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Corporate strategy in Catholic religious orders
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Long Range Planning, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 44 to 51, 1987 Printed in Great Britain
Corporate Strategy Religious Orders
0024-6301/87 53.00 + .OO Pergamon Journals Ltd.
in Catholic
David Coghlan
Within the Roman Catholic Church there are groups of men and women in associations called ‘religious orders: These are organizations where the members are priests, brothers or nuns. They typically conduct many different organizational ministries-schools, colleges, hospitals and other assorted works. They constitute ownership of the vast majority of private Catholic educational and health care institutions throughout the world. The author undertook a study of five religious orders to see how they themselves formulated strategy. He hypothesized that the concepts and elements in strategic planning and strategic management were directly relevant to, and implicitly in use by, religious orders engaging in strategy formulation. This was confirmed by the study. There is a dearth of research in this particular area of the not-for-profit sector, and so this study attempts a unique contribution to the strategic planning research literature.
Background In a world that is changing rapidly in all spheres of life, the Roman Catholic Church is also engaged in the dynamics of change. Religious orders have not been exempt. Internal dynamics arising from the decline in the number of entrants over the past 15 years, the change in understanding of religious life itself, the call to renewal from the Second Vatican Council (1962Z65), to name a few, arc provoking radical change. External forces, such as the changing faith needs of the contemporary world, the growth in alienation particularly among the young, the changing nature of education, the blatant structural of many societies, the severe social injustices problems created by poverty, drug abuse, destruction of the family arc demanding a response that calls for new approaches. Religious orders are faced with corporate choices. They do not have the personnel to maintain their current operations at present or past staffing levels. Many such operations were established out of the needs of a previous era and so doubt about their present and future David Coghlan is an Irish Jesuit priest teaching in the College of Industrial Relations, Dublin. He has studied and lectured in the United States.
relevance is raised. Out of the renewal from the Second Vatican Council there vigour and energy that revives the original of the foundation. Accordingly, corporate and subsequent decisions must be made sense of identity, given the internal and forces at work.
processes is a new charism choices out of a external
It was the author’s hypothesis that the concept of corporate strategy is a significant way the heads of religious orders can proactively lead their communities into the future. Inherent in this hypothesis is the principle that the elements which constitute the strategic management and the strategic planning processes arc relevant to religious order planning dynamics. An important aspect of the hypothesis is to test the transfer of commercial and noncommercial strategic models and concepts to the religious order context. To bc specific, the hypothesis was that the ingredients that make up the corporate strategy process-strategic thinking, strategic management, strategic planning, integrated planning-implementation-control, suitability of process and structure, role of the head of the organization, arc directly relevant to the organizational change processes of religious orders. Marc specifically, the processes of strategic planning-sense of core mission, environmental scan, internal review, strategic posture, appropriate blend of integration and adaptation, are in essence what religious orders do, whether conscious of such a conceptual structure or not. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize a model of corporate strategy for religious orders, using the conceptual material from the literature and the empirical research conducted through interview. The methodology for this study consists of two related activities. In selecting the sample of religious orders the primary factor was that strategic planning had been undertaken. Accordingly, the focus in interviewing the provincials of the regions of these religious orders was to draw out the processes that had been used. The underlying assumption in the
Corporate mind of the interviewer was that the components of strategic planning-sense of charism, external scan, internal review, an appropriate blend of top-downbottom-up process, etc.-are implicit in religious orders’ strategic planning activities. The interviews were unstructured. The interviewer asked the provincials to describe what they had done, and intervened by asking questions like, ‘How did you go about having a sense of what the needs are that you’re trying to meet?’ ‘How consciously did you use the current identity statements of the community?’ The second element was the relating of these activities to the conceptual material of the strategic planning literature. While only one of those surveyed consciously followed a corporate planning manual’, the interviewer hypothesized that the basic ingredients were present, however unarticulated or implicit, The research was conducted with five surveys. Two female and two male religious orders were chosen. One survey was extended to two regions of one very large international male order. The emphasis was on religious orders with an international base. The studies were conducted with individual regions (called provinces) of these orders, mostly in the United States. Some religious orders are almost entirely devoted to education, and so their ministries are mainly schools at the different levels of the educational system. Others are equally divided between education and health care, with others having a wide diversity of ministriesschools, parishes, retreat houses. Strategy Strategy for the religious orders is the pattern of decisions in the order that determines and reveals its charism, purposes or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of ministry the order is to pursue, the kind of community it is or intends to be, and the nature of its apostolic activities in relation to different constituencies. This definition is adapted from the one provided by Andrews’. Strategy:
not-for-profit
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commercial arena. Newman and Wallender4 suggest that managing not-for-profit enterprises be treated as variants from the basic management model. The character of such organizations is too ambiguous to be able to indicate the nature of the variations. Characteristics such as the intangibility and immeasurability of service, relationship to customer/client, professionalization, and the nature of charismatic leadership and organizational mystique are constraining on planning, organizing, motivation and control functions.
Strategic
Planning
There are many models of strategic planning, most of which cover the same ground in slightly different ways with different emphases5. Hax and Majluf” provide a typical model. The main features of this strategic planning framework consist in four elements: core mission, environmental scan, internal review and strategic posture (see Figure 1). Core mission The religious order’s core mission is its constitutions and its early history. The work of understanding the ideals and intentions of the founder in their historical context and viewing them in the light of the contemporary world.has flowed directly from the Decree of Religious Life in the Second Vatican Council’. Each religious order has embarked on understanding its own mission in the light of reinterpretation of the founder’s inspiration. The purpose of studying the life, words and works of the founder is to articulate in the contemporary world the founder’s authentic vision so that it can become an ideal and norm for contemporary renewal and adaptation. Similarly, the early history of the order provides a model of how the founder’s vision was put into practice. This gives life and meaning to the written abstraction that is the consitutions which typically were written down after a period of apostolic experience. The cultural assumptions beneath the stated and actual behaviour are uncovered in the history of the order. This process provides a framework for understanding the
organizations
Wortman3 states that the not-for-profit sector is ‘virginal territory’ for the strategic management researcher. He suggests that when one thinks of organizations that arc poorly managed, have few or no long-range goal structures one tends to think of not-for-profit institutions such as hospitals, colleges and universities, welfare agencies and churches. He asserts that in these organizations goals typically tend to be short-range or poorly defined. This study attempts to add some evidence to effect a change in this situation. The literature is sparse in its treatment of not-forprofit strategic management. It is appropriate here to devote some space to the topic as it accords more closely to the area of religious lift than the
Core Mission
Environmental Scan
Internal Review
Strategic Posture
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founder’s vision as it was lived, and so provides a model for the contemporary formulation of the order’s core mission. An example of this process is found in one of the orders studied. The sixteenth-century text of its constitutions states, founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures, and any other ministration whatsoever of the word of God . . . the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments . . . should show itself no less useful in reconciling the estranged, in holily assisting and serving those who are found in prisons or hospitals, and indeed in performing any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.
