The Perdurability of the Organizations and Strategic Thinking in a Complex Environment.

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula-Maria Asensio-Estrada ◽  
Paula Andrea Claros Gregory
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rima’a Da’as ◽  
Nohad ’Ali

This article discusses the implications of sociopolitical and cultural challenges and complexity on educational leaders’ use of strategic thinking skills in divided societies, using the case of Israel, a deeply divided society with a hegemonic Jewish ethno-national state and Bedouins – a subculture of the minority Arabs. In the suggested model, we propose that, due to sociopolitical and cultural challenges, Bedouin school principals use ‘systems thinking’ skills as a holistic approach to coping with their complex environment. Jewish principals use the additional strategic skills of reflection and reframing. We provide the results of a preliminary empirical study, with 103 Bedouin and 67 Jewish principals, supporting our propositions. This article and its propositions open avenues for research into principals’ perceptions in deeply divided contexts and contribute to cognitive characteristics of leadership by explaining the implications of specific contexts for strategic thinking.


Author(s):  
Yishai Beer

This chapter deals with the lack of coherency between strategic reality—which uses deterrence as an essential strategic tool—and the prevailing law. Deterrence is a tool for enforcing compliance with the law; it promotes the containment of potential conflicts. It is pivotal in strategic thinking and, in many cases, an essential component of the national-defense strategy of law-abiding states. But although deterrence is central to the management of global security, in current international law deterrence considerations are perceived with suspicion and mistrust. It is perceived as an unlawful punitive measure. The lack of consensus on lawful deterrence, however, might create a vacuum that invites aggressors and transgressors. This chapter offers normative suggestions for introducing defensive deterrence and overcoming the practical problem of putting it into practice within the current contours of the law, by using the military professionalism criterion.


Author(s):  
Graeme D. Ruxton ◽  
William L. Allen ◽  
Thomas N. Sherratt ◽  
Michael P. Speed

Background matching is perhaps the most obvious phenomenon that falls under the label of crypsis. Stevens & Merilaita (2011) describe background matching as situations where ‘the appearance generally matches the colour, lightness and pattern of one (specialized) or several (compromise) background types’. There are fascinating examples of species that behaviourally select their microhabitat and orientation so as to enhance similarity to features of the background, and species that change aspects of their appearance in ways that enhance background matching. The degree of background matching is often imperfect; this is thought to commonly reflect the fact that organisms are viewed against a range of different backgrounds, and so they have evolved appearance traits that offer some degree of matching against several of these. Understanding background matching addresses important issues in evolutionary biology, such as the maintenance of polymorphisms. We discuss how predation rates that depend on the frequency of morphs in the environment may be a common explanation for polymorphic crypsis, and the role search images might play in this process. Achieving highly effective background matching in a complex environment is difficult and this may create room for other types of crypsis.


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