Strategic Thinking

For today’s managers, there is a need to learn and to understand the complex nature of complex problems, but not from the simple version, we know and learned from an early age. J. Atwater and Paul Pittman (2006) clarify that as children we learn in a simple linear view. For example, if someone cries, there will be someone there to comfort. A simple action and result, but in reality it is more dynamically complex, not simply a cause-and-effect, or cause and reaction. According to Jay Forrester (1995) , it is hard for a company and senior leadership to evaluate behavior in a complex environment without tools and technology. People do not naturally think systemically or strategically, therefore, managers must be trained in systemic thinking tools and concepts to learn strategic thinking (Forrester, 1995). From the perspective of the structure of an organization, it is important in how the organization structure influences behavior and decision making by placing constraints on what the company has historically known from its experiences, which influence decision-making process within the business. According to excerpt articles from Bob De Wit and Ron Meyer, strategic thinking is not simply framed in the manner in which we have learned in our prior class. In the prior class, we framed our understanding according to Hamel and Prahalad (1996), the rational reasoning approach. To expand on strategic thinking, creative approach must be added to gain additional understanding of De Wit and Meyer’s intent, in addition to a rational systems thinking approach.

Jay Forrester (1995) states the companies stagnate not due to a physical variable but due to other non-physical variables like senior leadership influence on structure, leade...

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...de’s power distance dimension can provide insight in how a country’s workforce may approach strategy within a company. De Wit and Meyer state that a lower Hofstede’s power distance dimension score indicates that strategy is not solely generated from senior leadership but at lower levels of management.

References

Atwater, J., & Pittman, P. (2006). Facilitating Systemic Thinking in Business Classes. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education , 273 - 290.

De Wit, B., & Meyer, R. (2010). Strategy: Process, Content, Context, An International Perspective. Cengage Learning.

Forrester, J. W. (1995). The Beginning of System Dynamics. The McKinnsey Quaterly , 4 - 16.

Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. (1996). Competing for the Future. Harvard Business School.

Hitt, M., Ireland, R., & Hoskisson, R. Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization. South-Western.