The contemporary states,
statement of that order’s mission
it is to engage, under the standard struggle of our time: the struggle for justice which it includes.
of the Cross, in the crucial for faith and that struggle
The sixteenth-century language describing the twin focus of working in a faith context and working with the deprived is paralleled by the concept of the inseparable nature of faith and justice in the modern text. Other parts of the modern text describe the issues of injustice in the contemporary world, just as the earlier text point to those who were victims of the sixteenth-century prisons and hospitals. The integration of the service of faith and the work of justice is a very strong theme in the contemporary Church, and is forcefully emphasized by recent popes and synods *. This example illustrates the elements that make up the contemporary definition of a religious order’s mission, the spirit of the founder and the mind of the contemporary Church. Knowing the core mission or having a sense of identity is but one element in the picture. Of itself it does not lead to clarity of action. Environmental scan For the religious order the environmental scanning process is grounded in the Second Vatican Council’s call to study ‘the signs of the times’ and ‘interpret them in the light of the gospel’. Social analysis is a methodology for looking at the world in the light of the gospel that is becoming increasingly more prevalent. Holland and Henriot’ provide a model for the process. The process has several ingredients-insertion, social analysis, theological reflection and pastoral planning. It is a process that goes beyond the descriptive to examine causal factors in social situations and thereby provides the basis for diagnosis on which apostolic choices can be made. The results of the analysis are placed in the context of a perspective of all the forces that make demands
on the order. Mapping the environment involves listing the demand groups that currently make demands on the apostolic energy of the order, mapping current responses to those demands and then projecting future demands and future responses. ‘O In this manner the results of the social analysis are integrated into the arena in which the order ministers and wishes to minister. One order identified 11 such demand groups-youth/education, deprived and unemployed, marriage and family life, third world, media, laity and leadership training, industrial relations, bishops/priests/religious, ecumenism, third level education/theology/ philosophy, and secularigation/atheism/confused Christians. In that analysis the critical forces within those groups were identified and recommendations for objective setting clarified. This approach was later integrated into the dynamics of the strategic planning model as the internal review process set limits on the responses to the demands of each demand group. That same order consequently established an institute with the following fourfunction role description: (1) to support and assist apostolates in their specific attempts to redress injustice; (2) to describe and evaluate social development as it is experienced by unemployed, by lowpaid workers, by marginalized farmers, and by social welfare recipients; (3) to collaborate with those who seek to make social change more responsive to the needs of people living on low incomes; (4) to explore the scriptures and social teaching of the Church with those who seek to deepen their faith as they fight concrete instances of injustice. Another order spent 8 months researching the needs of a particular city and diocese before accepting an invitation to work there. Each order studied, in its published plan, devoted a section to the environment. Generally this section is entitled ‘The Context of our Mission’ and contains the key points of analysis relating to social, political, economic, cultural and religious life of the country in which the province is located. Issues of alienation, industrialization, consumerism, violence, deprivation are discussed in a national and international context. The subsequent strategic posture, then, reflects the ways in which the religious order would programme its response. Core mission and environmental scanning are insufficient for planning. Unless the planning process is grounded in the reality of the actual resources of the order it is unreal. Internal
review
The internal review consists of assessment of past performances, distinct competences, future projections, and appraisal of potential. It has a quantitative and qualitative dimension. On the quantitative dimensions, religious orders have evaluated their personnel resources-numbers, ages, skills. It is comparatively easy to assess present and future resources. Logistically, most religious orders will be unable to maintain their past and present level of presence in their apostolates in future years. On the qualitative dimension reviewing the quality of
Corpo Irate Strategy in Catholic Religious
posture
Strategic posture is the position of having a pragmatic and concrete set of criteria, guidelines, norms, serving as immediate challenges for the development of strategic proposals. It comprises the primary issues to be addressed in the next 3-5 years as derived from the integrated picture of core mission, environmental scan and internal review. Strategic thrusts should contain specific and meaningful planning challenges addressed to all levels of the organization, resulting from the preceding analysis, and articulated in such a way as to convey a sense of the critical tasks that every unit has to deal with in order to develop an effective strategic position.
Typically, strategic posture in the orders studied was expressed in terms of criteria, numbering about four. Establishment of criteria is a way of pinning down the intangibility and immeasurability that Newman and Wallender’* pointed to as the ambiguous factor in not-for-profit enterprises. Each order had its own terminology. Some had criteria, some guidelines. Some used both terms without a clear distinction between them. Generally they numbered three or four, and operations were closed
The process of putting together the charism of the order, the demands of the external environment, and the results of the internal review is unique for the religious order. The rational, political, contingency approaches to decision-making of the secular arena are insufficient for the faith perspective
Vision (Core Mission) - Constitutions
/
\
Environmental Scan at Corporate Level
Internal Scrutiny at Corporate Level -Actual
-
Resources - Personnel - Numbers - Ages - Skills Physical Resources - Apostolates Other Resources - Current Apostolates - Strengths and Weaknesses - Tradition - Prouds and Sorries
I
I
(Context of Ministries) - Needs -Changes in Society - Justice and Peace - Local Church - Analysis of Needs - Assumptions - Scenarios
Strategic Posture - Mission Statement \
(Corporate Strategic Thrusts) (Corporate Apostolic Objectives) (Criteria) (Guidelines)
Figure 2. Strategic posture in the religious order
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religious bring to decision-making. Religious decision-making must be grounded in the faith on which mission and vocation are based. Discernment is the process that integrates prayer and decisionmaking, taking the process of making decisions beyond what is rational or political to the level of the sense of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.” Discernment, as a religious experience in decisionmaking, is a core dynamic in the strategic posture step. Strategic posture, in the religious order context, can be defined in terms of the prayerful integration of the demands of the external environment with the limited available resources within an order grounded in the identity of the special charism of that particular order (see Figure 2). A provincial, reporting on a decision not to accept a request to undertake a new aspostolic venture, said, ‘It. was a really good work to be involved in and had very pressing needs. But it simply wasn’t us.’
