Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Developing strategic thinking Essay

entreeMy re hunting interest in strategicalalalalalalalalalal mentation started in 1993 when I interviewed 35 senior closing makers for a longitudinal conduct on the counterchanges in strategic readying and strategic management in heavy(p) systems surrounded by 1982 and 1993. These senior executives were responsible for strategic supply, strategic management or bodied development in 35 of the coke largest manufacturing companies in Australia. The interviews lasted amongst three and quadruplet hours and one of the questions I asked concerned the worrys that they had experience with their strategic planning or strategic management fire in the antedate five years. The main problem conduct by the majority of senior executives was strategic opinion. Interestingly, strategic cerebration was a problem regardless of whether the companies had a decl ar strategic planning transcription or employ a non-formalised draw near. For example, one senior executi ve from a company with a formalised strategic planning system verbalise Our senior executives tend to get carried onward by details and lose their strategic horizon.AbstractLack of strategic intellection by senior managers has been identified as a major shortcoming in compositions. Draws on concepts in management and psychological science to present a framework that class up be utilize to remedy this situation. Argues that strategic opinion needs to be communicate at twain assorted, but co-ordinated trains the soulfulness train and the governanceal level. Organisations that success wide-eyedy integrate strategic cerebration at these two levels provide bring on a circumstantial heart competency that forms the primer of an unchangeable competitive advantage.Europe, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the unify States (p. 242). The efficacy to think strategicall(a)y, however, is critical to remain competitive in an increasingly degenerate and global envir onment. Considering that the average life expectation of US Fortune 500 companies is completely among 40 and 50 years (de Geus, 1997) and that only 49 percent of the snow largest manufacturers in Australia in 1982 were still among the glide by 100 manufacturers in 1993 (Bonn and Christodoulou, 1996), the need for strategic view has never been greater. This paper presents a framework that whoremonger be used to increase strategic thought in organisations. It argues that strategic thought serve well needs to be considered at two different, but inter-related levels. Organisations that success plentifuly integrate strategic thinking at these two levels will prep atomic number 18 a critical core competency that forms the basis of an enduring source of competitive advantage.The ponder on strategic thinking in that location is no agreement in the publications on what strategic thinking is. A number of authors eat used the call interchangeably with different concepts such(pr enominal) as strategic planning or strategic management. Wilson (1994) for example notes thatSimilarly, a senior executive from a company with protrude a formalised planning system reported It is a major challenge to get our decision makers to think in strategic instead than operable impairment.This lack of strategic thinking is not restricted to organisations in Australia. As re attend from the Institute of Directors in capital of the United Kingdom has shown, 90 per cent of directors and vice-presidents had no induction, inclusion or training to do a competent direction giver of their business enterp bone (Garratt, 1995a, p. 242). According to Garratt (1995a), this percentage seems to h out of date high-priced in The current issue and full text archive of this journal is gettable at http//www.emerald-library.com/ftThis continuing search for improvement has profoundly changed the character of strategic planning so that it is now more than appropriate to refer to it as st rategic management or strategic thinking (p. 14, italics in original).Other authors shed focused on strategic management runes and both stated explicitly that good strategic planning runs to strategic thinking (Porter, 1987) or assumed implicitly that a soundly designed strategic management system facilitates strategic thinking at heart an organisation (Thompson and Strickland, 1999 Viljoen, 1994). Mintzberg (1994) suggested a clear distinction between strategic thinking andconcepts such as strategic planning. He stated that strategic planning is not strategic thinking (p. 107) and argued that individually term focuses on a different stage in the strategy development mold. In his view, strategic planning focuses on analysis and deals with the articulation, elaboration and formalisation of alive strategies. strategic thinking, on the other hand, emphasises synthesis, using intuition and creativeness to force an integrated perspective of the enterprise (p. 108).He claimed that strategic planning is a process that should occur after strategic thinking. Garratt (1995b) argued on similar lines. He defined strategic thinking as a process by which senior executives can rise above the workaday managerial processes and crises (p. 2) to growth a different perspective of the organisation and its changing environments. Heracleous (1998) do the distinction between strategic planning and strategic thinking by an analogy to single-loop attainment and double-loop learning. In his view, the former is analogous to strategic planning, the afterward to strategic thinking. He claimed that single-loop learning involves thinking within vivacious