Using Interdisciplinary Thinking to Improve Strategy Formulation: A Managerial Perspective

Strategy formulation is an integral function tangent to organizational success and competitive advantage. Many tools exist that enable managers to formulate and implement business strategies. However, a focus on synthesizing interdisciplinary intellectual views may potentially enhance organizational decision-making and yield fruitful outcomes to better position an organization within the respective industry. This article introduces the concept of interdisciplinary Thinking (IT) stemming from stakeholders, as an integral function of the strategy formulation process. The art and science of strategy formulation represents a challenging endeavor for corporations as the results carry heavy emphasis with respect to an organization's overall effectiveness within its industry and competition. It is no secret that business strategies drive business success levels. Moreover, the literature in the field exposes ideologies and methods of strengthening the strategy formulation process; however, is relatively silent in regards to innovations of the intellectual process contributing to strategy identification, development, and implementation. More specifically, the internal and external analyses that require organizational input (usually from top management) are in need of continuous development, according to changes in time. Simply conducting analyses historically, may not optimize the same returns without extending the thought processes that are involved with methodologies of strategy formulation. Managers are continuously faced with uncertainties, especially with external environments, where options are sometimes to act impulsively or develop a meaningful method to strategy formulation (Mockler, 2003). There are numerous strategic tools intended to assist managers in decision-making, such as the conventional Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threads (SWOT) analysis (Panagiotou, 2003). Essentially, strategic management tools are effective and have proven to be successful; however, inclusion of intellectual input representing stakeholders, internally and externally, may further strengthen the process. One notable method known as Cross-Functional Team (CFT) provides the opportunity for managers to survey members, cross-functionally within an organization, where ideally provides an opportunity for employee development, too (Clark, et al. 2002), A critical prerequisite of interdisciplinary thinking (IT) is to ensure associates are professionally attuned to the environment in which the organization operates in and apprised of environment changes, too. The intellectual contributions must all be considered as potentially valuable to the organization; therefore, it is necessary that contributions are significant and grounded with some insight into the environment. Conceivably, strategy formulation is an arduous task, compounded by numerous variables and uncertainties. Among the many concerns, the decision of strategy formulation being a top-down process as opposed to bottom-up surfaces a real discussion for many organizations (Parnell, 2003). A closer look into this argument reveals a real decision facing many organizations; should non-management/executive associates be involved to some degree with strategy formulation? This article discusses the interdisciplinary thinking process in full and methods of inclusion into strategy formulation, organizationally. The concept of interdisciplinary with respect to the thinking/intellectual process is in its infancy stage within the literature; more specifically, applied to the strategy formulation process in management. The presented thoughts are intended to serve as suggestions for improving the effectiveness of strategy formulation process. Interdisciplinary thinking in the context of this article is intellectual knowledge obtained from associates representing broad and diverse professional backgrounds, both academically/educationally and professionally. …