apostolic activities, assessing strengths and weaknesses, is an approach that evokes a deepening commitment to renewal through a communal experience of vocation and an experience of communal sinfulness and healing. The internal review process becomes an integral complement to a sense of core mission and environmental scanning. Strategic
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and new ones opened on the basis of these criteria. One order spoke of ‘five authentic characteristics’ that pervade their whole way of proceeding and to mark personal and community life as well as apostolic activities. In another case the dual criteria of focusing on the education of the whole person and the direct benefit of the poor were paramount. One case articulated four fundamental options. These were: (1) The service of faith with particular focus on the issues of unbelief and alienation; (2) the service of faith has the promotion of justice as an integral part which must find expression in solidarity with the poor; (3) the order must more specifically be in the service of the local church; (4) the decision-making process must comprise of the four-step process particular to the core mission of the order--experience, reflection and evaluation in the light of gospel values, decision and action. In the plan of this particular province, those criteria were then applied to particular areas of operation. For instance, the education sector of that province’s ministries in its response to the second criterion, set a goal of the catechetical-cum-social action programme so that the students would learn what faith with justice means in the concrete. This goal was then set into the form of action programmes which are reviewed annually. The general criteria in all cases were cdncretely applied to actual ministries. Each order provided an explicit rationale for present operations with the challenge of development in terms of the strategic posture. Corporate commitment to a particular operation depended on that operation’s implementation of the criteria. In one case, a three-tiered categorization of levels of priority was adopted. ‘Growth’ apostolates were defined in terms of opportunities for new contemporary operations arising out of the strategic process and characterized by an input of younger personnel and clear fulfllment of province criteria. ‘High maintenance’ were areas where there was a traditional ministry that the province continued to value highly. With a reduction in religious personnel the character of these ministries would change, and they would be expected to adapt to the province’s strategic criteria. The third category was that of ‘low maintenance’ which consisted of the ministries the province would continue to staff as long as it had personnel to staff them and were centres of valuable activity by members who would work in a way that their health and age permitted. These apostolates would be phased out gradually.
Strategic
Management
Strategic planning is but one element in an overall process. To quote one provincial, ‘Planning alone won’t renew our ministries, but our ministries won’t be renewed without planning.’ Hax and Majluf’” lay out the interrelationship between
1987 organizational processes necessary for strategic planning to be effective. This is an emphasis on the direct relationship between organizational subsystems: planning, control, motivation and reward, communication, all of which are facilitated by structure. Control In the orders studied control was mainly exercised through reviewing how the strategic plans were being implemented. While it is difficult to set objective standards to measure progress the general approach was through subjective consensus-the provincial and staff in consultation with the administration of the particular apostolate. There was unanimity among the provincials interviewed that the publication of a province plan was itself a control dynamic. In all cases the actual publication of the plan came at the end of the process and performed the function of putting on paper what was in effect already under way. Having goals on paper is generally a new phenomenon in religious orders so it could be hypothesized that the emergence of strategic plans that identify the challenges and decisions for the coming 4 years in the light of the order’s identity and the demands of the environment performs both a motivating and control function. The policy of giving each individual member a personal copy of the plan could increase this. Structure
The interrelationship between planning, control and organizational structure must be direct. Direct linking of responsibility and authority within the structure to the assignment of tasks and availability of means to execute them facilitates the strategic thrusts. In one case a new structure to facilitate the strategy was created. In reflection on the material being generated it was realized that there was a qualitative difference between two essentially different sets of data. In one there was information that pertained to apostolic areas in which there were actual institutional ministries with personnel, plants, budgets. Other material was aiming at creating awareness and creating a qualitative difference in how ministries were performed. This insight led to a distinction between ‘sectors’ and ‘dimensions’. A sector was defined as a collective unit of the province’s ministries under a common heading, such as the school apostolate grouped under ‘education’. Subsequently the province was divided into sectors and a ‘delegate’ appointed to work on the provincial’s behalf in animating planning and reflection. A dimension was defined in terms of a qualitative ingredient of all the order’s efforts. For example, having a sensitivity to ecumenism that is expressed institutionally was seen as something that should bc evident in all the order’s ministries. This distinction between sectors and dimensions was felt to be a really significant insight that helped the strategic process considerably. Co-ordinators for the significant dimensions were appointed to co-
Corporate ordinate implementation. The delegates of the sectors then formed a commission with the provincial to oversee strategy and to reflect on policy as a body at the corporate level integrating sectors, dimensions, reflecting on input from the environment, keeping in mind the internal review and the identity of the order. In another case, groups were established to act as corporate members for large health care units. These corporation groups received the plans of the unit, and with input from the provincial, did theological reflection on the progress of the unit in the light of the province’s strategic plan, the unit’s own plans and budget, and emergent needs. The fruit of these reflections were then fed back to the unit’s board for assimilation into the unit’s own strategy and action plans. Communication Religious orders frequently are very self-critical about the level of communication and the sharing of information within the system. What is at issue in this context is information/communications systems that keep members informed of what is happening in terms of strategy and so act as motivating forces within the community. One province ensured each individual community purchased a similar video system and so the provincial office regularly issued policy reports, significant moments in important meetings on video. The members, spread over a wide geographical area, could tune into what was happening at province level. This also provided a way of integrating the elderly and retired into what was happening. Another arder instituted a brief newsletter giving policy developments. One task is that of balancing communication of information with possible overload of documentation which people do not read. The central issue is that of building up community ownership of the province’s strategic thrusts, whereby all members share psychologically in the work and aspirations of the apostolic endeavours of the province. Motivation and reward The motivational and reward systems arc the most complex. Motivation for a religious is grounded in the sense of vocation and mission. It is inseparable from the sense of personal calling from God and from a deep commitment to the particular religious order that is a fundamental life commitment. This pcrspcctivc is begun in the novitiate, developed through the formation (training) process and spiritual direction, and experienced throughout the lift cycle of the religious. Schein” argues for an approach to the human person that is complex and allows for dcvclopmcnt dynamics. In one province’s published plan there were separate addresses to the elderly, the middle-aged and the young, stating what was being asked of each of them. Through all the provinces studied there was consistently strong emphasis on continuing education as a formative influence. In times of constant change, renewal of theological constructs, personal development as
