Organizational Change and Strategic Thinking Research Paper

Organizational Change and Strategic Thinking - Research Paper Example In general, the organizations have to carry on delivering value and face the current challenges, while reorganizing and getting ready for the future challenges. In order to accomplish effective organizational change, whilst performing the difficult task of balancing the present business activities and the preparation for the future, there needs to be reasonable strategies in place. The existence of managers who employ strategic thinking for the planning of organizational development can ensure that the measures for organizational change do not lead to inadvertent consequences. With the rapid changes in the business environment, the managers need decisive thinking skills to shift from the traditional reactive decision-making process to the proactive foresight method, so as to enable the organization to be equipped to face the upcoming challenges (Bonn, â€Å"Developing Strategic Thinking as a Core Competency†).In the middle of the turmoil and intricacy of the modern business wo rld, the successful organizations are those which are aware that, even as it is not viable to observe the future, they can acquire a perspective for the future that would offer them certain indications as to what might be in-store in future. Such organizations then plan accordingly to be prepared for the upcoming events as per their future perspective.  For this type of approach, the management of an organization needs to accept an innovative planning pattern that consists of observing the organization in the perspective of an open system atmosphere.   Such observation will make the organization better positioned to recognize and respond to upcoming events (Bonn, â€Å"Developing Strategic Thinking as a Core Competency†). This would also enable the organization to bring about the changes necessary in those surroundings and also influence the probable changes effecting the organization. The sustainability and performance of an organization in today’s dynamic economi c environment, thus depends on the application of strategic thinking to accomplish required organizational changes. This raises few apparent questions. What is strategic thinking? How can it be employed in accomplishing organizational change? What is the link between organizational culture and strategic thinking? Strategic Thinking – The Why-What-How Approach Richard Hughes and Katherine Beatty have described strategic thinking as â€Å"the collection, interpretation, generation, and evaluation of information and ideas that shape an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage†, in their book ‘Becoming a Strategic Leader’ (Switzer, â€Å"Strategic Thinking in Fast Growing Organizations†). Strategic thinking is a top-down overall observation of the whole organization on the basis of complete understanding of the business of the organization. Thus, strategic thinking consists of observing emerging trends, recognizing if the trends signify o pportunities or intimidation to the business organization. Strategic thinking also involves developing a response of the organization to earn benefit from the prospective opportunity or to alleviate the potential threat