Towards a sensed decision‐making approach

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to call attention to the relative neglect in strategic decision-making research to include a sense dimension, proposing a broadened conceptualization of strategic decision making that accounts for the processes through which managers generate sense when exposed to turbulence in their environments. Design/methodology/approach -Based on scholarly writing and empirical-oriented examples, the paper illustrates how managers cope with unusual and unexpected situations, and discusses fruitful directions for future research. Findings -When faced with turbulence, managers generate and communicate sense through believing in and arguing for a certain course of action, and through meeting talk and interaction that entwine with emotions. The focus on both retrospective and prospective orientation of action unfolds a sense dimension integral to which are belief and emotion. Research limitations/implications -Important questions for future research concern the role "plausibility" plays in strategic action, the relationship between retrospective and prospective orientation of action, and the information conveyed by emotions. Practical implications -The paper could contribute to an increased awareness among practitioners that they can act effectively when coping with turbulence simply by making plausible sense, and encourage reconciliation between calculative rationality and emotion, in practice promoting their complementarity. Originality/value -The paper affords a broadened conceptualization of strategic decision making through interrelating scholarly writing on strategic decision making, sense-making and emotion. It also draws inspiration from Polanyi's work on tacit dimension and knowing, furthering an understanding of how retrospective and prospective orientation unfold in connection with a tacit relation, constituting a so-called sense-made reality.

The international branch campus as transnational strategy in higher education

“…Our preliminary findings encourage further research to investigate particular case studies, to gain a deeper insight into the decision-making processes within universities, and to discover whether these cases fit with our general findings and contentions. Such studies might also shed light on other dimensions in strategic decision-making, such as emotions (Naqvi et al 2006) and sense making (Ericson 2010).…”

Untangling knowledge fields and knowledge dynamics within the decision-making process

“…It is processed by spiritual or existential intelligence (Gardner, 2006) and the result may lead to enhanced wisdom (Maxwell, 2007). SK is fundamental in developing organisational culture and organisational justice (Eberlin and Tatun, 2005; Ericson, 2010; Abatecola, 2014). As Zohar and Marshall (2004) emphasize, “We know today that human beings are by definition primarily creatures of meaning and value (that is, of ‘self-actualization’).…”

A Literature Review of the Strategic Decision-Making Context: A Synthesis of Previous Mixed Findings and an Agenda for the Way Forward

“…The external and the internal environments of the firm set limits to the decision process, but the final outcome of decisions is shaped by the top management team (Child, 1997). Several studies have adopted a strategic choice perspective and strategy-as-practice to investigate the effects of the top management team on strategic decision processes (e.g., Asmuß & Oshima, 2018;Elbasha & Wright, 2017;Ericson, 2010;Jansen, Curşeu, Vermeulen, Geurts, & Gibcus, 2011). Other studies, though, have concluded that top management team characteristics may not impact strategic decision processes or that this impact is slight compared to other contextual characteristics (e.g., Lyles & Mitroff, 1980).…”