Engineering Strategic Thinking

Abstract

Strategy is generally identified as important. Unfortunately the field of strategy provides a number of challenges. For instance, there does not appear to be consensus within the literature on what strategic thinking is nor how to measure it. Additionally there does not appear to be any frameworks that allow strategic thinking to be engineered. For the purpose of this thesis, engineering refers to the process of design and implementation of a concept guided with appropriate metrics. That is, organisations, on identifying a lack of strategic thinking, can engineer the capacity for strategic thinking.

This thesis asserts that strategic thinking can be assessed and quantified. Furthermore, strategic thinking can be engineered within an accepted framework. This thesis proposes that an interdisciplinary approach can be used to investigate strategic thinking. This approach potentially provides a significant contribution to the field of strategy. The first contribution is the use of meta-analysis to form holistic definitions for strategy and strategic thinking. The second contribution of this thesis is a mixed methods approach to identifying measurable strategic thinking cognitive characteristics. Novelty is achieved in the triangulation of multiple domains to create an original self-reported assessment instrument of strategic thinking capacity.

After being piloted for validity, the assessment instrument was used to investigate the strategic thinking capacity of a major organisation. The results provided insights into the development of strategic thinking within a large and complex organisation. The resultant models also identified variations between strategic level headquarters. The third contribution is an assessment framework for strategic thinking in large organizations.

Finally, as strategic thinking could be argued as either the responsibility of the individual or the organisation, the fourth contribution of this thesis is the proposal of a framework that allows organisations to own the strategic thinking development process. Using semi-structured interviews and nodal analysis, this research was able to propose that strategic thinking can be engineered as a capability and thus can be the responsibility of the organisation.