Antecedents of Strategic Thinking:
Casestudy for Elderly Care
Master Thesis
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam Business School
Executive Programme in Management Studies
Strategy Track
Author: Marieke Zebregs
Student number: 11397322
Date: 23th of June, 2018
Version: 1.0
Statement of Originality
This document is written by Student Marieke Zebregs who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not the contents.
Marieke Zebregs
Abstract
The elderly care has changed the last decennia from a relatively stable environment to a really dynamic context. Changes that are caused by several factors and ask for different ways to guide an organization. Nowadays, strategic thinking, broadly implemented in the organization is essential for organizational stability and growth. Traditionally, the elderly care industry is not characterized by a strong business-like focus. To survive and grow in the current context organizations need for a structured, target-oriented development process. More insights in the current status of this development can offer starting points to support the industry in this process and offer concrete guidance to the managers involved.
This study looks at the level of strategic thinking of individual employees of an elderly care organization and its influencing factors. Also, interviews with senior and middle managers were analysed on how these officials view is on strategic thinking and how they work on the development of it with their employees. The results lead to the conclusions that managers in the elderly care are convinced of the importance to broader implement strategic thinking of all employees. Many of them have no clear image on who to stimulate this development
concretely in practice. Also, the available time with the current workload is an aspect of attention. In this study several aspects from the literature were shown to have influence on the level of strategic thinking. Support was found for significant effect of the independent
variables interdepartmental connections, marketing competence and the motivation of employees.
Key words: strategic thinking, elderly care, dynamic environment, organizational culture, training of employees, motivation of employees, interdepartmental connections.
Table of Contents
1.Introduction 5 2.Theoretical framework
2.1 Strategy as a starting point for strategic thinking _____________________________________ 8 2.2 Visions on strategic thinking ____________________________________________________ 10 2.3 Elements of strategic thinking ___________________________________________________ 12 2.4 Difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning __________________________ 15 2.5 Strategic thinking within organizations ___________________________________________ 16 2.6 Strategic thinking in health care _________________________________________________ 18 2.7 Antecedents that lead to strategic thinking _________________________________________ 19 3. Methodology 26
3.1 Research design __________________________________________________________ 26 3.2 Quantitative study ________________________________________________________ 27 3.3 Qualitative study _________________________________________________________ 32 3.4 Validity and reliability _____________________________________________________ 34
4. Results 35 4.1 Quantitative results ___________________________________________________________ 35 4.2 Qualitative results ____________________________________________________________ 44 5. Discussion 54 5.1 Conclusions _____________________________________________________________ 55 5.2 Theoretical implications ___________________________________________________ 57 5.3 Managerial implications ___________________________________________________ 58 5.4 Limitations & further research _______________________________________________ 60 6 References 63
Appendix 1 Questionnaire survey in English 67 Appendix 2 Questionnaire survey in Dutch 70 Appendix 3 Interview questions in Dutch 75 Appendix 4 Example of an interview transcript 77 Appendix 5 Interview questions in English 83
1. Introduction
The health care industry is facing several challenges that increase the urgency for continuous strategic determination and execution. The recent financial crisis touching many industries was one of the major developments, which had great influence also on the elderly care. One of the main consequences was that governments were unable to continue health care spending at prior high levels. This has resulted in policy directives to reduce costs, while maintaining or improving access to care and the quality of care delivered. Another development confronting the health care industry is the changing public opinion. Customers have become more explicit in their expectations of care quality and efficiency. Supported by the media the public image of the elderly care, is not very positive,which has a negative influence on the attraction and retention of professionals in an already tense labour market. As a result, high shortages of staff are expected the next five years.
To keep up with the changing environment and in order to attract and retain customers, elderly care organizations need to re-examine their strategy and the way they create value for the customer (Porter & Olmsted Teisberg, 2006). In other words, the
increasing environmental turbulence has intensified the need for strategic thinking in elderly care organizations. It is suggested that thinking more strategically can help health care organizations overcome the shortages of nursing staff. By taking a long-term view on the situation with a clear set of goals, combining resources and creating partnerships between care organizations and academic institutions, support can be created to overcome the staffing problem in the nursing profession (Wurmser et al., 2011).
In the literature strategic thinking is defined in many different ways. Torset (2001) offers a simple definition for the concept: “Strategic thinking is the way top managers think about which objectives they want to achieve and which actions they will implement to attain them”. Other authors come with a more specific definition. For example, Jelenc and Swiercz (2011) define strategic thinking as a process in which a person is perceiving, reflecting, feeling, realizing and acknowledging signs that impact the future of the organization, giving them meaning and acting upon by shaping the impression, perspective and behaviour
accordingly. The described developments in the environment are combined with insights from the literature. Strategic thinking in a dynamic context should not only be done by the CEO and his staff, but by all the employees in an organization.
Overall relatively little scientific research is conducted on the concept of strategic thinking. The research that is available points out the relevance of broader development of strategic thinking in the health care. For example, Wurmser and others (2011) explain how thinking more strategically can help health care organizations overcome the shortages of nursing staff. The current literature offers an insight into what strategic thinking entails and what elements it can be divided in. However, less is known about factors influencing strategic thinking within organizations. Moreover, specific research in elderly care on strategic
thinking is lacking, while the described developments in the environment increase the urgency for organizations in this industry to develop their strategic thinking competencies.
The industry can’t be characterized as one with a strong business-like focus historically seen. Changes in the context and stimulating government policies for more entrepreneurship in the elderly care make the transition to different ways of involving employees essential.
The goal of the exploratory research is to discover new relationships or patterns between factors, without testing a concrete hypothesis. Hence, this study aims to explore employees’ strategic thinking in elderly care organizations and factors influencing this capability. The results of this study can offer guidance to higher and middle managers in the process of further developing strategic thinking with their employees. Based on the literature and developments in the work field, the research questions for this thesis is formulated as:
• What antecedents are influencing strategic thinking of employees in elderly care organizations?
• How can managers stimulate strategic thinking within their team?
The first research question is gaining understanding of the concept of strategic thinking, while the second research question aims to offer advice to the senior and middle management in relation to supporting strategic thinking in their teams. Traditionally, the elderly care industry is not characterized by a strong business-like focus. Only since one decade the financing of the industry has change from pure government regulation to a more commercial structure. Although the governmental influence on the budget of organizations is still high, there are also impulses captured that stimulate organizations to entrepreneurship. Many elderly care organizations nowadays also exploit a part private financed care, complementary to the governmental financed care. This industry background causes the need for a development process for organizations to survive and grow in the current context. For managers at all levels of the organizations, it is a relatively new experience to work on the development of strategic thinking with their employees. Insights in how and what factors influencing this development process can offer them support.
