Attentional control systems for emergent strategic issues in the post-Chandlerian world

Abstract

Scholars have recently emphasized a need to advance the attention-based view to account for a new “post-Chandlerian” environment wherein firms organized along Chandlerian m-form lines are increasingly unable to cope with rapid and discontinuous changes and strategic issues that can emerge anywhere in the organization. This article works to make such an advance by drawing on the underdeveloped idea of attentional control—that is direction of members’ attention—within the attention-based view. The article develops the concept of attentional control systems and, as its core contribution, proposes that firms can use issue-specific emergent attentional control systems to address emergent strategic issues that are characteristic of post-Chandlerian environments. Key components of these systems include emergent, issue-specific communication channels, reconfigured roles, and interactive control practices. These three interrelated attentional control mechanisms enable attentional dynamism and high-quality attention to be directed toward emergent strategic issues, thus mediating effective strategic decision-making as well as resource commitment and ultimately enhancing strategic adaptation.