Intuition and Analysis in Strategic Decision Making

Introduction

In the global marketplace, to increase the organizational growth and success, strategic management plays a fundamental role. Strategic decision making affects the quality and performance of the firm. Top management is involved in the strategic decision making. Strategic decision making and analysis are future oriented those have different multidimensional functions (Vermeulen & Curșeu, 2008).

According to the strategic management, these decisions are corporate level those are responsible for the long term prosperity of the firm in the global marketplace (Nickols, 2005). Functional level strategies are action oriented those are also important part of strategic management. There will be discussion about the role of intuition and analysis in strategic decision making.

Nature of strategic Decision making

Strategic management is presented in the holistic nature rather than specific nature. It provides basic ideas for functioning effectively in the organization. It is also founded that fluidity, uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity are related with strategic decision making (Mador, 2000).

It has various characteristics; those reflect nature and circumstances of strategic management at the workplace. Some of them are as follow:

Direction: Strategic decisions provide a direction to the organization that assists the firm in attaining organizational goals and objectives.

Finance: Financial implications are also provided by the strategic management to the company for running the business successfully in the global marketplace (Nickols, 2005).

People: Strategic management also supports to the organizational people by ensuring place for motivation, commitment and morality at the workplace. Additionally, roles and responsibilities of the organizational people are also discussed and focused by strategic management under the strategic decision making (Vermeulen & Curșeu, 2008).

Risk: Decisions related to risk are also highlighted by the strategic management under the strategic decision making to run the business successfully and face every challenge effectively. It is conducted by the management not only to stay in the market, but also to attain sustainable competitive advantage with positive outcomes (Mador, 2000).

These are some characteristics those are followed by the strategic management of the firm under strategic decision to run the business effectively.

According to Hamel (2002), strategic intent is also included in the strategic decision making to increase organizational goals and objectives in effective manner by following particular statement. At the same time, it is also difficult for the firm to follow and set a statement that is followed by the whole organization. It indicates to differences among the employee’s in the organization.

Under the nature of strategic decision making, four functional dimensions are included those indicate towards its complex nature. In this, complexity, uncertainty, rationality and control are included those affect strategic decision making process of the organizations (Nickols, 2005).

Role of Intuition and Analysis

In the global marketplace, intuition and rational process both play a crucial role in effective strategic decision making. In various firms, intuitive process is used under the strategic management to develop effective decisions for attaining organizational goals and objectives. Intuition indicates to solve the problem with the help of using sensing and without using rational process. It can be discussed as a process to reach at the conclusion with the help of fewer information those are required for taking appropriate decisions (White, 2004).

It is a built-in capacity that is used by the individuals to reach at the solution of the problem effectively. At the same time, it is negatively related with the stable competitive environment. Intuition is used as a business tool in many organizations to conduct and run the business successfully (Ticha, Hron & Fiedler, 2010).

Intuition is a psychological function supports to individuals for using her/his experiences and knowledge to isolate and integrate the data for taking appropriate decision for the business (Hubbard, Rice & Beamish, 2008). There are various roles of intuitive those are played by it under the strategic decision making process those make it necessary part of the strategic management. These can be discussed as follow:

Maintain emotions in taking strategic decisions: Emotions are related with the intuition those are base of strategic decision making. In this, from the management theories, decision making process and models, it is stated that emotions are derived through intuition. In this, conventional teaching is used by the management under intuition to maintain emotion at the workplace and develop effective strategies of the firm (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2007).

Logical procedure, rules and regulations are developed by the strategist according to the emotional level of employees as well as workers. At the same time, sometime it may harm the emotions of employees in the form of using rights of strategist in negative manner. In this, firm is also not aware about intuition and its use in the strategic decision making process (Ticha, Hron & Fiedler, 2010).

Minimize stress at the workplace: Intuition is used in adopting and developing stress free strategies at the workplace. For this, feelings and emotions are preferred and given place by the management. To develop and follow effective strategies at the workplace, arguments are faced by the management (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel, 1998). On the other side, in the presence of infrequent intuition like, desire, feelings, attitude, etc actions are affected in negative manner under the strategic decision making that affects organizational growth and success in negative form (Viljoen & Dann, 2003).

Face risk effectively: Risk those are raised during running the business are solved and faced by the management of the firm with the help of intuition. In this way, intuition develops clear picture of problems or issues in the mind of strategist to solve them effectively (Hill, Jones, Galvin & Haidar, 2007). On the other hand, on developing wrong and confused picture of risk, it may harm organizational growth in negative manner. So, for developing effectiveness of the strategies at the workplace, it is important for the strategist to have integrative thinking and intuition for solving the problem effectively (Ticha, Hron & Fiedler, 2010).

