Dominant modes of thinking in the mining industry that might prevent or restrict broader and more comprehensive strategic thinking about challenges to the ongoing viability of the business and how the modes of thinking might be expanded

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Business organisations of all kinds are faced with exciting challenges in the midst of globalisation and challenges that come with these dynamics. Nevertheless, companies need strategic thinking to gear their corporate strategies in a direction that will make them more strategically competitive. When different schools of thought dominate the organisation, it might be an impediment to achieving success in strategic decision making process. Mintzberg and Lampel (1999) reiterated that managers have a tendency to take narrow perspectives and cling on those perspectives in the hopes that these perspectives are helpful in planning yet the managers do not have a choice but to face the entire decision making head-on. Managers that uphold this line of thought have strong attachment to innovative development as a way of achieving the objectives of the strategic decisions.

Recent works have demonstrated that there is a dominant school of thought, which views strategic decision making process in general as leadership (e.g. Hafeez 2009). This is the entrepreneurial school of thought. However, Hafeez (2009) points out that all the managers in an organisation contribute in a certain way in the achievement of the strategic decisions of the company. Therefore, one may not precisely point out that this is the entrepreneurial mind of the organisation. Rather, it is the conglomeration of the minds of the different individuals in the organisation that expands the level of thinking and makes achievement of strategic objectives possible.

Apart from the entrepreneurial school of thought, other individuals generally view the viability of the business in terms of the positioning, others in terms of planning, design or cognitive astuteness of projections. Viability of the business can be improved by taking the strength of each school of thought and determining where the schools of thought intercept then creating a trend from it. This mode of approach is supported by Mintzberg and Lampel (1999) and Hafeez (2009).

Bibliography

Hafeez,K. (2009). Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship. Available: http://www.york.ac.uk/enterprise/cetle/resources/curriculum/entrepreneurship-module.pdf.. Last accessed 4th Sept 2012.

Michael A. Hitt, Raphael Amit, Charles E. Lucrier, & Robert D. Nixon (Jun 24, 2002). Creating Value: Winners in the New Business Environment. London: John Wiley & Sons. p114-158.

Mintzberg, H., & Lampel, J. (1999, Spring). Reflecting on the strategy process. Sloan Management Review, 21–30.