Strategic Thinking in Crisis Management : A Study into how Organisations Use Strategic Thinking to Overcome Unusually Demanding Situations

Strategy and strategic management have always been on the radar in academia. A few years back, some scholars studied strategic management further and concluded that the terms strategic planning and strategic thinking as part of strategic management should be spoken of seperately. As academia has evolved, few scholars have embraced this. However, there is a clear distinction between the two terms, where a separation is necessary in order to fully comprehend the differences between them. In this study, a line between strategic planning and thinking has been drawn. What was further realised in the first phase of the study is that strategic thinking as an individual concept lacks integration into crisis management in academia. This presented a fruitful opportunity to explore the topic. The purpose of this research thereby became to identify how strategic thinking may occur within organisations, particularly during a crisis. Specifically, it is the aim to find out how strategic thinking manifests itself in private organisations during times of crisis. This has been done in a timely manner where the world currently is experiencing a pandemic caused by the virus Covid-19, which has presented difficulties for organisations all around the world. The study has chosen to look into private organisations operating in Sweden, with a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Primary data was as a result gathered based on respondents' own experiences and thoughts regarding strategic thinking as the concept is of a complex nature. The data gathered was later analysed in a manner where the connection between strategic thinking and crisis management was looked at. Our findings show that strategic thinking is manifested in crisis management in different ways, where it was determined that the manifestation is highly dependent upon an organisation's strategy, environment in which it operates in and its overall business model. Strategic thinking has additionally been concluded to manifest differently in terms of opportunities and threats, where it was found that some respondents used it more for the long-term benefit of the organisations rather than as a short-term solution to obstacles.