Designing a Model for Strategic Digital Thinking Competence Evaluation in National Gas Company of Iran

With the increase of problems and the complexity of organizations, the need to provide better solutions and use more powerful tools of strategic planning is evident because managers with strategic thinking and a better understanding of the strategic plan will perform more effectively. It can be said that strategic thinking is considered as a supplement to strategic planning, a suitable approach to "leadership" of the organization and can help in systematically dealing with problems, understanding opportunities, optimal allocation of scarce resources and achieving the desired results. In view of this importance, the current research aims to design a strategic thinking competence assessment model with the approach of developing organizational flexibility in National Gas Company of Iran.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and was done with qualitative approach based on grounded theory method. Sampling of the research was done using snowball method (chain reference). For this purpose, qualitative data was collected, which led to the identification of many aspects of the phenomenon and the possibility of developing a conceptual research model. The data collection method is library studies, perusal of high-level documents, and in-depth and open interviews. The statistical population of this research consisted of specialists and experts in the field of management and strategic thinking, of whom 12 people were investigated. In the process of conducting this research, the interviews continued until theoretical saturation was observed.

The findings showed that six main categories are effective on the evaluation of strategic thinking with an organizational flexibility approach, which are: foresight, strategic determination, systemic attitude, innovation and creativity. The results show that the validity of the model is confirmed and the six obvious variables (six dimensions) explain the latent variables of strategic thinking competency assessment. According to the direction of all the relations between the manifest variables and the latent ones, , all the relations are aligned and direct.

According to the amount of standardized factor loadings, the dimension "Foresight (AN)", with a factor loading of 0.88, is the most reliable indicator belonging to evaluation measurement.