2. Theoretical framework
This literature review has the following structure:
- in the first paragraph strategic thinking is defined
- In paragraphs 2.2. and 2.3 the concept is further analysed with different views from the literature.
- In the next part the specific distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning is explained.
- In paragraphs 2.5 and 2.6 strategic thinking in organizations is first discussed in general and later in specific within the context of the health care industry. - Finally, the chapter is closed with the discussion of factors influencing strategic
thinking.
2.1 Strategy as a starting point for strategic thinking
There is a strong relation between the concept of strategic thinking, central to this thesis, and strategy in general. A compact historical overview of the concept of strategy in the literature serves as a basis for gaining adequate understanding of the concept of strategic thinking. Strategy is a very common concept in management and business theories, but there is a lack of consensus about its definition. Historically seen, many definitions treat strategy as (a) explicit, (b) developed consciously and purposefully, and (c) made in advance of the specific decisions to which it applies. The most common definition in the management theories is still a good example: " . . . the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals" (Chandler, 1962). Taking a good look at the definitions of strategy over time, it is becoming clear that there are different perspectives about the key aspects of
For example, Abraham (2005) describes strategy as the implication of competing and outwitting competitors. Strategy is about being different from the competitors, finding the race and winning it. Kraaijenbrink (2015) speaks about strategy as a unique way of
sustainable value creation, being different from others. De Wit & Meyer (2014) emphasize that strategy can be seen as in three distinguishable dimensions.
Figure 1- Dimensions of strategy. Source: De Wit & Meyer, 2015.
The first is the strategy process, the flow of strategy activities. The second is strategy content, which is the result of all strategy activities and third the strategy context, which are the conditions in which the strategy activities take place. Each strategic problem has these three dimensions involved and only understanding of all three dimensions will give the strategist real depth of comprehension (De Wit & Meyer, 2015). These stages should not be seen as consecutive stages, but rather as a continuous process in which the three dimensions are often repeatedly executed. Sometimes the processes have a more diffuse character and the three dimensions are not so clearly divided.
Organizational Purpose Impetus for strategy activitites (input) Strategy Content Result of strategy activities (output) Strategy process
Flow of strategy activities (throughput)
Strategy context
Conditions surrounding strategy activitites
Looking at the history of the concept of strategy, a development is visible in which strategy determination moved from a static, planned process to a more organic way of
competing with other organizations in a constantly changing environment. This development has direct impact on the way investment of companies in strategic thinking is needed.
2.2 Visions on strategic thinking
About strategic thinking there is less clarity in the literature. Some influential authors seem to have no interest in defining the concept of strategic thinking and only focus on the practical use of the concept in the working field.
Strategic thinking: the ten big ideas
Long range planning Strategic analysis
Quality Portfolio theory Scenario planning Resource allocation models
Corporate culture Leadership craft Metrics that matter
Strategic alliances
Figure 2 – The ten big ideas of strategic thinking. Source: Allio, 2016.
For example, Allio (2006) identified ten items, named the ten big ideas, which are presented as the cornerstones of strategic thinking in the period from 1960 to 1990. The author is purely focussed on the practical implementation in organizations and
For example, is no explanation is given why strategic thinking is an important
competency for organizations to have and who in the organizations should be capable to think strategically. A clear definition of strategic thinking is completely lacking. However, with the rapid pace of change and global competition, strategy determination and strategic thinking, the instruments which were popular in the past seem to be less effective nowadays. As stated in more recent literature, creative strategic thinking may become the new core competence for managers, and the ultimate source of competitive differentiation. New tools and insights are needed to support sustainable profitability (Allio, 2006).
Strategic thinking Operational thinking
Long-term Immediate and short term
Conceptual Objective
Learning / reflective Action-received / practical
Identification of opportunities and strategic issues Resolving current issues Moving towards new contexts Current contexts
Effectiveness Efficiency
Mental view Manual view
Helicopter view Context (partial view)
Figure 3 - Strategic thinking versus operational thinking. Source: Handford, 1995.
Handford (1995) was one of the first researchers of influence on the topic of strategic thinking. He contributed with eight characteristics that differentiate strategic thinking from operational thinking. Goldman and Casey (2010) point out that many authors see strategic thinking as an individual ability, yet very little is known about it.
Moon (2012) defines strategic thinking as a way of solving strategic problems by combining a rational and convergent approach with a creative and divergent thought process, aimed at finding alternative ways of competing and providing customer value. This definition not only describes the process of strategic thinking, but also the
function of it. We can conclude that there have been several attempts in the literature to gain a complete definition and insight in the concept of strategic thinking, but there is no broad consensus on the topic yet. The instruments used by managers in the last decades to support strategic thinking in a practical way do not seem to match with the increasingly dynamic environment of today.
2.3 Elements of strategic thinking
To get more insights in the concept of strategic thinking, several authors have divided the concept in separate elements. Based on prior research, Moon (2012) identifies four elements of strategic thinking, which are visible in the figure 4.
Figure 4 – Elements of strategic thinking. Source: Moon, 2012.
Strategic thinking Market-oriented thinking Sys tem ati c th in kin g Cr ea tive th in kin g Visi on d riven th in kin g
Systematic thinking is about looking into the underlying structures, which are shaping individual actions. Creative thinking means searching for new opportunities and solutions to become better than competitors. Vision-driven thinking points out the need to have a deep understanding about the core values of an organization. Finally, market-oriented thinking is about the ability to identify opportunities to gain sustainable competitive advantage by understanding the current resources and developments in an industry. This model which has some similarities with other models, like the one of Liedtka discussed below. Until now the model of Moon (2012) has gained no broad interested in the literature or scientific research.
