The New St. Gallen Management Model

Basic Categories of an Approach to Integrated Management

verfasst von: Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

First published in German, this book starts from the premise that managers' understanding and theories of organizations determine how they decide to act. It therefore scrutinises management's basic tasks, and examines the most important concepts of management science, prompting questions for a company's 'health check'. The management tasks and scientific concepts are presented on the basis of an integrated framework which allows the reader to easily recognize their interdependencies and interlinkages.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Introduction

Abstract

This first chapter will discuss fundamental aspects about the reason and purpose for a management model and provide a short overview of the theoretical basis for this text. The second chapter reveals our underlying perception that firms can be conceptualised by means of six fundamental descriptive dimensions (basic categories). The following chapters will examine the individual basic categories in more detail.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

2. Firms as Complex Systems

Abstract

Our perception of firms is, to a large extent, shaped by fundamental precepts of systems theory.⁶ In other words, a firm is understood to be a complex system in our model. By a system, we mean an ordered entirety of elements. A system becomes complex, when the elements of a system interact in a variety of ways and interrelate with each other in a specific and dynamic relationship. This theoretical description will be explained thoroughly in the ensuing text.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

3. Environmental Spheres of a Firm

Abstract

In the new St. Gallen Management Model, we distinguish among four important environmental spheres. The most all-encompassing sphere is society. It is the social discourse which impacts upon how nature as such is actually perceived, how technological developments progress, and how economic value creation should occur. With respect to the environmental sphere society, for example, firms might be interested in the following aspects and their related trends:

the population’s readiness to work and the level of education;
the population’s open-mindedness towards unfamiliar and new ideas;
the population’s willingness to take risks;
the population’s age structure;
the distribution of income and wealth; social problems and potential for conflict;
the role of the government and the manner in which public opinion is shaped;
political culture and limiting conditions;
political forces;
public infrastructure and educational opportunities;
…

The environmental sphere nature is not simply — as one might believe — of a given magnitude.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

4. The Stakeholders of a Firm

Abstract

A firm is never a means to its own end, rather, it must realise its business activities, which must provide a social benefit in active interaction with the most varied of stakeholders. These are represented in the outermost circle of the Management Model. On the left-hand side are stakeholders who provide the operating conditions or the resources. On the right-hand side are stakeholders who, in most cases, are relatively directly and deeply affected by the company’s value creation. Fundamental to the relationship with all stakeholders is the attempt to establish a fair balance of give and take.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

5. Interaction Issues between a Firm and Its Stakeholders

Abstract

A whole variety of commercial relationships occur between a firm and its stakeholders. In addition, there is normally an ‘issue’ in these relationships over which the parties contend with varying vigour.¹⁶ The nature of these ‘issues’ can be more ideal and intangible, or material and tangible in the sense of commercial and disposable goods and rights.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

6. Structuring Forces of a Firm

Abstract

If firms are to remain viable in an economic sense, i.e. creating superior benefits for the stakeholders in an efficient and lasting manner, then they must fulfil three criteria.²⁰

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

7. The Processes of a Firm

Abstract

Over the last decade, changes in a firm’s different environmental spheres have led to a massively increasing significance of process structures and also how processes are designed, compared to the organisational structure, i.e. how firms are structured into organisational units (Osterloh and Frost, 1998). Growing demands from customers, the deregulation and globalisation of many markets, the increasing role of the capital market, but above all, the rapid development of information and communication technologies have generated a fundamental intensification of competition. This has caused the time factor to become a competitively decisive criterion alongside quality and price. Competition, in general, is now characterised far more as a time-based competition than before (Stalk and Hout, 1990, 1992). We can observe that smaller fishes are not always ‘swallowed up’ by bigger fishes, but also that slower fishes are swallowed up by quicker ones.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

8. Modes of Firm Development: Organisational Change

Abstract

These days, executives often lament the inevitability of change, yet, paradoxically, change is in fact a prerequisite for stability, as the famous cybernetic expert Ross Ashby (1956/1970) had already clearly demonstrated years ago with the example of riding in a straight line on a bicycle. He showed that fixing the handlebars of a bicycle would always quickly result in the cyclists falling, because he would be prevented from adjusting his bicycle to the large or small bumps along the way.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

9. Epilogue: Reinventing the Wheel?

Abstract

At this point, the critical question may rightly be posed: what is so new about this Management Model? Does it come down to nothing more than new fads and myths (Kieser, 1996)? A glance at the first version of the St. Gallen Management Model from the 1970s, in fact, shows that the new edition can be understood as an organic evolution.

Johannes Rüegg-Stürm

Backmatter

Titel: The New St. Gallen Management Model
verfasst von: Johannes Rüegg-Stürm
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-0-230-50516-2
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51852-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230505162