A number of dimensions of top management philosophy or style are identified. Management philosophy may be considered risk taking or conservative, technocratic or oriented and seat-of-the-pants methods, participatory or qua-participatory, organic or mechanistic, and coercive or non-coercive. Based on data from a study of Canadian firms, it is found that some of the combinations of these dimensions are far more effective (as judged by corporate performance) than others. The reasons underlying the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these combinations are explored. Implications are drawn for the design of organisations, for the strategy of organizational planning, and for management education.