Other authors also have given explanations about the concept of strategic thinking. For example, Jelenc and Swiercz (2011) describe strategic thinking as the thought processes involved in gathering and evaluating information on strategic issues for the use in the strategic management processes. Liedtka (1998) followed a model of Mintzberg and applied it to the concept of strategic thinking. This author explains it based on five elements, which are shown in figure 5. The first element is the system perspective. Thinking in time System perspective Intelligent Opportunism Intent focus Hypothesis Driven Strategic Thinking
A strategic thinker has a mental model of the complete system of value creation from the beginning to the end and understands the interdependencies within the chain. This perspective enables individuals to clarify their role within the larger system and the impact of their behaviour on other parts of the system, as well as on the final outcome (Liedtka, 1998). The second element of strategic thinking is the element of intent-focus. Hamel and Prahalad (1994) define this as a particular point of view about the long-term market or competitive position that an organization hopes to build over the coming decade or so. This element contains three parts; a sense of direction, discovery and destiny for the future. Strategic thinking is a process of continuous shaping and reshaping this intent (Lawrence, 1999). The third element of strategic thinking is intelligent opportunism. This element is all about the openness to new ideas to develop new strategies. Interference of lower level employees who are closer to customer contact is essential in this. Like Hamel (1996) formulates it: “If you want to create a point of view about the future, if you want to create a meaningful strategy, you have to create in your company a hierarchy of imagination. And that means giving a disproportionate share of voice to the people who have until now been disenfranchised from the strategy making process.” The fourth element is thinking in time, which means connecting the past, present and future of the organization with each other. The last element of strategic thinking is that this is a hypothesis-driven process. The future of an organization is insecure and strategic thinking is about posing a critical creative question and evaluating this over time. The model of Liedtka (1998) is one of the models of strategic thinking, which has gained broad support in the literature and will be used as a basis for this thesis as explained in Chapter 3 about the methodology.
2.4 Difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning
In the literature the concept of strategic thinking is often used in confusing ways.
The concepts of strategic thinking and strategic planning for example are regularly mentioned as extension of each other, however different and independent concepts. Many practitioners and theorists have wrongly assumed that strategic planning, strategic thinking and strategy implementation are all synonymous (Mintzberg, 1994). Jelenc and Swiercz (2011) explain the importance of strategic thinking for establishing successful organizations in the current environment, because strategic thinking plays the most important role when organizations are challenged by the need to differentiate from competitors. Many organizations have excellent strategic planning skills but pay little or no attention to strategic thinking or implementation. This imbalance in their behaviour often results in underperformance (Benito-Ostolaza & Sanchez-Llopis, 2013).
Mintzberg and Porter are two influential authors on the topic with both a different perspective on the interrelation between strategic planning and strategic thinking. Mintzberg’s view on strategy is more process focused in a creative and synthetic way, where Porter looks at it from a more position-focused way, applying a more
convergent and analytical approach. Those different views can be seen as
complementary, because creative, ground-breaking strategies emerging from strategic thinking still have to be translated to practical tools through convergent and analytical thought (Heracleous, 1998). Figure 6 makes a visualisation of the complementary of the both concepts. It can be concluded that strategic thinking and strategic planning are both necessary and none is adequate without the other, these are truly complementary
Figure 6 - Strategic thinking versus strategic planning. Source: Heracleous, 1998.
2.5 Strategic thinking within organizations
Strategic thinking was historically a capability exclusively expected from top managers. In more recent literature there is a change noticeable in this view. For
example, Tavakoli & Lawton (2005) state that organizations would benefit highly from encouraging and helping to develop strategic thinking in as large a number of their employees as practical.
More flexibility and innovativeness are asked from organizations to cope with the current highly dynamic society. This is a clear difference from the context a couple of decades ago.
Strategic management
Strategic thinking
The purpose of strategic thinking is to discover novel, imaginative strategies which can re-write the rules of the competitive game; and
to envision potential futures significantly different from the
present. Thought process: Synthetic Divergent Creative
The purpose of strategic planning is to operationalise the
strategies developed through strategic thinking, and to support the strategic thinking
process. Strategic planning Thought process: Analytical Convergent Conventional
When an organization holds on to the model of strategic thinking only from the top of the company, it is questionable if they can fulfil the challenge of coping with this dynamic environment fast enough. Both leadership and strategy theorists have indicated that strategic thinking is needed at multiple organizational levels (Goldman & Casey, 2010). Also, in literature review on the topic a switch is seen in
implementation of strategic thinking in organizations (Lawrence, 1999). The
turbulence and complexity of the environment increase the need to exercising strategic thinking skills in lower levels of an organization. In other words, the need for
information and thinking skills that were once the purview of top leaders is moving deeper into organizations, as everyone needs to be able to interpret complex
information and create their own realities (Wheatly, 2006).
Sharifi (2012) explains that strategic thinking can be analysed at two different levels; the individual level and the organizational level. The individual level comprises three elements:
• A holistic understanding of the organization and its environment • Creativity
• A vision for the future of the organization
The organizational level offers the environment in which the individual employees can think strategically. This context should offer structures, processes and systems that foster ongoing strategic dialogue and stimulate the creativity of every employee. Nevertheless, the higher on the hierarchical level in the organization, the larger part of his works demands strategic thinking (Jelenc and Swierzc, 2011).
Research on this area shows that the more organizations focus on processes and routines, the more indication that strategic thinking is useful to those working close to the customer (Floyd and Wooldridge, 2000). Overall the earlier dominant vision that only in the top of the organization strategic thinking is needed, does not find much support nowadays anymore. The dynamic environment seems to ask for a broader implementation of strategic thinking within companies. Several authors mention antecedents on individual or organizational level influencing this development, but broad insights in how these antecedents have influence and interact with each other is needed to fully understand the concept.
2.6 Strategic thinking in health care
When we look at the specific situation of the health care industry, rapid changes and
uncertainty are apparent and a business environment that has expanded the decision-making role of the nurse into the need for strategic thinking (Randolph, 2013). The health care
industry in The Netherlands can be divided in two major categories, the cure and the care. The cure section is focused on healing patients from their disease. Hospitals, but also specialized clinics and revalidation units are part of this category. The care section is focused on nursing of patients with chronic illnesses, disabled people and the elderly. The research and books available about strategic thinking in health care predominantly involve the cure section of the health care, many with a specific attention to general hospitals. Since no specific research about strategic thinking in the care section of the health care was found, the research of this thesis is concentrates on the care section, specifically the elderly care.
The research on strategic thinking in health care in general gives some interesting insights. In their book, Ginter and others (2009) present their vision on the concept of
strategic thinking helping health care organizations interpret patterns of investment decisions and their consequences for the capabilities of an organization. The authors also point out that environmental developments like globalisation, rapid technological innovations,
cost-containment pressures, mergers and regulatory reform increase the need of strategic thinking in this industry. Many health care institutions have traditionally trained professionals,
delivered services and systems to pay the bill, but lack strategic thinking, which makes their current challenges even bigger (Cocowitch, 1997). In the US a large study on strategic thinking has been executed. About 400 healthcare executives were interviewed on what kind of leadership encourages strategic thinking.
