CEO competence and development is a continuing concern in the NHS. As a key feature of any CEO leadership role is responsibility for organisationally critical decisions, and there is an increasing recognition of the role context plays in effective leadership behaviour. This study examines the role of contextual intelligence in relation to PCT CEO decision making behaviour. To do this, the research addresses four questions: a) what does the literature say about CEO contextual intelligence? b) what factors do PCT CEOs say they take into account in different decision making contexts? c) what contextual factors do they actually take into account? and d) what impact do the contextual factors have on their decision making behaviour. A systematic literature review resulted in a model of CEO contextual intelligence for CEO decision making. Semi-structured interviews with 24 PCT CEOs in a NHS region about factors influencing their decisions on generic strategies, national policies, regional strategies and local plans revealed a hierarchy among contextual factors applying to different decision strata. Semi-structured interviews and analysis of CEO diaries two months later of the same focal decisions show the real critical factors to be:- national policies themselves, the Strategic Health Authority and the decision making process, for regional strategies; and Top Management Team and structure for local plans. Altogether, the research reveals that the PCT CEO’s decision making context is rationally bounded; the relevant contextual factors differed significantly from the literature derived model; the actual factors in practice differed from what were espoused; choice of factors vary depending on decision trigger strata which links to degrees of CEO autonomy; and macro level factors which were indicated as significant from the systematic review were in fact ignored in practice. A PCT CEO model of contextual intelligence is developed together with a two dimensional model of underlying structures guiding PCT CEO decision making behaviour. The findings have implications for governance structures in the NHS, CEO decision making and senior leader development in ii the NHS in the context of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act. Areas for further research in public sector, NHS and contextual intelligence are also identified.

The purpose of this study was to test for a relationship between locus of control and participation in strategic decision making. The research model included the variables of gender, locus of control, job-work involvement and preference for participative environment as possible influences on team member participation in strategic decision making. Another feature of the model was the proposed three-way interaction effect on member participation. This interaction included member job-work involvement, member preference for participation and leader locus of control.

A significant number of scientific projects pursuing large scale, complex investigations involve dispersed research teams, which conduct a large part or their work virtually. Virtual Research Environments (VREs), cyberinfrastructure that facilitates coordinated activities amongst dispersed scientists, thus provide a rich context to study organizational evolution. Due to the constantly evolving nature of technologies, it is important to understand how teams of scientists, system developers, and managers respond to critical incidents. Critical events are organizational situations that trigger strategic decision making to adjust structure or redirect processes in order to maintain balance or improve an already functioning system. This study examines two prominent VREs: The United States Virtual Astronomical Observatory (US-VAO) and the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) in order to understand how these environments evolve through critical events and strategic choices. Communication perspectives lend themselves well to a study of VRE development and evolution because of the central role occupied by communication technologies in both the functionality and management of VREs. Using the grounded theory approach, this study uses organizational reports to trace how critical events and their resulting strategic choices shape these organizations over time. The study also explores how disciplinary demands influence critical events.

Urbanization is a major factor causing unsupported perceptions within the traditional vision offorest management. Urbanization has led to a reconstruction on forest owners’ economicdependency on the forestry. This contributes in emigration from rural areas to bigger cities.To understand how distant forest owners, manage their forest they need to be segmentedaccording to specific criteria. The purpose of the study is to create a segmentation model thatis theoretically anchored and empirically verified, to increase the customer value and maptheir different needs. Through the purpose a research question was developed: How can asegmentation model for absentee proprietors within the forest industry be developed toincrease the customer value? A segmentation model provides comprehensive knowledge andinsights about forest owners’ different needs. The empirical data, collected through surveys,was presented individually and some connections could be found. Through these connectionsproperty area and distance were chosen as factors that are appropriate for segmentation. Basedon the segmentation factors a correlation analysis was made to create four demographicsegmentations. The visitors: small area, small distance. Conservationists: small area, largedistance. Investors: large area, small distance. Specifiers: large area, large distance. Theconclusion shows that a segmentation model over absentee proprietors is necessary for thestrategic management in forest companies, when it comes to decisions regarding sales criteria,communication and recommended approaches.

