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1. Introduction
Abbas Monnavarian is an
Associate Professor based Bryson (1994) points out that strategic planning is no panacea. In his point-of-view, strategic
at the Faculty of planning is simply a set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed to help leaders,
Management, University of managers, and planners think, act, and learn strategically. Used in wise and skillful ways by
Tehran, Tehran, Iran. a coalition of interested parties, it can help organizations focus on producing effective
Gita Farmani and decisions and actions that create public value, further the organization’s mission, meet
Hajar Yajam are based at organizational mandates, and satisfy key stakeholders. Mintzberg et al. (1998) note that:
the International Kish ‘‘effective strategy making connects acting to thinking which in turn connects
Campus, University of implementation to formulation. We think in order to act, to be sure, but we also act in
Tehran, Kish, Iran. order to think’’ (p. 71) – and to learn, they might have added. Strategic planning is iterative,
flexible, and action-oriented and that is often precisely what makes it so attractive to public
and nonprofit leaders and managers (Bryson, 1994).
As Mintzberg (1994, p. 252) notes, ‘‘organizations function on the basis of commitment and
mindset.’’ Effective strategic thinking, acting, and learning seem to depend a great deal on
intuition, creativity, and pattern recognition, none of which can be programmed although
they may be recognized, facilitated, and encouraged (Mintzberg et al., 1998). Now, the
question is that what is strategic thinking, and what are its attributes.
Other authors have focused on strategic management processes. Some of them stated
explicitly that good strategic planning contributes to strategic thinking (Porter, 1987); and
some assumed implicitly that a well designed strategic management system facilitates
strategic thinking within an organization (Thompson and Strickland, 1999; Viljoen, 1994).
Garratt (1995) defined strategic thinking as a process by which senior executives ‘‘can rise
above the daily managerial processes and crises’’ (p. 2) to gain a different perspective of the
organization and its changing environments. Heracleous (1998) suggests that strategic
thinking and strategic planning are interrelated and equally important for effective strategic
management. Thompson and Strickland (1999) concur and state that a well-designed
strategic management system facilitates strategic thinking within the organization.
DOI 10.1108/17515631111114868 VOL. 12 NO. 2 2011, pp. 63-72, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1751-5637 j BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES j PAGE 63
Strategic planning normally takes place at the top of organizations (Ansoff, 1965; Porter, 1987;
Mintzberg, 1994) but emergent strategy can occur at all levels (Quinn, 1992, cited in Probst et
al., 1999; Mintzberg, 1994; Campbell, 1997). Emergent action at lower levels, if successful, is
usually adapted into strategic plans by senior management. Strategic thinking, however, can
be done by any member of the organization up and down the hierarchy at any time.
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Figure 1 Processes of strategic thinking and planning
models are used mechanistically; where inappropriate data is employed; where too much
analysis takes place; and where support staff, rather than line managers have the major role.
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levels and between different units of organizations, understanding the dynamics of
internal and external environment, understanding the situation of organizations within
bigger systems, visualizing future goals and most advantageous future, knowing new
competitive areas, capability of integrating different ideas into a new and fresh idea.
3. Graetz (2002) believes in attributes such as finding different solutions for the problems
simultaneously and considering external opportunities.
4. Collins et al. (2000) refer to considering necessary strategic and operational issues for
designing appropriate organizational structure.
5. Acur and Englyst (2006) posit following major attributes of strategic thinking:
B awareness about industry and rivals;
B understanding strengths and opportunities;
B awareness about strategic problems of organization;
B considering strategic priorities of top manager; and
B decision making by making use of flexible and effective processes.
3. Research methodology
Research questions
The research is designed to answer the following questions:
B What are the factors of strategic thinking?
B How much is the capability of Benetton’s managers related to thinking strategically?
B How much is the difference between ‘‘importance of the factors’’, and ‘‘present
situation of the factors’’, from employees and managers’ of Benetton point-of-views?
Development of instruments
The subjects of the study were 196 persons including managers, supervisors, and educated
employees of different branches of Benetton located in Tehran (capital city of Iran). A
double-sided questionnaire was prepared as the survey instrument of the study, comprising
51 questions in two parts. One part is about ‘‘importance of the factors’’, and the other side
related to ‘‘present situation of the factors’’; both side had the same scale.