One of the main conclusions of this study was that investing in human resources and
organizational learning are important factors to encourages strategic thinking on the long-run (Goldman, 2012). Ginter and others (2009) make the argument that strategic thinking in health care organizations is not about numbers, big ideas or visions of brilliant leaders, but more about a discipline that develops new habits and work practices. These authors see for the leaders of healthcare organizations the role of giving employees the space to be sceptical, to challenge assumptions and to learn from small failures. Because the health care industry has not had a strong focus on strategy determination and strategic thinking in the last decades, the need to develop this capability is clearly increasing.
2.7 Antecedents that lead to strategic thinking
A higher level of strategic thinking will result in a better business success, whether it is measured as an increase in stock value, profit, or market expansion. Little research is available on this specific subject. For many elderly care organizations this is a totally new development, because historically seen senior management and staff are not the people busy with strategic thinking. Moon (2012) has done research on external and internal antecedents on strategic thinking. This research shows that strategic thinking of an organization is
positively influenced by the internal variables such as management attitude toward risk, CEO emphasis, interdepartmental teams and marketing competency. Market-oriented training may help tenhance the marketing competency of the organization, and in turn, marketing
competency may foster market orientation and strategic thinking, states Moon (2012).
Broader literature review shows that other variables such as motivation of the employee, understanding the strategic thinking process and related factors, training of employees and a supportive culture are factors influencing strategic thinking on the individual level. Jelenc and Swiercz (2011) state that considering the features of strategic thinking, the question that poses itself is how to develop, train, teach and acquire competencies and skills to achieve a higher level of strategic thinking. An overview of the antecedents discussed in the literature is shown in table 1.
Overview of potential variables influencing strategic thinking
Organizational culture (Goldman & Casey, 2012, Shirvani & Shojaie, 2011, Moon, 2012) Interpartmental connentions (Moon, 2012)
Marketing competency (Moon, 2012)
Motivation of employees (Jelenc & Swiercz, 2011, Bonn, 2001 & Sloan, 2009)
Understanding of employees (Goldman & Casey, 2010, De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Kolb, 1984 & Benito-Ostolaza & Sanchis-Llopis, 2013)
Leadership style of the management (Abraham, 2005 & Wheatley, 2006) Educational level (Salvati, 2017)
Age (Jelenc, 2015) Gender (Jelenc, 2015)
Organizational culture
Organizational culture can play a vital role to limit or encourage leaders, as people who play crucial roles regarding culture and strategic thinking process can maximize the relationship between organizational culture and the strategic thinking process (Shirvani & Shojaie, 2011). Goldman (2012) explains that when planners, human resource professionals and executives in a healthcare department work together in a holistic management approach strategic thinking is stimulated.
Interdepartmental connection
The research of Moon (2012) shows that interaction across different departments of an organization have a positive influence on the market orientation. This provides a better context for strategic thinking of employees. Working in project teams with colleagues of different departments can be an example of an organizational structure, but also other work forms can be created in this perspective. In the elderly care connections across different care departments are already common, more interesting is to also study the connections between care teams and staff members, for example policy officers and the human resources
department.
Marketing competency
Marketing competency of employees provides them better understanding of their own organization and the market, the rivalry and the threats. Based on this Moon (2012) explains that the higher the market competency of employees the more capable they are to think strategically. In the elderly care it has not been customary to stimulate marketing competency of employees, other than the specialized staff members and managers. It is very plausible to
assume that stimulating the marketing competency of employees will have a stimulating effect on the level of strategic thinking in an organization.
Motivation of employees
Jelenc & Swiercz (2011) explain for example that strategic thinking will only take place if an individual has the motivation and the ability to take part in the strategic thinking process. Bonn (2001) has suggested that the following managerial decisions promote intrinsic motivation for strategic thinking in an organization: allocate required resources and match employees with assignments that make use of the provides resources, encourage recognition by supervisors and create a climate where the entire organization supports creative efforts. Sloan (2009) gives several practical suggestions to motivate employees in developing strategic thinking skills:
• Ask a question instead of giving the answer ‘no’ • Ask in-depth questions
• Record thoughts, feelings and new questions in a journal • Take time to write down the feelings attached to thinking • Reflect on things that provoke questions or strong feelings • Draw or design your strategy ideas instead of writing them down
• Write or tell parables that illustrate your assumptions about strategy issues.
Motivation of employees is expected to be an important antecedent for the level of strategic thinking. The literature offers broad suggestions for managers how to support the motivation of the employees. Interesting is to study if managers are currently working using these actions in practice and possibly expand their efforts.
Understanding of employees
The development of an individual’s ability to think strategically requires an understanding of what happens during the strategic thinking process as well as the contributing factors. This development process is a dynamic, interactive and iterative experiential learning process (Goldman & Casey, 2010). De Wit and Meyer (2010) explain the complexity of the strategic reasoning process in the mind of a strategist. The steps as defined by the authors in the model below are the individual steps needed before resulting in strategic behaviour.
Figure 7 – Strategic reasoning process. Source: De Wit & Meyer, 2015.
First the individual should identify a strategic problem and also diagnose what kind of problem it is. Then the process of solving the problem can start by formulating and implementing the needed actions. These authors state that a complex mix of logical and creative thinking is essential to be a successful in strategic thinking.
Diagnosing
Analyzing Reflecting
("What is the nature of the problem?")
Conceiving
Formulating Imagining ("How should the problem be adressed?")
Realizing
Implementing Acting
("what actions should be taken?") Identifying Recognizing Sense-making ("What is a problem?") Defining Solving
Kolb (1984) relates strategic thinking to experiential learning theories with activities of scanning, questioning, conceptualizing and testing. Not all managers and workers develop the skills to think strategically, as many organizations lack training programs for them (Benito-Ostolaza & Sanchis-Llopis, 2013). Benito-(Benito-Ostolaza & Sanchis-Llopis (2013) have done research on the process of training and learning capabilities to support strategic thinking. These authors used an experiment with repeated games to determine if employees are
trainable on these capabilities. One group was trained before the game and the other one was not. Their results support the hypothesis that strategic thinking among employees can be learned by training and instruction.