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well as particular apostolic skills are required. In integrating motivational and reward systems with the organizational structure and the strategic thrusts there must be congruence between corporate objectives and organizational behaviour. In each case, implementation of the strategy was accompanied by corporate approval and assignment of key resources, i.e. religious personnel. In one case the province’s schools were ordered in an hierarchy and personnel assigned accordingly. A school could compete for a higher place on the hierarchical ladder through its implementation of the province’s criteria. The strongest motivation comes out of a sense of being missioned by God through the religious superior. This sense is ultimately grounded in prayer and in the individual’s personal relationship with God. Similarly it is empirically demonstrated that potential recruits to religious orders are attracted by the sight of a committed group of people who are happy together, engaged in something perceived as worthwhile. Culture Many of the questions about the interrelationship of strategy with structure, motivation, control, affect the individual and groups in a way that opens further questions about organizational culture. Schein defines culture as, the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
He also makes the point that because such basic assumptions have worked repeatedly they are likely to be taken for granted and to have dropped out of awareness. It could be hypothesized that the adoption of strategic posture would involve a challenging of existing basic assumptions. Assumptions that give priority to integration rather than to adaptation were one range that were specifically confronted in one case. A movement from being enclosed and somewhat monastic to not being enclosed and not monastic challenged assumptions about the focus of community life and its relationship to apostolic endeavour. In another case assumptions about individualism and teamwork were challenged. Criteria relating to teamwork were articulated and attached to rewards, making it difficult for members to maintain old assumptions about individualism. Accordingly, ministries were rewarded for showing movement towards new assumptions. It was in the formation (training) sector that -there was the clearest evidence of attempting cultural change. Since it is in formation that the socialization processes are formalized one would expect to find indications of how the strategic thrust can bc intcgratcd into the assumptions of the new generation of members. The central dynamics of the strategic process were given
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Long Range Planning Vol. 20
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expression in the strategic directions of the formation policy, instancing the concern to place the new assumptions into the socialization process so that they would become normative: some areas where we need to formulate our formation programme policy more carefully: i) formation for the teamwork-collaboration, ii) formation in the use of the fourfold process of reflecting on experience, coming to decisions, taking action, and evaluation, iii) formation to commitment to work in the service of the local church, iv) formation in commitment to solidarity with the poor and to work for justice . now we must work at making explicit in our way of living and acting.
The human side Temporary groups or task forces were universally used in the formulation of policy. This was perceived as significant in that it facilitated bottomup input into the policy and helped build consensus. The effect of being listened to and having an impact on the strategic direction of the community was seen to be a powerful motivating and rewarding force for the individual member. Consistently through the strategic literature there is evidence that the role of the CEO is pivotal to the entire strategic process. In all the cases studied the provincials were very active in the strategic process. It had become part of them and their way of thinking about their provinces. One provincial personally initiated the planning process in his own province. He generated a sense of purpose and energy around what he was doing and created loyalty to the direction in which he was leading the province. His way of governing became closely associated with the strategic process and later the actual plan. There was an inbuilt consistency between how he led and the content of the process.
Conclusions In drawing together to synthesize the elements in the processes there are clearly some common strands. (1) Each religious order emphasized core criteria that were seen to be at the heart of its corporate identity, its charism. These criteria were the locus of the different strategic activities. (2) The process of generating strategy evolved from several sources. Typically the origins of the strategic focus were: (a) the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent rethinking and writing on the nature of religious life; (b) the order’s charism from the founder and its early history; (c) the experience, reflection, and analysis of religious orders of the contemporary world; (d) the declining numbers, due to a drop in the number of entrants and the large numbers of exits from orders in the 1960s and 1970s. (3) Strategy pinpointed key issues arising out of the core criteria and the needs of the environment.
(4) Each religious order gave a lot of focus to the question of process. Each worked at building in a process of systematic reflection as a critical success factor. (5) Each order devoted considerable time to consultation and consensus building. There was a wide variety of top-down and bottom-up interaction and participation in defining the emergent strategy. (6) There was unanimous use of task forces and ad hoc groups in the formulation of the strategy. (7) Consequently consensus and motivation in owning the strategic posture appeared to be strong. This can be partially attributed to the wide use of temporary groups and task forces through which consensus was built and communities involved in the formulation of the strategy. (8) Organizational structures were adapted where necessary to facilitate the implementation of the strategy. (9) Each order’s strategy included a focus on issues of internal organizational maintenance, such as training policy, continuing education policy, policy on the care of the retired and the elderly, community life. (10) The orders’ leadership played a very clear role in owning the processes and in activating them in their formulation and implementation. Religious orders have engaged in strategic planning and strategic management. The concepts from the strategy literature are directly transferable, even in a non-competitive, non-commercial context. How such influential bodies engage in strategy has hitherto not been researched, so this paper offers unique contribution to the discipline of strategic management.
Acknowledgments-The author wishes to express his thanks to Arnold0 C. Hax and Mel Horwitch of the Sloan School of Management and Nicholas S. Rashford of St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia.
Refrences (1) H. Jones, Preparing Company Plans (London: Gower, 1974). (2) K. R. Andrew% The Concept of Corporate Strategy (Homewood, Illinois: Irwin, 1980). (3)
Max S. Wortman, Jr., Strategic management: not for profit organizations, in D. E. Schendel and C. W. Hofer, Strategic Management: A View of Business Policy and Planning (Boston: Little Brown, 1979).
(4)
W. H. Newman and H. W. Wallender, Managing not for profit enterprises, Academy of Management Review,January (1978). pp. 24-31.
(5)
C. W. Hofer and D. E. Schendel, Strategy Formulation:Analytical Concepts (St. Paul: West, 1978).
(6) A. C. Hax and N. S. Majluf, Strategic Management: An Integrative Perspective (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984). (7) W. Abbott, The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press, 1966).
Corporate
Faith and
(10)
R. Beckhard and Ft. Harris, Organizational Transitions (Reading: Addison-Wesley. 1977).
(11)
T. Rees and P. Roy, Discernment as muddling through, The Jurist, Spring (1978), pp. 82-l 17.
(12)
W. H.Newman
and H. W. Wallender, Managing not for profit
51
enterprise, Academy of Management Review, January (1978). 24-31.
(8) J. Gremillion, The Gospelof Justice and Peace: Catholic Social Teaching since Pope John (New York: Orbis Books, 1976). (9) J. Holland and P. Henriot, Social Analysis: linking Justice (New York: Orbis Books, 1983).
Strategy in Catholic Religious Orders
(13)
A. C. Hax and N. S. Majluf, Strategic Management: An integrative Perspective (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984).
(14) E. H. Schein, Organizational Prentice-Hall, 1980). (15)
Psychology
(Englewood
E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985). p. 9.