Time management and efficiency: To manage time and efficiency of the strategies at the workplace, intuition also plays a crucial role in strategic decision making process. In the condition of failure of any strategy, intuition supports to the adoption of effective actions and strategy for solving the problem. At the same time, efficiency of taking decision is also affected in harmful form (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2007).

Accuracy, security and transferring: Intuition and analysis are viable part of strategic decision making process in the form of developing accuracy, security and transferring the data from one level to other level of management. It develops thinking and morality among the employees of the firm that helps the strategist to take appropriate and effective strategic decisions. On the other hand, most of the firms are not able to understand as well as to use intuition under the organizational strategy (Hill & Jones, 2004). Although, these aspects support to the effectiveness and important role of intuition at the workplace, yet there are some weaknesses also those indicate towards the inefficiency of intuition at the workplace like, misuse of information, right power, etc (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005).

Intuition also offers opportunity to the strategist to rethink about their strategies and answers those are selected by them for the organization. So, it supports to the positive sign of intuition in strategic decision making process in terms of developing analytical thoughts and approaches. If the decisions are repeated and harmful for the firm’s growth, these are solved by using intuition effectively (Dane & Pratt, 2007).

Intuition and analysis is genuine management tool in the strategic decision making, as these are interrelated with the managerial skills and knowledge to solve the high degree of organizational issues (Lewis, Morkel, Hubbard, Davenport & Stockport, 1999). Although, intuition is important part of the firm’s strategies, yet there are some barriers on this those indicate to the loophole of this concept in strategic decision making process. The first barrier is related to understand the meaning of intuition and confusion about it in context of surrounding (Thompson, Strickland & Gamble, 2005).

Second barrier is related with the use of intuition at particular time. Management employees are not aware about when it should be used and how it can be used effectively. So, these weak areas of the intuition and analysis indicate toward the uncertainty of these concepts in the strategic decision making process that impacts organizational strategies and growth in the competitive market (Hubbard, Rice & Beamish, 2008).

Analysis of environment also plays a pivotal role in strategic decision making in terms of developing strategies according to the present environmental condition. In this, macro and micro environmental analysis is organized by the firm to take effective and suitable strategic decision for organizational growth and success. In macro environmental analysis, PESTLE analysis is focused by the firm that includes political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis. It supports to the firm to take appropriate strategic decision according to the available environment (Haberberg & Rieple, 2008). In the political environment, different factors such as political parties and stability of political parties in the particular market are analyzed to take appropriate decision.

In the economical analysis, economic condition of particular country and market in the form of GDP, per capita income, income level, etc are observed by the firm to develop effective strategic decisions. Under the social analysis, beliefs, values and attitude of customers are analyzed with the help of environmental analysis. Technological analysis is also organized by the firms to identify the technological level of particular country or market. Under the macro environmental analysis, legal analysis is also included and conducted by the firms to develop effective and efficient strategic decisions (Viljoen & Dann, 2003).

In this, rules and regulations of particular country to run the business are analyzed. Regulatory body of particular country to run the business is assessed by the organizations to develop effective strategies. Under the environmental analysis, availability of resources, local issues, market condition, etc are analyzed by the organizations to prepare effective strategies by strong decision making process. Analysis of these factors helps the firms to take appropriate action for developing effective strategies to run the business successfully.

In the micro environmental analysis, different factors are analyzed by the organizations to develop and adopt effective strategic decision under the strategic decision making process. In this, organizational capabilities, internal and external stakeholders and competitors are included those are studied by the companies for taking effective and efficient strategic decisions. It helps the firms to take appropriate decisions according to the perception and requirements of its stakeholders, competitors and market (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2007).

In internal stakeholder analysis, employees and shareholders are analyzed by the firm to support effective strategic decision making process at the workplace. It helps the firm to develop strategies according to the needs and requirements of its stakeholders. Additionally, in the external analysis of stakeholders, government, suppliers, customers, etc are focused by the firms to assess the external analysis for developing effective strategies. These all affect organizational growth and performance through affecting strategies of the firm in terms of positive and negative manner (White, 2004).

In addition, competitor analysis is also conducted by the firm in the micro analysis to assess the market attractiveness. In this, extent of competition in particular market or country is analyzed by the companies to take appropriate and effective strategic decisions to achieve organizational goals and objectives. It also helps the firm in enhancing the criteria of strategic thought for developing strategic decision making process of the firm (Viljoen & Dann, 2003).

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion, it is inferred that intuition and analysis are important parts of the strategic decision making for encouraging organizational growth and success in the marketplace. With the help of using intuition, self confidence and positive attitude is developed by the management of the firm among the employees of the firm. Along with this, analysis also supports to the organizational efficiency in terms of developing environmental supportive strategies.