Leadership style of the management
Managers that integrate the following management practices in their daily routines have a stimulating effect on their employees (Goldman & Casey, 2010):
• Working with clear performance and financial targets • Questioning job candidates on strategic thinking
• Discussing strategic thinking abilities in the annual performance evaluation • Stimulating new ideas of employees
• Financially rewarding teams or individuals on strategic thinking
Leadership style and the effects of it are broadly studied, but the effect on strategic thinking of employees is a research part were more empirical results are essential.
Personal elements
Also, some personal characteristics of employees have influence on the level of strategic thinking. The research of Salvati (2017) shows that the higher the educational level of employees, the higher the capability to think strategically.
Jelenc (2015) found that employees older than 60 years and that female employees have a higher capability on the system thinking element of strategic thinking. Since age, educational level and gender have an effect on the level of strategic thinking, these factors should be taken into account in further research. Testing in the setting of the elderly care is an interesting aspect to offer additional information to the literature. In the next chapter will be explained how this research on the antecedents of strategic thinking has been designed.
3 Methodology
3.1 Research design
This research is a single case study with a unit of observation on the individual level of
employees in the organization. This choice is made because the purpose of the study is to gain more insights in the concept of strategic thinking in the specific context of the elderly care. The setting of a single case study offered the opportunity to take a deeper look at the research phenomenon, although this has also limitations for the generalizability of the results.
Saunders and others (2011) explain that a case study is of particular interest when the researcher wishes to gain richer understanding of the context of the research and process being enacted. These authors state that a case study is suitable to answer a “Why”, “How” and “What” research question in an exploratory or descriptive study.
This thesis study is a combination of an inductive and a deductive approach in which the literature is used as sensitizing framework. By comparing the results of the research with the literature, the researcher is able to do what is necessary to develop a theory more or less inductively, namely categorizing, coding, delineating categories and connecting them.
Constant comparison goes hand in hand with theoretical sampling. This principle implies that the researcher decides what data will be gathered next and where to find them on the basis of provisional theoretical ideas (Boeije, 2002). Many antecedents influencing strategic thinking are not broadly tested yet. Because of this starting point a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was chosen for this thesis study. The first stage of this research had a quantitative character. The focus in this research part was to explore the rate of strategic thinking of employees in an organization.
The second part of the study was executed with qualitative methods to explore the vision of senior and middle managers view and actions in the area of strategic thinking. In the next paragraphs of this chapter further explanation will be done on the used quantitative and qualitative methods of this study.
The empirical setting is a medium-sized organization elderly care in the in the western part of The Netherlands. The company has about 850 employees and is structured in 5 business-units along a headquarters. This research will take place in the five business units, which have a main focus on institutional elderly care and home-care. In each of these units work around 100 to 150 employees. The headquarters is excluded, because the different working conditions, as well as type of work and the relatively small number of employees working there, which might have a negative effect on the comparability of the results. This company is selected because the rate of strategic thinking and the factors influencing the concept are similar for many elderly care organizations. The specific setting and research design limit the generalizability of the results. Further research is necessary to widen the applicability. The CEO of the company gave permission for the survey, interviews and other use of data. The collected information will be treated confidential. The anonymity of employees was guaranteed.
3.2 Quantitative study
3.2.1 Sample
The survey sample consisted of 150 respondents in total, 30 respondents of each business unit. The survey had a result of 105 completed questionnaires, which is a relative high response rate of 70%. There were no missing responses. All the locations were represented
The response rate of the location Salem was relatively low with only nine respondents. Several reminders were given to the location to stimulate the return of the questionnaires, but this did not end up in a higher response. The feedback from the Salem employees and
managers to the study was positive, there was enthusiasm and willingness to participate, unfortunately not leading to higher completion rates. As in earlier studies done within the company the in the low response rate of the Salem location in relation to the other locations was also observed and reported to the CEO.
Location Sample Number of completed questionnaires Respond rate Duinrand 30 25 83,3% Salem 30 9 30% Vlietstede 30 20 66,7% Rustoord 30 26 86,7% Zorg Thuis 30 25 83,3%
Table 2 – Survey sample
In total 105 participants finished the questionnaire during the survey. The participants had an age range from 17 to 64 years old. The gender balance was 1,9% male and 98,1% female. In the company as a whole, the ratio is 4,6 % male and 95,4% female, but many of the male workers have jobs that were outside the scope of this research, like senior management or staff. From the respondents was 85,7% working in the care department of the company and 14,3% in the facilities department. Looking at the total labour population of the company, 59 % is working in the care department and 41% in other functions of which the facilities
department is just a small part. A relatively high percentage of the respondents in this research had the educational level of secondary vocational, namely 71,4 %, pertaining to 54% in the total organization. Many employees with a higher educational degree are working in senior management and staff and were not a part of this survey.
Characteristics Number of respondents Percentage Gender Male Female 2 103 1,9 98,1 Age 15-24 years 25-34 years 35-44 years 45-54 years 55-64 years 13 22 21 31 18 12,4 21,0 20,0 29,5 17,1 Education level Elementary school High school
Secondary vocational education Higher professional education University Other 1 18 75 8 0 3 1,0 17,1 71,4 7,6 0,0 2,9
Working at the company
0-10 years 11-20 years 31-40 years 64 27 14 61,0 25,7 13,4
Working in current profession
0-10 years 11-20 years 21-30 years
31 years and longer
68 25 11 1 64,8 23,8 10,5 1,0 Table 3 - Descriptive of the survey respondents
Participants were asked how long they worked at the company, the range was between the 0-34 years with the highest response in category 0-10 years. The range of years working in the current professional was even broader from 0-43 years. Also, here, most responses were in category 0-10 year. Looking at gender, there are working just a small number of males in the elderly care organization, but the percentage of male respondents is even lower than in the working population in the company.
3.2.2 Measures
The quantitative part of this study conducted a survey based on a paper questionnaire. The questionnaire was focussed on the rate of strategic thinking, measured on an individual level.