Cette recherche a pour but d'étudier le rôle joué par les parties prenantes et plus spécifiquement par l'une d'entre elles, la famille, sur les décisions stratégiques des entrepreneurs de PME/TPE, en étudiant d'éventuelles différences de genre. Le cadre conceptuel retenu est celui des effets de proxémie en PME/TPE tels que définis par Torrès (2003) à partir des travaux en psycho-sociologie de l'espace de Moles et Rohmer (1978). La loi proxémique montre qu'un individu tend à privilégier tout ce qui est proche au détriment de ce qui est lointain. Torrès montre comment les entrepreneurs n'échappent pas à cette loi et comment leurs décisions stratégiques peuvent s'expliquer par ces principes hiérarchiques. Nous testons la validité d'un principe proxémique à partir de la théorie des couches de Gibb (1988) qui propose une hiérarchie des parties prenantes de la PME. L'étude est conduite à partir d'une expérimentation définie par le cadre de l'économie expérimentale. Les résultats ouvrent des perspectives innovantes dans la compréhension des décisions stratégiques des femmes entrepreneures, et mettent en évidence l'intérêt théorique de la loi proxémique pour les étudier à partir de leur réalité propre (Carrier, et al, 2006) et non pas en comparaison aux hommes. / The scope of the research is an analysis of stakeholders' influences on strategic decisions, focusing principally on the role of family, within a gender perspective. The theoretical framework is the proxemic influence in Small Businesses. This framework was defined by Torrès (2003) based on the work of psycho-sociologists Moles and Rohmer (1978). The proxemic theory emphasizes the prevalence of things, people and elements that are close compared to those which are more remote. Torrès shows how strategic decisions of entrepreneurs are embedded by this proxemic influence. We test the validity of this law through the layers of theory defended by Gibb (1988) which identified a hierarchic influence of the stakeholders. The empirical study is based on an experiment structured from the experimental economics field. Men and women entrepreneurs are the subject of the experiment.Results show, innovative opportunities to better understand the strategic decisions of women entrepreneurs. They also highlight the theoretical interest of the proxemic principle to survey women from their own perspective, rather than only from the male comparison.

Over the last century, there has been growing interest in changing the approach to maintenance management. The current practice for selecting critical equipment and making a decision on the most appropriate maintenance strategy is perceived to have serious limitations, principally because it lacks decision analysis. Due to the complex nature of decision-making in maintenance management, different models have been developed for selecting critical equipment. However, many of these models considered maintenance management as operational concern and ignored the strategic concerns of maintenance management. This thesis builds upon earlier works on decision-making for selecting critical equipment and maintenance strategy. It sets out to construct three hypotheses by introducing evidence from a comprehensive literature review, case study analysis and in-depth interviews. The thesis focuses on artificial intelligence and multi-criteria decision-making techniques (i.e. Fuzzy Logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process) to bridge this gap. It proposes a strategic decision-making model in maintenance and asset management for selecting critical equipment and deciding on a maintenance strategy. The novelty of model is to propose an approach in which maintenance strategy can be applied based on the equipment criticality while not making a trade-off between safety and cost but rather to combine the concern of safety with financial, operational and technical perspectives. The model provides an opportunity to consider safety as the first priority. The research output suggests that existing criticality assessment methods for optimising maintenance delivery have limited value and are suffering from a lack of strategic decision analysis. Multi-criteria decision-making tools could be used to improve decision-making of criticality assessment methods and hence maintenance strategy implementation. The validity of the proposed strategic decision-making model was tested through case study analysis and in-depth interviews. The results suggest that a strategic decision-making model could have a significant impact on improving safety, reliability and operational availability. The strategic decision-making model would enable asset managers to track the consequences of their decisions whilst dealing with maintenance. It is also an effective tool in the hands of a maintenance department to convince their asset managers to make a maintenance investment.

A decisão estratégica é tipicamente não estruturada, no sentido de que não existe processo semelhante na memória da organização. Essa estruturação corresponde ao cenário exposto de forma clara, com suas questões, hipóteses e objetivos. A qualidade da decisão estratégica depende principalmente do processo e da competência daqueles que participam dela. Gerar alternativas criativas e viáveis é uma etapa fundamental do processo de tomada de decisão, responsável em grande parte pela qualidade almejada. Entretanto, as pesquisas sobre geração de alternativas têm indicado consistentemente que as pessoas não são eficientes nessa atividade. Buscando-se as explicações para esse fato surgiram lacunas na literatura que serviram de inspiração para o presente estudo. Qual a influência das heurísticas e da isolação entre as etapas convergente e divergente na geração de alternativas? Para explorar essas lacunas e conhecer o desempenho do administrador brasileiro ao gerar alternativas foi realizado um experimento com 174 alunos de cursos MBA, de 4 escolas da Grande São Paulo. O resultado desse experimento propiciou algumas conclusões interessantes como a confirmação do baixo desempenho em geração de alternativas. O desafio para preencher as lacunas observadas permanece e as hipóteses da pesquisa, relacionando as heurísticas e a isolação como fatores que influenciam o desempenho, não foram aceitas. O estudo é uma confluência da pesquisa experimental, oriunda da psicologia cognitiva da decisão, com a visão da ciência da decisão organizacional. Essa linha de pesquisa se mostrou praticamente inexplorada nos estudos em administração desenvolvidos no Brasil. / The strategic decision-making is typically non-structured because there is no similarity process in the memory of the organizations. This structural model would involve a context of elements such as questions, hypotheses and objectives exposed in a quite clear way. The quality of the strategic decision-making depends mainly on its own process and on the competence of the individuals involved. An essential part of the making decision process is to generate creative and viable options that are also responsible for the quality of the process. However, researches on option-generating procedures have consistently suggested that people are not efficient in this kind of task. The present study was inspired by the fact that the current literature lacks studies explaining the reasons why this happen. What is the influence of the heuristics and isolation strategies on the convergent and divergent phases for generating options? In order to investigate this issue and understand the performance of the Brazilian managers for generating options, an experiment was conduct in 174 individuals studying in MBA courses at 4 educational institutions in the urban city area of São Paulo. The results led to some interesting conclusions such as the confirmation of the poor performance for generating options. The challenge and the lack remain mainly because the hypotheses tested, i.e., the heuristic and isolation strategies for generating options, were not effective. The present study is a confluence of two different decision approaches: the experimental research (based on cognitive psychology) and the management science. This line of research hasn’t been explored in the management field in Brazil.