Cliffs:
(San
Long Range Planning, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 44 to 51, 1987 Printed in Great Britain
Corporate Strategy Religious Orders
0024-6301/87 53.00 + .OO Pergamon Journals Ltd.
in Catholic
David Coghlan
Within the Roman Catholic Church there are groups of men and women in associations called ‘religious orders: These are organizations where the members are priests, brothers or nuns. They typically conduct many different organizational ministries-schools, colleges, hospitals and other assorted works. They constitute ownership of the vast majority of private Catholic educational and health care institutions throughout the world. The author undertook a study of five religious orders to see how they themselves formulated strategy. He hypothesized that the concepts and elements in strategic planning and strategic management were directly relevant to, and implicitly in use by, religious orders engaging in strategy formulation. This was confirmed by the study. There is a dearth of research in this particular area of the not-for-profit sector, and so this study attempts a unique contribution to the strategic planning research literature.
Background In a world that is changing rapidly in all spheres of life, the Roman Catholic Church is also engaged in the dynamics of change. Religious orders have not been exempt. Internal dynamics arising from the decline in the number of entrants over the past 15 years, the change in understanding of religious life itself, the call to renewal from the Second Vatican Council (1962Z65), to name a few, arc provoking radical change. External forces, such as the changing faith needs of the contemporary world, the growth in alienation particularly among the young, the changing nature of education, the blatant structural of many societies, the severe social injustices problems created by poverty, drug abuse, destruction of the family arc demanding a response that calls for new approaches. Religious orders are faced with corporate choices. They do not have the personnel to maintain their current operations at present or past staffing levels. Many such operations were established out of the needs of a previous era and so doubt about their present and future David Coghlan is an Irish Jesuit priest teaching in the College of Industrial Relations, Dublin. He has studied and lectured in the United States.
relevance is raised. Out of the renewal from the Second Vatican Council there vigour and energy that revives the original of the foundation. Accordingly, corporate and subsequent decisions must be made sense of identity, given the internal and forces at work.
processes is a new charism choices out of a external
It was the author’s hypothesis that the concept of corporate strategy is a significant way the heads of religious orders can proactively lead their communities into the future. Inherent in this hypothesis is the principle that the elements which constitute the strategic management and the strategic planning processes arc relevant to religious order planning dynamics. An important aspect of the hypothesis is to test the transfer of commercial and noncommercial strategic models and concepts to the religious order context. To bc specific, the hypothesis was that the ingredients that make up the corporate strategy process-strategic thinking, strategic management, strategic planning, integrated planning-implementation-control, suitability of process and structure, role of the head of the organization, arc directly relevant to the organizational change processes of religious orders. Marc specifically, the processes of strategic planning-sense of core mission, environmental scan, internal review, strategic posture, appropriate blend of integration and adaptation, are in essence what religious orders do, whether conscious of such a conceptual structure or not. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize a model of corporate strategy for religious orders, using the conceptual material from the literature and the empirical research conducted through interview. The methodology for this study consists of two related activities. In selecting the sample of religious orders the primary factor was that strategic planning had been undertaken. Accordingly, the focus in interviewing the provincials of the regions of these religious orders was to draw out the processes that had been used. The underlying assumption in the
Corporate mind of the interviewer was that the components of strategic planning-sense of charism, external scan, internal review, an appropriate blend of top-downbottom-up process, etc.-are implicit in religious orders’ strategic planning activities. The interviews were unstructured. The interviewer asked the provincials to describe what they had done, and intervened by asking questions like, ‘How did you go about having a sense of what the needs are that you’re trying to meet?’ ‘How consciously did you use the current identity statements of the community?’ The second element was the relating of these activities to the conceptual material of the strategic planning literature. While only one of those surveyed consciously followed a corporate planning manual’, the interviewer hypothesized that the basic ingredients were present, however unarticulated or implicit, The research was conducted with five surveys. Two female and two male religious orders were chosen. One survey was extended to two regions of one very large international male order. The emphasis was on religious orders with an international base. The studies were conducted with individual regions (called provinces) of these orders, mostly in the United States. Some religious orders are almost entirely devoted to education, and so their ministries are mainly schools at the different levels of the educational system. Others are equally divided between education and health care, with others having a wide diversity of ministriesschools, parishes, retreat houses. Strategy Strategy for the religious orders is the pattern of decisions in the order that determines and reveals its charism, purposes or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of ministry the order is to pursue, the kind of community it is or intends to be, and the nature of its apostolic activities in relation to different constituencies. This definition is adapted from the one provided by Andrews’. Strategy:
not-for-profit
Strategy
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commercial arena. Newman and Wallender4 suggest that managing not-for-profit enterprises be treated as variants from the basic management model. The character of such organizations is too ambiguous to be able to indicate the nature of the variations. Characteristics such as the intangibility and immeasurability of service, relationship to customer/client, professionalization, and the nature of charismatic leadership and organizational mystique are constraining on planning, organizing, motivation and control functions.
Strategic
Planning
There are many models of strategic planning, most of which cover the same ground in slightly different ways with different emphases5. Hax and Majluf” provide a typical model. The main features of this strategic planning framework consist in four elements: core mission, environmental scan, internal review and strategic posture (see Figure 1). Core mission The religious order’s core mission is its constitutions and its early history. The work of understanding the ideals and intentions of the founder in their historical context and viewing them in the light of the contemporary world.has flowed directly from the Decree of Religious Life in the Second Vatican Council’. Each religious order has embarked on understanding its own mission in the light of reinterpretation of the founder’s inspiration. The purpose of studying the life, words and works of the founder is to articulate in the contemporary world the founder’s authentic vision so that it can become an ideal and norm for contemporary renewal and adaptation. Similarly, the early history of the order provides a model of how the founder’s vision was put into practice. This gives life and meaning to the written abstraction that is the consitutions which typically were written down after a period of apostolic experience. The cultural assumptions beneath the stated and actual behaviour are uncovered in the history of the order. This process provides a framework for understanding the
organizations
Wortman3 states that the not-for-profit sector is ‘virginal territory’ for the strategic management researcher. He suggests that when one thinks of organizations that arc poorly managed, have few or no long-range goal structures one tends to think of not-for-profit institutions such as hospitals, colleges and universities, welfare agencies and churches. He asserts that in these organizations goals typically tend to be short-range or poorly defined. This study attempts to add some evidence to effect a change in this situation. The literature is sparse in its treatment of not-forprofit strategic management. It is appropriate here to devote some space to the topic as it accords more closely to the area of religious lift than the
Core Mission
Environmental Scan
Internal Review
Strategic Posture
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founder’s vision as it was lived, and so provides a model for the contemporary formulation of the order’s core mission. An example of this process is found in one of the orders studied. The sixteenth-century text of its constitutions states, founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures, and any other ministration whatsoever of the word of God . . . the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments . . . should show itself no less useful in reconciling the estranged, in holily assisting and serving those who are found in prisons or hospitals, and indeed in performing any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.