All items were measured with the use of a five-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree). The respondents were asked to indicate how they agree or disagree on the item. The dependent variable in the study is strategic thinking with the five subscales as defined in the model of Liedtka (1998). This model is discussed in chapter 2.3 of this document. Salavati and others (2017) have translated part of this model to a questionnaire, which they used in their research on strategic thinking in the medical science (see the
appendix). Also, Matar (2015) has developed a survey questionnaire of the Liedtka model of strategic thinking, but the focus in this research was on senior management level. The
questionnaire was distributed by email as well as on paper. It has taken the respondent about 10 minutes to complete. Scale Original number of items Original score
Cronbach’s alpha after deleting items
Strategic thinking (Salvati and others, 2017 & edited version based on Matar, 2015)
32 0,82 0,86 (without items 10,11,14,20 &21)
System perspective (Salvati and others, 2017)
7 0,63 0,63
Intelligent opportunism (Salvati and others, 2017)
7 0,42 0,54 (without items 10,11 &14)
Intent focus
(Salvati and others, 2017)
6 0,42 0,64 (without item 20)
Thinking in time (Edited version based on Matar, 2015)
6 0,48 0,67 (without item 21)
Hypothesis driven (Edited version based on Matar, 2015)
6 0,73 0,73
Besides the survey data there are other sources of data used for analysis, like company documents and data. Before starting the data analyse, some items had to be recoded, because they were contradicting with the other items. Before analysing the results, the reliability of the variables was tested based on the Cronbach’s alpha. The first results show a high reliability on the scale of strategic thinking, but not all the five subscales had a sufficiently high score. Further analyses resulted in the conclusion that five questions had a strong negative influence on the reliability of the scales. These five questions were taken out of the research, which resulted in the scores on Cronbach ‘s alpha as shown below.
The independent variables in this study are the antecedents for strategic thinking found in the literature (see table 1). The variable leadership style is only used in the qualitative study. The available literature on leadership style on strategic thinking was considerably smaller than the other antecedents. That is why the choice is made to look at this variable only in the
qualitative part of the research. This can offer input to study the variable in future research with a quantitative research method. The other items found in the literature are translated to questions with a five-point Likert scale in the questionnaire. Considering that other factors might have influence on the results, the control variables age, education level and years working for this company were used in this study.
In the first items of the questionnaire the personal characteristics of the respondent were surveyed. Also, for the independent variables the reliability was tested based on the Cronbach’s alpha. Further analyses showed that the reliability was not higher if one of the item was deleted from the scale. The variables gender, educational level and gender were single item scales.
Scale Original number of items Cronbach’s alpha Organizational culture
(Goldman & Casey, 2012, Shirvani & Shojaie, 2011& Moon, 2012)
4 0,56
Interdepartmental connections (Moon, 2012) 5 0,59 Marketing competency (Moon, 2012) 5 0,63 Motivation of employees
(Jelenc & Swiercz, 2011 & Sloan, 2009)
5 0,68
Understanding of employees / training (Abraham, 2005 & Wheatley, 2006)
5 0,58
Table 5 – Cronbach’s alpha independent variables
3.2.3 Analysis
The results of the survey were analysed with SPSS software. The unit of analysis in this research was the individual level of employees in the organization. First a correlation test was conducted the significant relations between the dependent variable (head and subscales) and the independent variables. Next Anova and regression tests were executed to gain further inside in the relation between the significant relations found in the correlation test.
3.3 Qualitative study
3.3.1 Sample
The second part of this thesis study was conducted to gain more understanding of how middle and senior managers in the care industry look at strategic thinking and the antecedents
influencing the concept. Semi-structured, one-on-one, in person interviews with open-ended questions were done with six middle or senior managers with the purpose to gain information from their perspective on the research topic.
Respondents were chosen based on an adequate mix of representation of the different locations of the organization and their working experience and age.
In education there is little difference between the managers, so this was no selection item. The interviews executed based on a pre-designed interview protocol (see Appendix 3) with a brief description of the research project and a definition of the key concept strategic thinking. The average duration of the interview was about one hour. Next to the interviews, two policy documents of the company were coded on items relevant to this study.
3.3.2 Measures
The interview questions were related to the antecedents of strategic thinking described in the literature and discussed in chapter 3.7 of this thesis. Most questions were open ended, with exception of some concrete items like item about the age of the respondent. Open ended questions like this allow the participant more scope to express thoughts and feelings (especially when sensitive issues are being discussed) and can offer more detail on the research subject (Sarantakos, 1988).
3.3.3 Analysis
In total six semi-structured interviews were done and analysed after making a word-to-word transcription. Analysing the interviews and documents on the antecedents found in the literature, there were similarities and differences found between the respondents. Coding methods were used to structure the data from the qualitative study and come to conclusions. First the qualitative results are open coded, followed by the axial and selective coding method.During this process of analysis, the results are compared with each other and linked back to the literature to formulated conclusions. The unit of analysis used is the individual
3.4 Validity and reliability
Validity of the research refers to whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about (Saunders, 2012). The findings must answer the research questions. A research what is not valid, it hardly matters if it is reliable. Reliability refers to whether the data collection methods and analysis procedures are used produce consistent findings (Saunders, 2012). All though the concept of strategic thinking is not broadly empirically tested, there are several relevant studies done. In this master thesis the choice of using the model of Liedtka (1998) is made, because it is most broadly referred to in the literature as well as used in scientific research. Unfortunately, many of the questionnaires used in prior research are not transparent, but a few are and these are used to form the questionnaire for this survey. Using prior tested questions increases the validity of this master thesis. The survey sample of 150 employees is as high as possible within the research time of the thesis to decrease the risks of biases. The questionnaire for this research is pre-tested on the five employees to ensure that is
understandable for the target group. For securing the reliability of the research several sources are used to collect and analyses the results. Testing within the context of one organization offers many limitations but has as an advantage that the context of interfering factors is relatively stable.
4 Results
In this chapter the results of as well the quantitative as qualitative research are discussed. At the start the focus will be on the quantitative results, after that the qualitative results are presented.
4.1 Quantitative results
4.1.1 Correlation analysis
The data collected in the survey have been analyzed to study if they offer support for the antecedents for strategic thinking found in the literature. First a correlation test using the Pearson coefficient was conducted to examine the relation between the antecedents and the five subscales (see table 6). Results on the Pearson coefficient are between the range of +1 and -1. Positive scores show a positive linear relationship between two variables, while a negative score shows a negative linear relationship.
The results in table 6 show several significant relations. For example, the independent variable interdepartmental connections has a lot of significant relationships to as well the dependent as several independent variables. For the independent variable gender, no significant relationships are found based on the correlation analysis.
4.1.2. Anova test
The first exploration was the determining of the level of strategic thinking in the different locations and in the different departments (care / facility). A one-way Anova test was conducted to explore the differences in strategic thinking between the groups. With the post-hoc test was analysed which groups show significant differences.
