The German University in Cairo

Faculty of Management Technology

The MBA Program

A Summary of
Strategic Responses of Top Managers to Environmental Uncertainty
By: Iger Sener
To:
Prof. Saneya Eglaly
Submitted by:
Name ID
Mohamed Sayed M1100570

22/ 09/2014



Summary:
In this article Irge Sener identifies Strategic Responses of Top Managers to
Environmental Uncertainty He cites that the organizational environment is mostly the main
determinant of the organizational strategy and one of the main topics is how to manage
environmental uncertainty, since the organizations face many constraints in its environment.
The purpose of his study is to determine the environmental dimensions that are perceived
to develop a strategy through which they can neutralize the turbulent environment. To that end
the environmental uncertainty was defined as the inability of individuals perceived ability to
distinguish between pertinent and impertinent data. In addition, the main frame was the
Contingency theory which proposed that the highest performance can be achieved when the
organization responds to environmental demands appropriately.
The Research suggested organizational environment to be a substantial constraint. Since
different environments have different economical, technical and social characteristics. Therefore,
the organizational environment was analyzed based on three dimensions that are complexity,
dynamism and resource munificence. Environmental dynamism implies the frequency of
changes in the components of organizational environment, where Environmental complexity is
the number of important components in the organizational environment and munificence implies
the abundance or scarcity of the resources.
The author collected his data using Semi-structured interviews, which were conducted
with 16 top managers of Organizations in Turkey.
He found that majority of the top managers perceived the environmental munificence
resources is the most important dimension in their organizations environment and became
scarcer in their industry and as a result competition became more intense. Based on availability
of resources they adopted growth strategies. On the other hand, the rate of managers perceiving
environmental dynamism and environmental complexity are same, who adopted downsizing and
joint venture strategies.
The main findings of the research indicate that companies operating in munificent
environments pursue growth strategies, whereas, that managers perceiving dynamism and
complexity in their organizational environments tend to follow strategies based on alliances with
other companies.
Within this frame, it is concluded that companies form strategic alliance in either
complex or dynamic environments. Since the resources are abundant in munificent environments
the primary objective is not resource acquisition. The organizations operating in scarce
environments primary is to increase their efficiency by adopting retrenchment strategies and
downsizing. For this reason, organizations operating in munificent and scarce environment do
not concern to form strategic alliance.
Comment:
There is no doubt that adopting the appropriate strategic choice is a very critical process
that determines the future of the organization. Walking through this article one can see that this
paper makes a good contribution to the field of strategic management. He shows in a simple
language a proper way to go for the appropriate strategy to cope the competition.
The author has mentioned that strategic alliance which is a short of merge is not the best
for the munificent environment, since in this environment the key factor is resources which could
be gained through growth strategies. Yet the author did not mention the limitation of this paper.
Moreover, there are some points that need further research.