The contemporary states,
statement of that order’s mission
it is to engage, under the standard struggle of our time: the struggle for justice which it includes.
of the Cross, in the crucial for faith and that struggle
The sixteenth-century language describing the twin focus of working in a faith context and working with the deprived is paralleled by the concept of the inseparable nature of faith and justice in the modern text. Other parts of the modern text describe the issues of injustice in the contemporary world, just as the earlier text point to those who were victims of the sixteenth-century prisons and hospitals. The integration of the service of faith and the work of justice is a very strong theme in the contemporary Church, and is forcefully emphasized by recent popes and synods *. This example illustrates the elements that make up the contemporary definition of a religious order’s mission, the spirit of the founder and the mind of the contemporary Church. Knowing the core mission or having a sense of identity is but one element in the picture. Of itself it does not lead to clarity of action. Environmental scan For the religious order the environmental scanning process is grounded in the Second Vatican Council’s call to study ‘the signs of the times’ and ‘interpret them in the light of the gospel’. Social analysis is a methodology for looking at the world in the light of the gospel that is becoming increasingly more prevalent. Holland and Henriot’ provide a model for the process. The process has several ingredients-insertion, social analysis, theological reflection and pastoral planning. It is a process that goes beyond the descriptive to examine causal factors in social situations and thereby provides the basis for diagnosis on which apostolic choices can be made. The results of the analysis are placed in the context of a perspective of all the forces that make demands
on the order. Mapping the environment involves listing the demand groups that currently make demands on the apostolic energy of the order, mapping current responses to those demands and then projecting future demands and future responses. ‘O In this manner the results of the social analysis are integrated into the arena in which the order ministers and wishes to minister. One order identified 11 such demand groups-youth/education, deprived and unemployed, marriage and family life, third world, media, laity and leadership training, industrial relations, bishops/priests/religious, ecumenism, third level education/theology/ philosophy, and secularigation/atheism/confused Christians. In that analysis the critical forces within those groups were identified and recommendations for objective setting clarified. This approach was later integrated into the dynamics of the strategic planning model as the internal review process set limits on the responses to the demands of each demand group. That same order consequently established an institute with the following fourfunction role description: (1) to support and assist apostolates in their specific attempts to redress injustice; (2) to describe and evaluate social development as it is experienced by unemployed, by lowpaid workers, by marginalized farmers, and by social welfare recipients; (3) to collaborate with those who seek to make social change more responsive to the needs of people living on low incomes; (4) to explore the scriptures and social teaching of the Church with those who seek to deepen their faith as they fight concrete instances of injustice. Another order spent 8 months researching the needs of a particular city and diocese before accepting an invitation to work there. Each order studied, in its published plan, devoted a section to the environment. Generally this section is entitled ‘The Context of our Mission’ and contains the key points of analysis relating to social, political, economic, cultural and religious life of the country in which the province is located. Issues of alienation, industrialization, consumerism, violence, deprivation are discussed in a national and international context. The subsequent strategic posture, then, reflects the ways in which the religious order would programme its response. Core mission and environmental scanning are insufficient for planning. Unless the planning process is grounded in the reality of the actual resources of the order it is unreal. Internal
review
The internal review consists of assessment of past performances, distinct competences, future projections, and appraisal of potential. It has a quantitative and qualitative dimension. On the quantitative dimensions, religious orders have evaluated their personnel resources-numbers, ages, skills. It is comparatively easy to assess present and future resources. Logistically, most religious orders will be unable to maintain their past and present level of presence in their apostolates in future years. On the qualitative dimension reviewing the quality of
Corpo Irate Strategy in Catholic Religious
posture
Strategic posture is the position of having a pragmatic and concrete set of criteria, guidelines, norms, serving as immediate challenges for the development of strategic proposals. It comprises the primary issues to be addressed in the next 3-5 years as derived from the integrated picture of core mission, environmental scan and internal review. Strategic thrusts should contain specific and meaningful planning challenges addressed to all levels of the organization, resulting from the preceding analysis, and articulated in such a way as to convey a sense of the critical tasks that every unit has to deal with in order to develop an effective strategic position.
Typically, strategic posture in the orders studied was expressed in terms of criteria, numbering about four. Establishment of criteria is a way of pinning down the intangibility and immeasurability that Newman and Wallender’* pointed to as the ambiguous factor in not-for-profit enterprises. Each order had its own terminology. Some had criteria, some guidelines. Some used both terms without a clear distinction between them. Generally they numbered three or four, and operations were closed
The process of putting together the charism of the order, the demands of the external environment, and the results of the internal review is unique for the religious order. The rational, political, contingency approaches to decision-making of the secular arena are insufficient for the faith perspective
Vision (Core Mission) - Constitutions
/
\
Environmental Scan at Corporate Level
Internal Scrutiny at Corporate Level -Actual
-
Resources - Personnel - Numbers - Ages - Skills Physical Resources - Apostolates Other Resources - Current Apostolates - Strengths and Weaknesses - Tradition - Prouds and Sorries
I
I
(Context of Ministries) - Needs -Changes in Society - Justice and Peace - Local Church - Analysis of Needs - Assumptions - Scenarios
Strategic Posture - Mission Statement \
(Corporate Strategic Thrusts) (Corporate Apostolic Objectives) (Criteria) (Guidelines)
Figure 2. Strategic posture in the religious order
47
religious bring to decision-making. Religious decision-making must be grounded in the faith on which mission and vocation are based. Discernment is the process that integrates prayer and decisionmaking, taking the process of making decisions beyond what is rational or political to the level of the sense of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.” Discernment, as a religious experience in decisionmaking, is a core dynamic in the strategic posture step. Strategic posture, in the religious order context, can be defined in terms of the prayerful integration of the demands of the external environment with the limited available resources within an order grounded in the identity of the special charism of that particular order (see Figure 2). A provincial, reporting on a decision not to accept a request to undertake a new aspostolic venture, said, ‘It. was a really good work to be involved in and had very pressing needs. But it simply wasn’t us.’