Location N Mean SD Std. error Lower bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum Duinrand 25 3.77 0.21 0.41 3.69 3.86 3.23 4.17 Salem 9 3.55 0.18 0.06 3.41 3.69 3.31 3.94 Vlietstede 20 3.49 0.25 0.06 3.37 3.61 3.11 4.03 Rustoord 26 3.67 0.22 0.04 3.59 3.76 3.40 4.23 Zorg thuis 25 3.62 0.39 0.08 3.46 3.78 2.54 4.51 Total 105 3.64 0.28 0.03 3.58 3.69 2.54 4.51
Table 7 - Descriptives Anova strategic thinking
With a p-score of 0,013, the Anova test shows significant variances on strategic thinking between the different locations, F (4,100) =3,4. Further analyses with the Turkey Post hoc test makes clear that only the groups Duinrand and Vlietstede have a significant difference on strategic thinking (p = 0,007).
Based on the literature the concept of strategic thinking can be divided in five subscales: 1. System perspective 2. Intelligent opportunism 3. Intent Focus 4. Thinking in time 5. Hypothesis driven
The differences on the subscales between the locations were tested with Oneway Anova’s. For the subscales system perspective, intelligent opportunism and intent focus, no significant differences were found. In table 8 the results on the subscales thinking in time and hypothesis driven are shown. Here significant differences are found.
Location N Mean SD Std. error Lower bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum Duinrand 25 3.81 0.32 0.06 3.68 3.95 3.00 4.33 Salem 9 3.59 0.25 0.08 3.40 3.79 3.17 4.00 Vlietstede 20 3.41 0.47 0.11 3.19 3.63 2.50 4.00 Rustoord 26 3.68 0.38 0.07 3.52 3.83 3.00 4.33 Zorg thuis 25 3.58 0.54 0.11 3.36 3.80 2.00 4.67 Total 105 3.63 0.44 0.43 3.54 3.71 2.00 4.67
Table 8 - Descriptives Anova thinking in time
Results of the Oneway Anova test on the fourth subscale thinking in timing show a significant effect (p = 0,32). With the Turkey post-hoc test further analysis is made and explain that the difference on this subscale are only significant for the locations Duinrand and Vlietstede. The scores on thinking in time between these locations variated from 3,4 in Vlietstede and 3,8 in Duinrand. Location N Mean SD Std. error Lower bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum Duinrand 25 3.53 0.30 0.06 3.41 3.66 3.00 4.00 Salem 9 2.94 0.39 0.13 2.64 3.24 2.50 3.83 Vlietstede 20 2.99 0.48 0.10 2.78 3.20 2.33 3.83 Rustoord 26 3.34 0.37 0.07 3.19 3.49 2.67 4.33 Zorg thuis 25 3.18 0.50 0.10 2.98 3.38 1.33 4.00
Also, on the fifth subscale Hypothesis driven significant differences are found between the locations (p = 0,000,), F (4,100) = 3,4. Several locations show significant differences on this subscale based on the analysis with the Turkey post-hoc test. First of all, location Duinrand (M= 3,5) has a significant difference with Salem (M=2,9, p= 0,003) Vlietstede (M= 3,0, p= 0,000) and Zorg Thuis (M=3,2, p=0,022) on this scale. Next to that a significant difference was found on between Vlietstede (M= 3,0) and Rustoord (M=3,3, p= 0,037).
In the literature several factors are identified which can explain the difference in the level of strategic thinking and the subscales thinking in time and Hypothesis driven.
Comparing the locations Vlietstede and Rustoord with an independent t-test, no significant differences (p’s > .05) are found that can offer an explanation for the variances in Thinking in time between the two locations.
Sum of squares
df Mean
Square
F Sig
Gender Between groups 0.40 4 0.01 0.53 0.72
Within groups 1.92 100 0.02
Total 1.96 104
Age Between groups 772.18 4 193.04 1.20 0.32
Within groups 16077.22 100 160.77 Total 16849.39 104 Working at the company Between groups 8.71 4 2.18 3.80 0.006 Within groups 57.52 100 0.57 Total 65.96 104 Understanding of employees/ training Between groups 1.07 4 0.27 1.06 0.38 Within groups 25.23 100 0.25 Total 26.30 104 Organizational culture Between groups 4.07 4 1.02 3.59 0.01 Within groups 28.32 100 0.28 Total 32.39 104 Marketing competence Between groups 4.67 4 1.17 1.25 0.30 Within groups 93.39 100 0.93 Total 98.06 104 Interdepartemental connections Between groups 2.87 4 0.72 0.74 0.57 Within groups 97.09 100 0.97 Total 99.96 104 Motivation of employees Between groups 4 0.35 0.84 0.50 Within groups 100 0.41 Total 104
The differences found between Duinrand and Vlietstede on strategic thinking and between Duinrand and Salem, Vlietstede and Zorg Thuis are further analysed by testing the independent variables in a Oneway Anova. In table 10, it becomes visible that on the independent variables only on the time working at the organization (p=0,006) and the organizational culture (p=0,009) a difference is found. Further analyses with the post-hoc Turkey test show that the found differences on the variable working at the organization is only significant between Salem and two other locations (p=0,006), namely Vlietstede and Zorg Thuis. On organizational culture there is only between Duinrand and Salem a significant difference found (p=0,009). These results have resemblance with the significant differences found on the subscale of strategic thinking , named Hypothesis Driven.
The differences in strategic thinking between the groups Care and Facility department was analysed by an independent t-test. There was no significant (p > .05) variance found between these groups on the dependent variable strategic thinking, nor on its subscales.
4.1.3. Regression analysis
The influence of several factors named in the literature on strategic thinking were analysed by regression analyses. First the effect of the control variables was tested of which the results are shown in the table 11. The control variables (age, gender and education) explained little variance in strategic thinking (R2 = .071) and the regression analysis with the control
variables combined with the independent variables explain 42,6% of the variance found for the dependent variable strategic thinking (R2 = 0,426).
