December 1979, volume 24 For about eight years now, a group of us at McGill University's Faculty of Management has been researching the process of strategy formation. Defining a strategy as a pattern in a stream of decisions, our central theme has been the contrast between deliberate strategies, that is, patterns intended before being realized, and emergent strategies, patterns realized despite or in the absence of intentions. Emergent strategies are rather common in organizations, or, more to the point, almost all strategies seem to be in some part at least, emergent. To quote that expression so popular on posters these days, Life is a journey, not a destination.
Henry Mintzberg (Sat,) studied this question.