Strategic thinking or strategic planning?

Abstract

39 • To clarify the nature of strategic thinking and strategic planning by developing the analogy of strategic planning as single-loop learning and strategic thinking as double-loop learning • To propose a dialectical view of the relationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning which sees them as distinct, but interrelated and complementary thought processes • To offer real-life examples of strategic thinking and planning and the dialectical process involved. This discussion illustrates the general orientation of the organizational action (OA) view, the application of organization theory to strategic management issues; in this case using organizational learning concepts to clarify the nature and interrelationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning. In exploring the nature and comple-mentarity of the two concepts it can also potentially contribute to a deeper understanding of strategic choice, a key facet of the OA view. The relationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning Four views on the relationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning are found in the literature. Strategic thinking and strategic planning are two distinct thinking modes, and strategic thinking should precede strategic planning According to this view, planning cannot produce strategies because it is a programmatic, formalized, and analytical process; it is rather what happens after strategies are decided, discovered, or simply emerge. This is a view associated with Henry Mintzberg, arguably the most trenchant critic of planning. Mintzberg (1994) has sought to limit the theoretical space occupied by the concept of strategic planning by suggesting that it is based on three key fallacies. First, the fallacy of prediction, the belief that planners can actually predict what will happen in the marketplace. Secondly the fallacy of detachment, the premise that effective strategies can be produced by planners who are detached from the grass roots business operations and the market context. Lastly, the fallacy of formalization, the idea that formalized use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.