The strategy development process at Walter Sisulu University : implications from a complexity theory perspective.

Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.The study was about the strategy development process at Walter Sisulu University from a complexity theory perspective as an underlying theoretical framework. The complexity theory was used to draw implications for strategy development from the perspective of this theory. The principal rationale for the study was to comprehend the process of strategy development and to unearth the underlying theoretical paradigms that inform the strategy formulation process at the university. The study was moreover intended to look at available or possible models for strategy implementation. The research approach used to conduct the study was from a qualitative paradigm. However, when it came to data collection techniques, elements of the qualitative and quantitative paradigms were combined. The sampling method used was the purposive sampling which is one of the non-probability sampling types.The study has found that in the main the approach the university used to develop its strategy is anchored on the traditional, positivist and modern approach to strategy. This is a progeny of the dominant theories of strategic management underpinned by classical and scientific management theories. There is however, awareness and consciousness in the university to the reality that the organisation operates in a turbulent and unpredictable world. This is premised from the understanding that today’s organisations evolve and co-evolve with their environments and as such there is need to create an internal environment for agility, flexibility and innovation as well as self-organisation. The study also found that there is no clear model for the implementation of complexity theory in organisations. The study recommends that more studies on approaches, guidelines and techniques for the application of complexity theory be encouraged as a model may be an anti-thesis to the fundamental meaning of the theory particularly given the reality that the theory is also a subject of itself. The above recommendation is premised from the fact that there are few cases on the applied side of complexity theory. There is also need to embed the complexity theory in the academic content of strategy in the academia