Strategy Development as a Social Process

ABSTRACT This article argues that the development of strategy in organizations will be more effective if it is seen as predominantly a social rather than analytical process. Using the notion of organizations as negotiated order, it is suggested that designed Group Decision Support Systems can play an important role in facilitating the negotiation of strategy. Six ‘support systems’are discussed, and the implication is that planners might see themselves as facilitators managing both ‘socially negotiated order’and ‘negotiated social order'.