The questionnaire was developed based on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from (1)
‘‘strongly low’’ to (4) ‘‘strongly high’’. Following the calculation of the descriptive measures for
the variables, a principal components factor analysis was performed with varimax rotation.
Content validity. To ensure about how representative and comprehensive the items were in
creating the scale, the survey instrument was assessed by examining the process. Our
questionnaire consisted of 51 items for determining the basic factors of strategic thinking.
These items were adapted from previous studies and scholarly articles, especially the study
done by Moshabaki and Khazaei (2009), Liedtka (1998), and Napier and Albert (1990). In
this study, context validity is used in order to examine validity of questionnaire. In this
method, quality and quantity of questions are examined by experts. Therefore, after
providing the questionnaire, we asked some experts to review the questionnaire and the
feedback provided led to minor wording changes in some of the items.
Internal consistency reliability. To measure the extent to which items of the test were
positively intercorrelated, we piloted the questionnaire on a sample of 25 members of the
sample. The scale reliabilities for this sample measured by Cronbach’s coefficient via SPSS
15 and output of 0.91 were obtained which demonstrates a high degree of reliability based
on the Cronbach Alpha coefficient.
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Sample and data collection
We distributed 210 questionnaires with an overall response rate of about 90 percent, which
means 196 employees returned the questionnaires. Participants were informed of the main
objective of the study, and also were presented with a written definition of keywords to build
shared concept. They were encouraged to respond sincerely to all the questions and were
assured of absolute anonymity and confidentiality.
Data analysis
Factor analysis. To accumulate items of the questionnaire, a principal components factor
analysis was performed with varimax rotation. The results are shown in Tables II and III.
Table II implies 12 factors for strategic thinking in the company. Table III indicates the 12
factors and related items of strategic thinking in the company.
Friedman test
The Friedman test, as a non-parametric test, is used to examine equality of priority (ranking)
of dependent variables by individuals. In this study, 12 factors were identified.
The Friedman test is used to prioritize these factors. Statistical hypothesis to use Friedman
test are:
H0. Priority of factors is equal.
H1. At least two priorities are different.
Gender
Male 129 66
Female 66 34
Age
22-29 77 39.3
30-40 69 35.2
41-50 32 16.3
$51 17 7.8
Education
Diploma and technician 66 337.2
Bachelor 110 56.1
Master and PhD 18 9.3
Job role
Manager 131 66.7
Non-manager 65 33.3
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Table II Rotated matrix of items
Factors
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C(24) 0.703
C(14) 0.636
C(15) 0.602
C(22) 0.597
C(23) 0.584
C(25) 0.494
C(26) 0.466
C(13) 0.393
C(12) 0.384
C(48) 0.734
C(49) 0.642
C(47) 0.529
P(46) 0.475
P(16) 0.460
P(50) 0.454
P(11) 0.424
P(30) 0.785
P(31) 0.778
P(32) 0.732
P(33) 0.523
P(40) 0.776
P(39) 0.752
P(38) 0.653
P(41) 0.557
P(10) 0.681
P(9) 0.610
P(21) 0.588
P(19) 0.768
P(18) 0.723
P(20) 0.659
P(17) 0.528
P(35) 0.704
P(36) 0.603
P(37) 0.580
P(34) 0.502
P(51) 0.380
P(28) 0.745
P(27) 0.741
P(29) 0.652
P(43) 0.772
P(44) 0.753
P(45) 0.561
P(42) 0.730
P(5) 0.706
P(4) 0.660
P(1) 0.785
P(2) 0.754
P(3) 0.394
P(7) 0.746
P(6) 0.589
P(8) 0.580
Results of Friedman test are as depicted in Table V. Since sig. , 0.05, H0 is rejected
(Table VI), the claim of equal priority of these 12 factors is not supported.
The most important factors are: environment analysis, intelligence, and creativity and
attention to the past, present and future. This prioritized listing is highlighted in Table V.
