Connectedness between strategic decision making processes

Strategic decision making is fundamental since strategic decisions affect the long-term health of the organization. Strategy process research to date has been mainly concerned with characterising and explaining the nature of individual strategic decision making processes. A number of researchers are calling for more research on the potential connectedness between strategic decisions. In response, this thesis contributes to the strategic decision making literature by investigating the connectedness between strategic decision making processes. It focuses on precursive connections and tracks decisions backwards and forwards to identify potential connections. Both researchers and practitioners believe that the success and failure of prior decisions affect subsequent decisions. Hence, this research investigates decision performance as a potential influence on connectedness. The research is qualitative and a multiple embedded case study approach was chosen, examining decision making processes in two organizations in the UK. Data collection consisted mainly of in-depth interviews with executives and senior management but also included archival data. Main findings indicate that decision makers tend to transfer their knowledge and experience from one decision process to the next and thereby create a connection between strategic decisions. The connections can be characterised in terms of exploration and exploitation tendencies. Positive perceptions about a decision’s performance are related to the exploitation of existing practices, while negative perceptions prompt an exploration of new routines. The findings also show that informants’ perceptions about decision performance are highly subjective. The concept of cognitive decision styles provides plausible explanations arguing that individuals hold personal preferences when it comes to judging and perceiving information and their evaluations of strategic decisions cohere with these. Finally, this research suggests that decisions are linked primarily through individual agency. This reinforces the importance of the individual in strategic decision making processes, and consequently, the emphasis in this work is to argue that only by a deep understanding of individual action (and practice) is it possible to understand decision processes.