Com base na relação entre a literatura de capacidades dinâmicas e os estudos de inovação, argumenta-se nesse trabalho que a capacidade de inovação é sustentada pelo desenvolvimento constante das diferentes capacidades da empresa: de desenvolvimento tecnológico; de operação; de gestão e de transação. Sendo assim, essa pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar de que forma uma decisão estratégica de mudança voltada para a inovação influencia a reconfiguração destas capacidades das empresas. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo de casos em empresas dos setores moveleiro e têxtil, considerados como de baixa intensidade tecnológica. Os dois casos foram analisados separadamente e depois comparados, buscando semelhanças que ampliassem a compreensão do fenômeno da reconfiguração nas capacidades a partir de uma decisão estratégica que buscava a inovação. Os resultados sugerem que a integração entre as diferentes capacidades e a reconfiguração estratégica das capacidades substantivas explicam as inovações produzidas pelas empresas. As principais conclusões são: que há uma relação entre as capacidades de desenvolvimento e de transação; que na reconfiguração decorrente de decisões estratégicas orientadas para a inovação a capacidade predominante na empresa é a menos alterada; e que as capacidades substantivas da empresa exercem influências positivas entre si na reconfiguração dos seus recursos internos. A contribuição deste estudo está em relacionar as capacidades substantivas com as decisões estratégicas que são características das capacidades dinâmicas, operacionalizando este conceito pela junção com um modelo que explica a capacidade de inovação. A limitação da pesquisa reside na concentração em apenas um tipo de inovação. Estudos futuros que incluam a análise de decisões estratégicas que resultem em inovações tecnológicas, gerenciais e de produção podem ampliar a compreensão do fenômeno. Estudos setoriais qualitativos usando as conclusões como proposições teóricas podem possibilitar generalizar os resultados. / This research relates the literature of dynamic capabilities with the studies on innovation capability, and assumes that innovation capability is supported by the constant development of the different capabilities of the company and, therefore, seeks to identify the influence of a strategic decision focused on innovation in the process of changing enterprises´ different capabilities: technology development; operation; managerial and transactional. A multiple case study in firms of the furniture and textile industry, considered low- technologic intensity firms was conducted to reach the research goals. The two cases were analyzed separately and then compared, looking for similarities that would broaden the understanding of the phenomenon. The results suggest that the integration between the different capabilities and strategic reconfiguration of substantive capabilities explain the innovations produced by firms. The main conclusions are that there is a relationship between technology development and transaction capability, due to the reconfiguration of innovation oriented to prevailing capacity in strategic business decisions is the least influenced, and that the substantive company's capabilities exert positive influences between itself in the reconfiguration of its internal resources. The contribution of this study is to relate the substantive capabilities with the strategic decisions that are characteristics of dynamic capabilities, operationalizing this concept in combination with a model that explains innovation capability. The limitation of the research is the concentration on only one type of innovation. Future studies including the analysis of strategic decisions that result in technological, managerial and production innovations can broaden the understanding of the phenomenon. Sector studies using qualitative conclusions as theoretical propositions can enable to generalize the results.

