Topic: ‘If we think of organisations, and their surrounding environment, as being political systems, this changes the way in which we think about strategic decision-making. This is important as strategic decision-making lies at the very heart of strategy making. ‘
A business strategy is about decision-making through all the options available that will lead a business to a shiny direction and steps it will take to achieve its goals. Strategy decisions are always made under perfect rationality models while the reality life is more complicated and changes happen are unpredictable, thus information about current situation of an organisation needs to be updated frequently so that analyst can have a fast response on strategies (Clegg et al., 2011). The essay will have critical analysis reflected based on the movie Thirteen Days (Donaldson, 2000) about the decision making process and incredible outcomes for the Cuban Missile Crisis happened in 1962, on behalf of the strategy making part including the process to decide an appropriate strategy and factors need to be considered as well as reasons why they chose that negotiation as an optimised decision will be addressed and further discussion. Then the political strategic decision-making models from Allison and Zelikow (1999) will be discussed in the later part combined with Rational decision-making suggestions from Vermeulen and Curseu (2008), who classified an optimal outcome is made from utility theories that usually applied on a firm’s decision-making. Turns out that surrounding environment and political systems, as well as some other external factors, are directly related to the decision-making process, one can also figure out their priority goal by the strategic decision discovery. ...
... middle of paper ...
... systems and surrounding environment that all these external factors will affect the decision-maker’s mind and lead to a different on the final strategic decision-making.
References:
ALLISON, G. T. & ZELIKOW, P. 1999. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, United States, Longman Inc.
ANDERSON, P. A. 1983. Decision making by objection and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 201-222.
CLEGG, S., CARTER, C., KORNBERGER, M. & SCHWEITZER, J. 2011. Strategy: Theory and Practice, London, SAGE Publications Ltd.
Thirteen Days, 2000. Directed by DONALDSON, R. U.S.A.
VERMEULEN, P. A. M. & CURSEU, P. L. 2008. Entrepreneurial Strategic Decision-making: A Cognitive Perspective. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
ZBARACKI, M. J. & EISENHARDT, K. M. 1992. Strategic Decision Making. Strategic Management Journal, 13, 17-37.
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show More2. Thompson and Strickland (2002), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition, Chicago Irwin Publications.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began with a set of photographs taken over Cuba by an American pilot.2 These photographs showed that Russians were building missile bases in Cuba and placing missiles and atomic weapons there that were easily within range of the United States. President JFK and Robert Kennedy were both stunned. From this point a board of advisors was created and called the Ex Comm, who met every day during those thirteen days and debated the various courses of actions, and consequences of each, that the president could take. Kennedy emphasizes the making of this board as a lesson for future government officials because he believes that it "proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one...point of view."3
Scott, Len and Smith, Steve, Lessons of October: Historians, Political Scientists, Policy-Makers and the Cuban Missile Crisis, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp.659-685
Wingrove, Paul. "Cuban Missile Crisis: Nikita Khrushchev's Cuban Gamble Misfired." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
"It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization." (John F. Kennedy) The Cuban Missile Crisis struck fear in the United States and across the world. Patience and smart planning was needed to avert a major world conflict. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States was forced to act in order to halt the Soviet influence in the west, safeguard itself and to protect the world.
Dess, G. G., Lumpkin, G. T., Eisner, A. B., & McNamara, G. (2012). Strategic Management: Text & Cases (6th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted two weeks in the midst of the Cold War, and brought the world closer to nuclear war than ever before. In October of 1962 multiple nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union’ s were discovered in Cuba, a mere 90 miles south of the United States. Given the communist ties between Cuba and the USSR, this poised a considerable threat to our national security. Throughout the 14 days the two leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled to clearly understand each others‘ genuine intentions. Actions taken by each state during this crisis demonstrates the realist point of view, in a variety of ways. The fundamentals of Realism will be explored and explained along with actions taken during this crisis from a realist point of view.
Chang, Laurence and Peter Kornbluh. The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. New York: The New Press, 1992.
Wit, BD & Meyer, R 2010, Strategy: process, content, context : an international perspective, Cengage Learning EMEA, London.
To view this crisis I chose the individual level of analysis because it is very easy to take that approach when you have three major key players as I mentioned above. Each and every one of those men held an excruciating amount of power which could have changed the total outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis if not used correctly. They all had the highest influences on how the crisis would end. The relationship between countries can be compared to a puzzle. One leaders relative power depicts one single piece to the dynamic puzzle made up by all respective countries and leaders. I drew to the conclusion that the individual level of analysis and international relations theory of realism combined together and allowed me to describe the situations of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the best way possible. The powerful leaders such as Preside...
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important events in United States history; it’s even easy to say world history because of what some possible outcomes could have been from it. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a major Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install ballistic missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy and the other leaders of our country were faced with a horrible dilemma where a decision had to be made. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlined three possible courses of action for the president:
Good Strategy/ Bad Strategy is not only a published piece meant only to apply to those in the business place. No, it is a public service announcement to society, urging everyone to open our eyes to the lack of strategy around us. Rumelt, through a great deal of case analysis’, shows that even our governing forces are greatly made up of strategy-less individuals, or even worse, individuals who actively practice bad strategy. Overall, this publication’s main takeaway is to obtain the tools necessary to identify the difference between this fluff and actual strategy and hopefully apply strategic thinking to your personal
The scope of this essay is to address coherently with examples a number of key areas of strategy; strategy and its importance, challenges in relation to development and implementation of strategies, and a discussion of the relevance of strategy in the modern
Mason Carpenter, G. S. (2013). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases Second Edition. Harlow: South-Western Pub.
Strategic management is a disciplined effort or control to make necessary decisions that have an effect on a business or an organization; the aim of strategic management is mainly to develop new, innovative or diverse ideas and opportunities for potential or development, and facilitates or assists an organization to achieve its goals (SM, 2010). In reality, strategic management not only can be used or applied to determine mission, vision and values or objectives, but it also establishes roles and responsibilities or timelines in a business (David, 2009). In the following sections, this study will focus on and examine the nature of strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation activities, and analyze the potential pitfalls or risks in using a strategic-management approach to decision making.