assumptions and taking gainments ground on a fixed denounce of potential drop run alternatives. Double-loop learning, in contrast, challenges existing assumptions anddevelops overbold and innovative etymons, leading to potentially more appropriate actions. Heracleous argued that like single-loop learning and double -loop learning, strategic planning and strategic thinking are interrelated in a dialectical process and are equally heavy for effective strategic management.This condition supports the view that strategic thinking and strategic planning are two different concepts and that strategic planning is a process, which takes holding after strategic thinking. My analysis in the following sections demonstrates that strategic thinking manifests itself at two different levels the case-by-case level and the organisational level. This approach integrates the micro landed estates focus on individuals and groups with the macro domains focus on organisations and their mount. In other words, it acknowledges the turn of individual characteristics and actions on the organisational mount and vice versa, the define of the organisational context on individual thinking and behaviour. As Chatman et al. (1986) have argued When we feel at individual behaviour in formations, we are truly seeing tw o entities the individual as himself and the individual as trifleative of thiscollectivity . . . indeed the individual not only acts on behalf of the organization in the usual post moxie, but he also acts, more subtly as the organization when he embodies the values, beliefs, and goals of the collectivity.Thus, intellectual strategic thinking requires a dual-level approach that investigates the characteristics of an individual strategic intellect as well as the dynamics and processes that take place within the organisational context in which the individual operates. For instance, to obtain an surgical picture of the effects of differing leadership styles on strategic thinking, we can look at their impact on individual managers and on the way they influence the wider organisational climate, culture and structure.strategic thinking at the individual levelStrategic thinking at the individual level comprises three main elements 1 a holistic discernment of the organisation and its environment 2 creative thinking and 3 a peck for the forthcoming of the organisation. all(prenominal) of theseelements will be addressed in the following sections.A holistic understanding of the organisation and its environmentA crucial element of strategic thinking is the ability to take a holistic perspective of the organisation and its environment. This requires an understanding of how different problems and issues are connected with distributively other, how they influence each other and what effect one solution in a bad-tempered theatre would have on other areas. As Kaufman (1991) has expressed it Strategic thinking is characterized by a switch from seeing the organization as a splintered conglomerate of disassociated move (and employees) competing for resources, to seeing and dealing with the corporation as a holistic system that integrates each part in relationship to the hale (p. 69).Taking a holistic approach requires the ability to distance oneself from day-to-da y operational problems and to see how problems and issues are connected to the overall pattern that underlies particular details and events. Senge (1990) has called this approach systems thinking. He argued that We moldiness look beyond personalities and events. We must look into the bloodlineamental structures which shape individual actionsand create the conditions where types of events give out likely (p. 43).Such an attention to the underlying structures of complex situations requires thinking in terms of processes rather than events to enable a propitiation of apparent contradictions and the development of innovative solutions. get the hang complexity in organisations also requires managers to be familiar with the dynamics of organisational life. Stacey (1996) argued that managers need a thorough understanding of how organisations and managerial actionschange over time and of the feedback processes that lead to such changes. This includes being sensitive to the subtle in teractions between the different parts of the organisation and understanding the structural causes of behaviour and their effects on other parts of the organisation. Finally, a holistic view requires recognition that organisations are components within large and complex systems, such as commercializes, industries and nations. Strategic thinkers need to understand how organisations are embedded within this wider context and how they are influenced by the dynamics, interconnection and interdependency of these systems.dodge is about ideas and the development of novel solutions to create competitive advantage. Strategic thinkers must search for new approaches and en peck better ship canal of doing things. A prerequisite for this is creativity, in particular the ability to question prevalent concepts and perceptions (de Bono, 1996) and to recombine or make connections between issues that whitethorn seem unconnected (Robinson and Stern, 1997). According to Amabile (1998), originative th inking refers to how mickle approach problems and solutions their message to put existing ideas in concert in new combinations (p. 79, italics in original).This involves challenging the shogunate of the given (Kao, 1997, p. 47) by questioning normal beliefs or mental models in the organisation. Senge (1990) has expound mental models as deeply inwrought assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action (p. 8). He argues that such models are practically tacit and beneath our level of awareness, barely they have a strong influence on organisational behaviour . . . new insights break up to get put into practice because they contravention with deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that bourne us to familiar ways of thinking and acting (p. 174).Thus, the ability to reflect on mental models and to challenge prevailing assumptions and core beliefs is crucial for the development of unique strategies and action programs. This requires strategic thinkers to understand their own behavioural patterns as well as existing concepts and perceptions within the organisation. Strategists should enjoy the challenge of thinking out of the box and of using conception and creativity to explore whether there competency be alternative ways of doing things. De Bono(1996) has do this point truly clearWithout creativity we are unable to make full use of the information and experience that is already available to us and is locked up in old structures, old patterns, old concepts, and old perceptions (p. 17).Creativity is a process that begins with the genesis of ideas. As de Bono (1996) has noted. . . strategy is in any case often seen solely as a reduction process in which discordant possibilities are reduced to a intelligent course of action (p. 72).Creativity inventive thinking is needed to imagine eight-fold possibilities and to search for alternatives to conventional approa ches. The creative process also involves the selection and development of ideas. trustworthy strategists are able to recognise the potential of a new idea at a very early stage. To stick out the value of an idea that has been put frontwards by hatful from different organisational levels might be even more important than the generation of original ideas by the strategist. As Robinson and Stern (1997) have observed The big the company, the more likely it is that the components of creative acts are already present somewhere in it, but the less likely it is that they will be brought together without some uphold (p. 15, italics in original).Finally, there is the need for translating the new idea into practice. Senior management must provide the resources that are needed to utilise the idea. As Amabile (1998) has noted . . . deciding how much time and money to give to a team or project is a sophisticated judgment call that can either support or overcome creativity (p. 82)A mess for the futureStrategic thinking should be set by a strong intelligence of organisationalpurpose and a imagery of the want future for the organisation. A genuine vision as opposed to the popular vision-statements conveys a sense of direction and provides the focus for all activities within the organisation.For Senge (1990), a genuine vision is a calling rather than merely a good idea (p. 142, italics in original). In his view, visions are pictures or images citizenry carry in their heads and hearts (p. 206). They represent what one truly wants, based on profound intrinsic values and a sense of purpose that matters deeply to the people in the organisation. Evidence for the importance of a clear vision has been provided by collins and Porras (1998). Their research showed that verbose companies outperformed nonvisionary companies significantly. One buck invested in a general market stock fund on January 1, 1926 would have grown to 415 dollars by December 31, 1990, art objec t the same dollar invested in a visionary company stock fund would have grown to 6,356 dollars, a end of over 1500 percent.According to Collins and Porras (1998), the visionary companies did not attain this extraordinary semipermanent performance because they wrote one of the elegant vision or mission statements that have engender popular in recent years. They pointed out that Just because a company has a vision statement (or something like it) in no way guarantees that it will become a visionary company (p. 201, italics in original). Instead, leaders in visionary companies place strong emphasis on construct an organisation that has a deep understanding of its reason for existence and of its core values, those fundamental and enduring principles that guide and inspire people throughout the organisation and bind them together around a common identity. doubting Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (1963), former IBM chief executive, made this point very clear I firmly believe that any organizatio n, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions (p. 5). invariable alignment (p. 229, italics in original).Developing a genuine vision and building it into the very fabric of the organisation must be a central element of the daily work of strategic thinkers. A vision that is shared throughout the organisation fosters payload rather than compliance and creates a sense of commonality that permeates the whole organisation. It inspires peoples imagination and provides a focus that allows individuals to contribute in ways that make the approximately of their expertise and talents. Ultimately, as Collins and Porras have shown, a genuine vision helps to achieve superior performance in the longterm.Strategic thinking at the organisational levelThe organisational level provides the context in which individual strategic thinking can occur. Organisations need to create the structures, processes and systems that 1 foster ongoing strategic dialogue among the top team and 2 take advantage of the ingenuity and creativity of every individual employee.

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