STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AS A WAY TO CONTROL ORGANISATIONAL COMPLEXITY

Most nowadays organisations build and implement their strategies, focusing on capitalisation their strengths, regarding them as a source of their competitive advantages. However, very often, the very determinants of organisations' success are also the ingredients of their failure. At the same time, the most sustainable organisations in current conditions appear those mediocre ones whose management is merely aimed at survival. Such a phenomenon is known as a strategy paradox. Maintaining by the organization its distinctiveness as a source or creator of exclusive value for customers in modern complex business environment leads to an increase in its organizational complexity. The growth of organizational complexity sooner or later causes an uncontrollability of the organization and becomes the driver of its failure. In order to avoid the collapse, such an organization begins to struggle for survival, saving on costs, simplifying the structure, limiting its development plans. This is the way to organizational mediocrity. It seems to be obvious, that to be successful an organization needs to be an excellent one. In search of excellence it has to struggle against its mediocrity. However, a struggle against mediocrity leads to such a level of complexity which causes uncontrollability of the organization. So, we face with a vicious circle: search of excellence is a way to failure, avoiding a failure is the way to mediocrity. At the same time, an organization that does not strive for excellence, does not set goals and does not try to achieve them, exists insofar as its environment needs it. That is why strategic management should be viewed not only as a means of establishing and achieving an organization's goals, but also as a way to control the complexity of an organization. This article discusses issues of strategic management in the context of theories of organizational evolution and management complexity.