Research into the location decision of Australian international firms was primarily directed toward investigating motivations of Australian investors for setting up their foreign direct investments (FDI) in specific foreign countries. Nevertheless, the strategic decision-making process concerning the selection of a beneficial foreign country for either Australian or Western Australian international operations has been neglected in the existing literature; hence, an evident and significant gap was identified. Therefore, the current exploratory investigation used an interpretive paradigm to examine ‘how do Western Australian internationalising firms arrive at a beneficial foreign location choice for their international operations and hence attain successful international expansion. As an attempt to provide rich and deep insights into managerial actions and procedures, as well as critical success factors, that should be considered in effective international location decision-making process to attain a beneficial foreign location choice, five empirical comparative in-depth case studies excluding a pilot case study were purposefully selected from among sixteen potential Western Australian firms which established manufacturing and service operations abroad. Furthermore, seven international location decision-making processes were examined within these five cases through relying on several data sources: in-depth face to face interviews, short telephone and follow-up interviews and questionnaire instrument as primary data sources besides field notes, documents review when available and internet sources as secondary data sources. Two main stages of analysis were undertaken in the current research, namely, within and cross-case analyses. / The empirical findings of the extant research show that a thorough consultative and international experience-based strategic decision process should be considered to attain effective foreign country selection decisions. The consultative decision process encompasses five crucial managerial phases; that is, (1) strategic analysis of internationalisation drivers, (2) strategic searching and development of location factors and alternatives, (3) acquiring of adequate and relevant information about the prospective locations and, hence, strategic assessment for these alternatives, (4) strategic selection of final beneficial foreign location choice, and finally, (5) effective implementation of the selected location choice. Results reveal that the decision process cannot separately lead to the selection of a beneficial foreign location choice in the absence of four critical success factors, i.e., (1) international business experience of the selected location team, (2) the country knowledge about the potential foreign locations, (3) in-house and external consultations with international business experts and (4) identification of a trustworthy and internationally experienced manager or local partner for the international operation. The findings also illustrate that the comprehensive foreign country selection decision process is a multi-stage decision process which incorporates three separate location selection processes, namely, (1) country selection, (2) city selection and (3) site selection process. The current research extends the satisficing or bounded rational decision theory by confirming the appropriateness and the effectiveness of the theory in foreign country selection decisions. / In addition, the earlier critical success factors are adding new and important aspects of knowledge to the existing research on location decision-making process in international business, as well as foreign direct investment decisions. Accordingly, the former management phases and critical success factors were integrated into a conceptual model. The major and the unique contribution of the current thesis to existing theory is the development of a decision model which combines two fields of management research; that is, strategic decision-making and location decision-making in international business. The research provides important methodological contributions to international business research in relation to an effective multiple case study approach to capture elements of the comprehensive and complex international location decision-making process. Finally, the research findings and decision model have practical managerial implications for both international and internationalising firms by assisting them to improve the effectiveness of their foreign country selection decision processes. Further, the findings provide benefits for foreign investment policy-makers as well as local development officials in both home and host countries by assisting them to increase their outward FDI and attract more inward FDI and, consequently, boost the economic development movement in their countries.

<p>Many business schools teach the importance of using strategy tools when engaging in strategizing activities. Despite this fact there is an ongoing debate concerning what is taught in business schools and what is actually used in practice. In spite of this debate there has been little research done regarding how these strategy tools are used in practice. This study seeks to address this through the adoption of a strategy as practice perspective which helped to identify what is actually practiced by managers while engaging in strategizing activities. Managers use strategy to respond to complex forces (social, political, economic) in their business environments. However to develop and implement strategy encompasses a full range of strategizing activities such as strategic thinking, strategic analysis, strategic decision making and implementation. Many business schools teach strategy tools are techniques which managers use to structure and influence strategizing activities. Previous research on strategy tools played emphasis on the benefits that can be derived if tools are used in different context. Others have highlighted the frequency of tool usage. Nevertheless, there is a need to make a review what is taught and how strategy tools are used in practice.</p><p>A qualitative study was conducted in two universities through the use of semi structured interviews to gather data. The use of an inductive and interpretivism perspective through a case study helped the researcher identify the context in which events were taking place. The choice of a small yet deliberate sample size was done to focus in on the various levels of management within these universities and to review how strategy tools were used at these levels. After each interview the interviewees were given a list of 15 strategy tools (all of which were taught in the researcher’s masters programme) to identify whether they used any of the strategy tools on the list and if they did how did they use them. It was noted from the empirical data acquired that quite often strategy tools were not always being used for the purpose for which they were taught nevertheless managers were altering components of various tools to meet their individual business needs. Strategy tools were often used to assist in strategic thinking and strategic decision making. Managers’ perception of strategy tools affected the extent to which tools were used and the frequency of usage. While strategy tools were often used for growth and development, communication and persuasion and best practices it was its use in sense-making and evaluation which indicated that there is a need for a greater understanding into how managers make sense of strategy tools. The study answers how strategy tools are used in practice in a university context by giving illustrations and quotations from the various interviewees regarding strategy tools.</p>