apostolic activities, assessing strengths and weaknesses, is an approach that evokes a deepening commitment to renewal through a communal experience of vocation and an experience of communal sinfulness and healing. The internal review process becomes an integral complement to a sense of core mission and environmental scanning. Strategic
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and new ones opened on the basis of these criteria. One order spoke of ‘five authentic characteristics’ that pervade their whole way of proceeding and to mark personal and community life as well as apostolic activities. In another case the dual criteria of focusing on the education of the whole person and the direct benefit of the poor were paramount. One case articulated four fundamental options. These were: (1) The service of faith with particular focus on the issues of unbelief and alienation; (2) the service of faith has the promotion of justice as an integral part which must find expression in solidarity with the poor; (3) the order must more specifically be in the service of the local church; (4) the decision-making process must comprise of the four-step process particular to the core mission of the order--experience, reflection and evaluation in the light of gospel values, decision and action. In the plan of this particular province, those criteria were then applied to particular areas of operation. For instance, the education sector of that province’s ministries in its response to the second criterion, set a goal of the catechetical-cum-social action programme so that the students would learn what faith with justice means in the concrete. This goal was then set into the form of action programmes which are reviewed annually. The general criteria in all cases were cdncretely applied to actual ministries. Each order provided an explicit rationale for present operations with the challenge of development in terms of the strategic posture. Corporate commitment to a particular operation depended on that operation’s implementation of the criteria. In one case, a three-tiered categorization of levels of priority was adopted. ‘Growth’ apostolates were defined in terms of opportunities for new contemporary operations arising out of the strategic process and characterized by an input of younger personnel and clear fulfllment of province criteria. ‘High maintenance’ were areas where there was a traditional ministry that the province continued to value highly. With a reduction in religious personnel the character of these ministries would change, and they would be expected to adapt to the province’s strategic criteria. The third category was that of ‘low maintenance’ which consisted of the ministries the province would continue to staff as long as it had personnel to staff them and were centres of valuable activity by members who would work in a way that their health and age permitted. These apostolates would be phased out gradually.
Strategic
Management
Strategic planning is but one element in an overall process. To quote one provincial, ‘Planning alone won’t renew our ministries, but our ministries won’t be renewed without planning.’ Hax and Majluf’” lay out the interrelationship between
1987 organizational processes necessary for strategic planning to be effective. This is an emphasis on the direct relationship between organizational subsystems: planning, control, motivation and reward, communication, all of which are facilitated by structure. Control In the orders studied control was mainly exercised through reviewing how the strategic plans were being implemented. While it is difficult to set objective standards to measure progress the general approach was through subjective consensus-the provincial and staff in consultation with the administration of the particular apostolate. There was unanimity among the provincials interviewed that the publication of a province plan was itself a control dynamic. In all cases the actual publication of the plan came at the end of the process and performed the function of putting on paper what was in effect already under way. Having goals on paper is generally a new phenomenon in religious orders so it could be hypothesized that the emergence of strategic plans that identify the challenges and decisions for the coming 4 years in the light of the order’s identity and the demands of the environment performs both a motivating and control function. The policy of giving each individual member a personal copy of the plan could increase this. Structure
The interrelationship between planning, control and organizational structure must be direct. Direct linking of responsibility and authority within the structure to the assignment of tasks and availability of means to execute them facilitates the strategic thrusts. In one case a new structure to facilitate the strategy was created. In reflection on the material being generated it was realized that there was a qualitative difference between two essentially different sets of data. In one there was information that pertained to apostolic areas in which there were actual institutional ministries with personnel, plants, budgets. Other material was aiming at creating awareness and creating a qualitative difference in how ministries were performed. This insight led to a distinction between ‘sectors’ and ‘dimensions’. A sector was defined as a collective unit of the province’s ministries under a common heading, such as the school apostolate grouped under ‘education’. Subsequently the province was divided into sectors and a ‘delegate’ appointed to work on the provincial’s behalf in animating planning and reflection. A dimension was defined in terms of a qualitative ingredient of all the order’s efforts. For example, having a sensitivity to ecumenism that is expressed institutionally was seen as something that should bc evident in all the order’s ministries. This distinction between sectors and dimensions was felt to be a really significant insight that helped the strategic process considerably. Co-ordinators for the significant dimensions were appointed to co-
Corporate ordinate implementation. The delegates of the sectors then formed a commission with the provincial to oversee strategy and to reflect on policy as a body at the corporate level integrating sectors, dimensions, reflecting on input from the environment, keeping in mind the internal review and the identity of the order. In another case, groups were established to act as corporate members for large health care units. These corporation groups received the plans of the unit, and with input from the provincial, did theological reflection on the progress of the unit in the light of the province’s strategic plan, the unit’s own plans and budget, and emergent needs. The fruit of these reflections were then fed back to the unit’s board for assimilation into the unit’s own strategy and action plans. Communication Religious orders frequently are very self-critical about the level of communication and the sharing of information within the system. What is at issue in this context is information/communications systems that keep members informed of what is happening in terms of strategy and so act as motivating forces within the community. One province ensured each individual community purchased a similar video system and so the provincial office regularly issued policy reports, significant moments in important meetings on video. The members, spread over a wide geographical area, could tune into what was happening at province level. This also provided a way of integrating the elderly and retired into what was happening. Another arder instituted a brief newsletter giving policy developments. One task is that of balancing communication of information with possible overload of documentation which people do not read. The central issue is that of building up community ownership of the province’s strategic thrusts, whereby all members share psychologically in the work and aspirations of the apostolic endeavours of the province. Motivation and reward The motivational and reward systems arc the most complex. Motivation for a religious is grounded in the sense of vocation and mission. It is inseparable from the sense of personal calling from God and from a deep commitment to the particular religious order that is a fundamental life commitment. This pcrspcctivc is begun in the novitiate, developed through the formation (training) process and spiritual direction, and experienced throughout the lift cycle of the religious. Schein” argues for an approach to the human person that is complex and allows for dcvclopmcnt dynamics. In one province’s published plan there were separate addresses to the elderly, the middle-aged and the young, stating what was being asked of each of them. Through all the provinces studied there was consistently strong emphasis on continuing education as a formative influence. In times of constant change, renewal of theological constructs, personal development as