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Table III Strategic thinking factors and related item
Creativity and attention to Identification of repetitive patterns of events (trend analysis) 2.71
the past, present Identifying the valuable goals from employees point of view
and future Formulation and design of future situation of main processes of organization
Ability to select and use of appropriate patterns from organization’s background
Establishing connection among past, present and future
Benefiting from past events for future prediction
Using accumulated knowledge from past for finding appropriate models of decision
making
Discovering new competitive areas
Incarnation of desired goals and future of the organization
Organic structure Development of structure supportive of change and development 2.69
organization Design of processes and mechanisms of promotion of change and development
Considering strategic and operational necessities for designing appropriate structure
Organic organizational structure
Shared vision resulted of internal and external analysis
Remuneration and reward systems
Considering value creation chain and comprehending interaction among different parts
Environment analysis Recognition of strategic issues of the organization 2.68
Organization’s internal and external analysis
Acquaintance of ambiguities and complexes for interpretation and evaluation of events
Considering opportunities
Conflict management Unconformity and struggle among group members 2.54
Challenging existing components of job duties
Having different experience, skill and approaches toward organizational activities
Creation and keeping an effective and ethical organizational culture
Awareness of the Understanding the situation of organization within extended and complex systems, such
situation as markets, industries and international arena 2.63
Understanding diverse changes in internal and external environment of the organization
Finding diverse solutions for the problems
Futuristic approach The ability to challenge the traditional mind-set and believes 2.64
Development of creative and unique solutions to achieve competitive advantage
Intuition (thinking based on personal capabilities and experiences)
Ability to develop new ideas
Intelligence Awareness about organization’s strengths and weaknesses 2.68
Awareness about main areas of the organization which have difficulty
Understanding strategic priorities of top manager
Awareness about the situation of industry and competitors
Decision making through flexible and efficient processes
Diversified mind pattern Ability to propose appropriate hypothesis about work environment and effective testing
of the hypothesis 2.65
Review of planned strategies and proposing new strategic options in case of new
environmental conditions
Making use of cognitive concepts (pictures, frames, mental maps, . . .) to conceptualize
and understand conflict information
Accountability Developing organizational culture aligned with creativity and change 2.51
Participation of middle managers in basic issues of organization
Choosing a person with strategic thinking responsibility
Organizational climate Creating a climate full of positive thinking, honesty and transparency 2.66
and coordination Considering the relation among strategies at corporate, SBU and functional level and
their relations with external environment
Thinking about vertical (top-down) relations within system
Systematic thinking System thinking 2.26
Interest in ignoring short-term takings to achieve long-term profit
Recognition of the role of individual in bigger systems and understanding the effect of
his/her behavior on outputs
Process approach Process approach (thinking about whole company with focus on customers) 2.67
Considering the relation among different units and organizational duties
Changing dismantled way of thinking to systematic way of thinking
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Table IV One sample T-test
95 percent confidence
interval of the
difference
t df Sig. (two-tailed) Mean Lower Upper
Paired sample
Note: Test ¼0
valueT-test
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Table VII Paired sample T-test
Paired differences
95 percent
confidence interval of
the difference
Mean Std deviation Std error mean Lower Upper t df Sig. (two-tailed)
Pair 1 CREATIVI-CREATV2 20.4167 0.74992 0.05357 20.5224 20.3111 27.780 195 0.000
Pair 2 STRUCTUR-STRUCTUR2 20.4340 0.73512 0.05251 20.5376 20.3304 28.265 195 0.000
Pair 3 ENVIRONM-ENVIR2 20.4099 1.02056 0.07290 20.5537 20.2662 25.623 195 0.000
Pair 4 CONFLICT-CONFLICT2 20.5346 1.32956 0.09497 20.7219 20.3473 25.629 195 0.000
Pair 5 SITUATIO-SITUATI2 20.4205 0.96239 0.06874 20.5561 20.2849 26.117 195 0.000
Pair 6 FUTURE-FUTUR2 20.6202 1.12771 0.08055 20.7791 20.4614 27.700 195 0.000
Pair 7 INTELIGE-INTELIG2 20.4347 0.78608 0.05615 20.5455 20.3240 27.742 195 0.000
Pair 8 MIND-MIND2 20.3730 1.04808 0.7486 20.5207 20.2254 24.983 195 0.000
Pair 9 ACCOUNT-ACOUNT2 20.5517 1.20658 0.08618 20.7217 20.3818 26.402 195 0.000
Pair 10 CLIMATE-CLIMAT2 20.4488 1.00864 0.07205 20.5908 20.3067 26.229 195 0.00
Pair 11 SYSTEM-STSTM2 20.6518 1.02259 0.07304 20.7958 20.5077 28.923 195 0.000
Pair 12 PROCESS-PROCES2 20.4138 1.08011 0.7715 20.5659 20.2616 25.363 195 0.00
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Corresponding author
Abbas Monnavarian can be contacted at: amonavar@ut.ac.ir
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