Intuition and duration in strategizing: drawing on Bergson

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Morgado, PJF, 2017. Intuition and duration in strategizing: drawing on Bergson. DBA, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate the question: How can the formal gap between strategic decision and execution be reduced? It starts with an explanation of the relevance of such a question in a world characterized by accelerated change and complexity.
Predominantly, the intention is to explain how the work of the philosopher Henri Bergson might be of help to managers and members of academia, particularly regarding intuition and duration, and how Bergson might help them appreciate why there is a need to combine both the building (or architectural) and dwelling (or practical) world views during the dynamic formulation and formation of strategy. To comprehend how concepts belonging to both the building (thought, intelligence, and decision) and dwelling (action, intuition, and execution) world views can be jointly reinforced during strategy formation, this work also turns to the Strategy-as-Practice literature and its main focus: what managers do while strategizing.
Contrary to the commonly held idea that analytic decision is followed by implementation at the mercy of individual discretionary intuitions, this project holds that not only is intuition present during the decision process, but that it also culminates in a vital requisite to i) digest huge amounts of information, ii) bring the strategic decision closer to the field of action, and iii) create "truly new" strategies capable of surprising clients and competitors, thus helping generate the potential to gain strategic advantage.
In order to investigate these topics, and taking a constructionist stance, twenty-three qualitative interviews, comprising both single and triple interviews, were conducted among fifteen CEOs, all of whom belonged to different sectors in different countries and faced different business challenges.
As its major contribution, in a context where strategic action seems more relevant than strategic models, the research highlights the importance of Bergson's duration ‒ a qualitative time measured in creation that departs from movement ‒ to understand how the idea of the above-mentioned gap between strategic decision and execution might be replaced by a geometrical idea that measures strategy formation using a line whose thickness equals strategic quality.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Morgado, P.J.F.
Date:	October 2017
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	27 Oct 2017 08:17
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2017 08:17
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/31899