Strategic planning relies heavily on the processing and interpretation of information. One area that has received little attention to date is how information is used for strategic decision making in loosely coupled organizations that are dominated by powerful stakeholder groups. A longitudinal, exploratory case study approach was utilized to investigate how a planning team actually used information in attempting to reach consensus on a strategic plan. / Several exploratory hypotheses were advanced to guide the grounded research approach. Contrary to expectations, the planning group made very limited use of formal sources of information such as reports, presentations, articles, and so forth. Rather, they relied heavily on personal experience, stories, illustrations, and other types of informal information. The initial results led to a reexamination of the data in light of the growing body of literature on organizational cognition, specifically, tacit knowledge. The decision makers in this study used a combination of formal (explicit) and informal/implicit (tacit) information in their deliberations, although, as cited above, the references to formal information sources were unexpectedly low. / Even though the study was exploratory in nature, the results provide potentially important implications for managers. First, those who are responsible for strategic planning need to recognize the relevance of both explicit and tacit information and find more effective ways to utilize both. Secondly, the use of information by decision makers departs significantly from what a rational model would predict. Therefore, planning facilitators and managers must recognize these problems and through the skillful use of structure, models, training, and information systems, facilitate a more complete and effective use of information resources. / As is typical with a qualitative/case study approach, many questions have been answered and several new ones have been raised for future research. Fourteen new propositions are offered that build on the results of this research and the emerging literature on managerial and organizational cognition. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4460. / Major Professor: William P. Anthony. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77596 |
| Contributors | Daake, Donald Dean., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 385 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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