneurial
2. Machine
3. Professional
4. Diversified
5. Adhocracy
6. Missionary
7. Political

Question 4

Stages of Organizational Development (McGill Studies):

Answer 4

• Development
• Stability
• Adaptation (marginal change)
• Struggle (searching new direction)
• Revolution (rapid transformation)

Question 5

Patterns of Change Over Time:

Answer 5

1. Periodic bumps: Long stable phases interrupted by revolutions.
2. Oscillating shifts: Cycles between stability and struggle.
3. Lifecycles: Predictable stages in sequence.
4. Regular process: Continuous, steady adaptation.

Question 6

• 4 trajectories from success to failure:

Answer 6

• Focusing: Craftsmen → rigid technocracy.
• Venturing: Growth → overstretched empire.
• Inventing: R&D pioneers → chaotic resource waste.
• Decoupling: Marketing-led → bureaucratic drift.

Question 7

Miles & Snow’s 4 Configurations:

Answer 7

• Defenders
• Prospectors
• Analyzers
• Reactors

Question 8

Other Models:

Answer 8

• Allison’s models
• Ulrich’s 5-step reengineering
• Baden-Fuller’s crescendo model
• Eisenstat & Spector’s 6-step change process

Question 9

Premises of the Configuration School:

Answer 9

• Organizations usually stay stable
• Big changes happen in leaps
• Change follows clear patterns
• Goal: stay stable, change when needed
• Each school = a configuration type
• Strategy changes with time/context

Question 10

Critiques of the configuration school:

Answer 10

• Too simple — real orgs don’t fit boxes
• Vague on when to change
• Big-leap theory not always true
• Misses small/gradual changes