Strategy
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well as particular apostolic skills are required. In integrating motivational and reward systems with the organizational structure and the strategic thrusts there must be congruence between corporate objectives and organizational behaviour. In each case, implementation of the strategy was accompanied by corporate approval and assignment of key resources, i.e. religious personnel. In one case the province’s schools were ordered in an hierarchy and personnel assigned accordingly. A school could compete for a higher place on the hierarchical ladder through its implementation of the province’s criteria. The strongest motivation comes out of a sense of being missioned by God through the religious superior. This sense is ultimately grounded in prayer and in the individual’s personal relationship with God. Similarly it is empirically demonstrated that potential recruits to religious orders are attracted by the sight of a committed group of people who are happy together, engaged in something perceived as worthwhile. Culture Many of the questions about the interrelationship of strategy with structure, motivation, control, affect the individual and groups in a way that opens further questions about organizational culture. Schein defines culture as, the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
He also makes the point that because such basic assumptions have worked repeatedly they are likely to be taken for granted and to have dropped out of awareness. It could be hypothesized that the adoption of strategic posture would involve a challenging of existing basic assumptions. Assumptions that give priority to integration rather than to adaptation were one range that were specifically confronted in one case. A movement from being enclosed and somewhat monastic to not being enclosed and not monastic challenged assumptions about the focus of community life and its relationship to apostolic endeavour. In another case assumptions about individualism and teamwork were challenged. Criteria relating to teamwork were articulated and attached to rewards, making it difficult for members to maintain old assumptions about individualism. Accordingly, ministries were rewarded for showing movement towards new assumptions. It was in the formation (training) sector that -there was the clearest evidence of attempting cultural change. Since it is in formation that the socialization processes are formalized one would expect to find indications of how the strategic thrust can bc intcgratcd into the assumptions of the new generation of members. The central dynamics of the strategic process were given
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expression in the strategic directions of the formation policy, instancing the concern to place the new assumptions into the socialization process so that they would become normative: some areas where we need to formulate our formation programme policy more carefully: i) formation for the teamwork-collaboration, ii) formation in the use of the fourfold process of reflecting on experience, coming to decisions, taking action, and evaluation, iii) formation to commitment to work in the service of the local church, iv) formation in commitment to solidarity with the poor and to work for justice . now we must work at making explicit in our way of living and acting.
The human side Temporary groups or task forces were universally used in the formulation of policy. This was perceived as significant in that it facilitated bottomup input into the policy and helped build consensus. The effect of being listened to and having an impact on the strategic direction of the community was seen to be a powerful motivating and rewarding force for the individual member. Consistently through the strategic literature there is evidence that the role of the CEO is pivotal to the entire strategic process. In all the cases studied the provincials were very active in the strategic process. It had become part of them and their way of thinking about their provinces. One provincial personally initiated the planning process in his own province. He generated a sense of purpose and energy around what he was doing and created loyalty to the direction in which he was leading the province. His way of governing became closely associated with the strategic process and later the actual plan. There was an inbuilt consistency between how he led and the content of the process.
Conclusions In drawing together to synthesize the elements in the processes there are clearly some common strands. (1) Each religious order emphasized core criteria that were seen to be at the heart of its corporate identity, its charism. These criteria were the locus of the different strategic activities. (2) The process of generating strategy evolved from several sources. Typically the origins of the strategic focus were: (a) the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent rethinking and writing on the nature of religious life; (b) the order’s charism from the founder and its early history; (c) the experience, reflection, and analysis of religious orders of the contemporary world; (d) the declining numbers, due to a drop in the number of entrants and the large numbers of exits from orders in the 1960s and 1970s. (3) Strategy pinpointed key issues arising out of the core criteria and the needs of the environment.
(4) Each religious order gave a lot of focus to the question of process. Each worked at building in a process of systematic reflection as a critical success factor. (5) Each order devoted considerable time to consultation and consensus building. There was a wide variety of top-down and bottom-up interaction and participation in defining the emergent strategy. (6) There was unanimous use of task forces and ad hoc groups in the formulation of the strategy. (7) Consequently consensus and motivation in owning the strategic posture appeared to be strong. This can be partially attributed to the wide use of temporary groups and task forces through which consensus was built and communities involved in the formulation of the strategy. (8) Organizational structures were adapted where necessary to facilitate the implementation of the strategy. (9) Each order’s strategy included a focus on issues of internal organizational maintenance, such as training policy, continuing education policy, policy on the care of the retired and the elderly, community life. (10) The orders’ leadership played a very clear role in owning the processes and in activating them in their formulation and implementation. Religious orders have engaged in strategic planning and strategic management. The concepts from the strategy literature are directly transferable, even in a non-competitive, non-commercial context. How such influential bodies engage in strategy has hitherto not been researched, so this paper offers unique contribution to the discipline of strategic management.
Acknowledgments-The author wishes to express his thanks to Arnold0 C. Hax and Mel Horwitch of the Sloan School of Management and Nicholas S. Rashford of St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia.
Refrences (1) H. Jones, Preparing Company Plans (London: Gower, 1974). (2) K. R. Andrew% The Concept of Corporate Strategy (Homewood, Illinois: Irwin, 1980). (3)
Max S. Wortman, Jr., Strategic management: not for profit organizations, in D. E. Schendel and C. W. Hofer, Strategic Management: A View of Business Policy and Planning (Boston: Little Brown, 1979).
(4)
W. H. Newman and H. W. Wallender, Managing not for profit enterprises, Academy of Management Review,January (1978). pp. 24-31.
(5)
C. W. Hofer and D. E. Schendel, Strategy Formulation:Analytical Concepts (St. Paul: West, 1978).
(6) A. C. Hax and N. S. Majluf, Strategic Management: An Integrative Perspective (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984). (7) W. Abbott, The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press, 1966).
Corporate
Faith and
(10)
R. Beckhard and Ft. Harris, Organizational Transitions (Reading: Addison-Wesley. 1977).
(11)
T. Rees and P. Roy, Discernment as muddling through, The Jurist, Spring (1978), pp. 82-l 17.
(12)
W. H.Newman
and H. W. Wallender, Managing not for profit
51
enterprise, Academy of Management Review, January (1978). 24-31.
(8) J. Gremillion, The Gospelof Justice and Peace: Catholic Social Teaching since Pope John (New York: Orbis Books, 1976). (9) J. Holland and P. Henriot, Social Analysis: linking Justice (New York: Orbis Books, 1983).
Strategy in Catholic Religious Orders
(13)
A. C. Hax and N. S. Majluf, Strategic Management: An integrative Perspective (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984).
(14) E. H. Schein, Organizational Prentice-Hall, 1980). (15)
Psychology
(Englewood
E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985). p. 9.
Cliffs:
(San