Assumptions of Majestic Metals: Strategy through Dialectics

The composite form of presentation was chosen in order to describe in detail more aspects of the process than appear in any one case and to help maintain anonymity. Similar efforts at the U.S. Bureau of Census are reported in Mitroff Ian I. Barabba Vincent P. Kilmann Ralph , “The Application of Behavioral and Philosophical Technologies to Strategic Planning: A Case Study of a Large Federal Agency,” Management Science, Vol. 24, No. 1 (September 1977), pp. 44–58. Additional details on the process used at the drug company are published in Mitroff Ian I. Emshoff James R. , “On Strategic Assumption-Making: A Dialectical Approach to Policy and Planning,” Academy of Management Review (in press). We are indebted to Kilmann and to Emshoff for some of the data reported in this article.

See Steiner George Miner John B. , Management Policy and Strategy (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1977), and Koontz Harold O'Donnell Cyril , Essentials of Management (New York: McGraw-Hill Books Co., 1974).

These group formation principles derive in part from research conducted by Mitroff Kilmann . See Mitroff Ian I. Kilmann Ralph H. , “On Integrating Behavioral and Philosophical Systems: Towards a Unified Theory of Problem Solving,” Annual Series in Sociology, Vol. 1 (1978, in press); Kilmann Ralph H. Lyles M. Mitroff Ian I. , “Designing an Effective Problem-Solving Organization with the MAPS Design Technology,” Journal of Management, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1976), pp. 1–10; and Kilmann Ralph H. Setlzer Joseph , “An Experimental Test of Organization Design Theory and the MAPS Design Technology: Homogeneous versus Heterogeneous Composition of Organizational Subsystems,” Proceedings of the Eastern Academy of Management (1976).

MAPS stands for Multivariate Analysis, Participation and Structure. It is a method for designing social systems developed by Kilmann Ralph . See Kilmann Ralph H. Social Systems Design (New York: North-Holland, 1977).

Details are reported in Mitroff Barabba Kilmann , op. cit. A similar framework for separating managers according to their problem-solving style is found in McKenney James L. Keen Peter G.W. , “How Managers' Minds Work,” Harvard Business Review (May-June 1974).

The “stakeholder” concept seems to have emerged initially in the systems analysis work on organizations conducted by researchers at the Tavistock Institute in London. See Rheman Eric , Industrial Democracy and Industrial Man (London: Tavistock Institute, 1968); and Fox Alan , A Sociology of Work in Industry (London: Coller-Macmillan Limited, 1971), pp. 57–68. Ackoff Russell has linked the concept to planning in Redesigning the Future (New York: Wiley, 1974). The notion has much in common with the role of the “client” in systems analysis; see Churchman C. West in The Systems Approach (New York: Dell Publishing, 1968).

Purposeful or teleological systems are discussed in Churchman C. West , The Design of Inquiring Systems (New York: Basic Books, 1971); and Ackoff Russell Emery Fred E. , On Purposeful Systems (Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1972).

The “inverse optimal question” is the first stage in creating a dialectic as described by Mason Richard O. , “A Dialectical Approach to Strategic Planning,” Management Science, Vol. 15, No. 8 (April 1968), pp. B403–B414. The article is reprinted in Ewing David (ed.) Long-Range Planning for Management, Third Revision (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).

The nominal group process is reported in Delbecq Andre L. Van De Ven Andrew H. , “A Group Process Model for Problem Identification and Program Planning,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 7, No. 4 (September 1971), and also in Van De Ven Andrew H. Delbecq Andre L. “Nominal versus Interacting Group Process for Committee Decision-Making Effectiveness,” Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1971), pp. 203–211.

The method employed was one developed by Saaty Tom . Technically, the procedure was as follows: Each member makes pairwise comparisons of the importance and certainty of each assumption using a scale from 1 to 0. The results are recorded in an n × n matrix A. The eigenvalue and eigenvector (characteristic root) problem Aw = λ^max w (where λ is the dominant root) is solved yielding a vector of weights, w, which in turn are divided by the sum of the weights to produce a ratio scale of relative weights for each of the assumptions. We have implemented an algorithm for solving this on a Radio Shack TRS-80 home computer. In Table 3, these weights were mapped onto a [1, 0] scale for purposes of graphic display. See Saaty Thomas L. nd Rogers Paul C. “Higher Education in the United States (1985–2000),” Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Vol. 10 (1976), pp. 251–263.

Mason , op. cit.

The theory of argument we employ at this stage is that found in Toulmin Stephen E. , The Uses of Argument (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958). Toulmin's theory requires that a claim (assumption) be analyzed as to its underlying data, warrants, backing (support for warrant), rebuttle (limitations on the warrant) and qualifiers.