R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.267 0.071 0.044 Education 0.090 0.037 0.235 2.427 0.017 Working at the organization 0.037 0.037 0.105 1.005 0.317 Age 0.012 0.023 0.053 0.504 0.615 Model 2 0.653 0.426 0.378 0.57 Education 0.046 0.034 0.120 1.365 0.176 Working at the organization 0.042 0.032 0.119 1.336 0.185 Age 0.015 0.019 0.070 0.794 0.429 Interdepartmental connections 0.050 0.027 0.173 1.829 0.070 Motivation of employees 0.144 0.036 0.325 3.964 0.000 Marketing competence 0.081 0.023 0.276 3.438 0.001 Organizational culture 0.058 0.045 0.114 1.285 0.202 Understanding of employees / training 0.100 0.054 0.177 1.865 0.065
Table 11 - Results regression test on strategic thinking
Results of the regression analysis show a significant cohesion for three factors on the dependent variable strategic thinking, namely interdepartmental connections, motivation of employees and marketing competence. These variables explain 9,3% of the variance (R2 =
R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.627 0.093 0.362 Interdepartmental connections 0.074 0.025 0.257 2.999 0.003 Motivation of employees 0.146 0.036 0.331 4.006 0.000 Marketing competence 0.075 0.023 0.258 3.327 0.002 Organizational culture 0.049 0.044 0.097 1.108 0.270 Understanding of employees / training 0.085 0.052 0.150 1.624 0.107
Table 12 – Results regression test on strategic thinking
Regression analyses were used to see if the factors influencing strategic thinking found the literature also have effect on the subscales of strategic thinking. For the first subscale system perspective only, a positive significant effect for the variable motivation of the employee was found. Variances in this subscale can be explained by the motivation of employees for 16,8% (R2 = 0.168). R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.409 0.168 0.126 Interdepartmental connections 0.017 0.035 0.48 0.482 0.631 Motivation of employees 0.223 0.052 0.415 4.288 0.000 Marketing competence 0.038 0.033 0.107 1.150 0.253 Organizational culture -0.008 0.063 -0.012 -0.120 0.905 Understanding of employees / training -0.095 0.074 -0.138 -1.274 0.206
For the second subscale intelligent opportunism one factor was found to have a significant effect in the single regression analyses, namely the understanding and training of the employees (p= 0,002). This factor explains 22,5% of the variances found on this subscale R2 = 0.225). R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.474 0.225 0.186 Interdepartmental connections 0.087 0.038 0.219 2.261 0.026 Motivation of employees 0.022 0.056 0.036 0.391 0.697 Marketing competence -0.011 0.036 -.027 -0.301 0.764 Organizational culture -0.004 0.069 -0.006 -0.059 0.953 Understanding of employees / training 0.0262 0.081 0.340 3.251 0.002
Table 14- Results regression test on intellligent opportunism
R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.251 0.063 0.016 Interdepartmental connections 0.013 0.054 0.026 0.248 0.805 Motivation of employees 0.114 0.079 0.148 1.444 0.152 Marketing competence 0.086 0.050 0.170 1.710 0.090 Organizational culture -0.090 0.096 -0.102 -0.942 0.349 Understanding of employees / training 0.096 0.113 0.098 0.854 0.395
Table 14- Results regression test on intent focus
The concept of intent focus is the third subscale of strategic thinking. For this subscale no variables with a significant effect were found. On the subscale thinking in time, two
Table 15 shows a significant effect for both the antecedents motivation of employees and interdepartmental connections on the level of strategic thinking. Together they explain 15,7 % of the variance in strategic thinking (R2 = 0.157).
R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.397 0.157 0.115 Interdepartmental connections 0.093 0.045 0.210 2.074 0.041 Motivation of employees 0.199 0.066 0.293 3.007 0.003 Marketing competence 0.051 0.042 0.113 1.198 0.234 Organizational culture -0.006 0.080 -0.008 -0.075 0.941 Understanding of employees / training 0.009 0.095 0.010 0.092 0.927
Table 15- Results regression test on thinking in time
Last the fifth subscale was analysed and one variable was found to have a significant effect, namely marketing competence (p= 0,004). This variable explains 15,6% of the variance found on this subscale (R2 = 0.156). R R² R² change b SE Beta t Sig. Model 1 0.395 0.156 0.114 Interdepartmental connections 0.073 0.046 0.160 1.584 0.116 Motivation of employees 0.113 0.068 0.190 1.953 0.054 Marketing competence 0.130 0.043 0.291 2.991 0.004 Organizational culture 0.032 0.083 0.039 0.383 0.702 Understanding of employees / training -0.020 0.097 -0.022 -0.201 0.841
4.1.4. Summary of the quantitative results
In the last sections the results of the quantitative study are presented. Several interactions are found based on the different statistical analysis executed in SPSS. In table 17 a summary of the results is shown.
Overview elements of strategic thinking Results quantitative study
Strategic thinking (head scale) Significant results in Anova were found System perspective Positive effect found in regression analysis
Intelligent opportunism No significant result was found in regression analysis Intent focus Positive effect found in regression analysis
Thinking in time Significant results in Anova were found Positive effect found in regression analysis Hypothesis driven Significant results in Anova were found
Positive effect found in regression analysis Table 17- Summary of the quantitative results
Overview of potential variables influencing strategic thinking tested in the quantitative part
Results quantitative study
Organizational culture Significant result Anova between locations Duinand – Salem & Vlietstede
No effect found in regression analysis Interdepartmental connections Positive effect found in regression analysis Marketing competency Positive effect found in regression analysis Motivation of employees Positive effect found in regression analysis Understanding & training of employees Positive effect found in regression analysis Educational level Control variable - Low effect in regression
analysis
Age Control variable - Low effect in regression
analysis
Gender Control variable – no significant effect found
Table 18- Summary of the quantitative results
4.2 Qualitative results
In general, the analysis of all the interviews shows that all respondents support that strategic thinking is important for the development of the company and should not only be done by the CEO and his staff. The literature also supports this line of broader
implementation of strategic thinking to give an adequate answer to the rapidly changing environment. Remarkable is that all respondents acknowledge the importance of strategic thinking and all see an essential role for themselves as senior or middle manager, but almost none of them has a clear view on how they can support concept. Also, the motivation to work on this in the current setting of high work pressure is for some of them a problem.
A lot of diversity in the motivation of the managers is seen based on the analyses. Some of the respondents relate it to the dynamic environment and the need to hear signals from close to the customer within a short period of time as an essential element to survive as a company. One of the senior managers states in the interview:
“Yes, broader strategic thinking in the organization is very important. Our core
business is elderly care and that is where our employees work every day, not us as senior management.”
Other respondents motivate the need for strategic thinking broad in the organization with the argument of taking away resistance to change, motivating employees for the development goals of the organization and building commitment to the company.
