Mental Abilities in the Formation of Strategic Thinking at Organizational Level

The formation of strategic thinking in today’s organizations is a complex concept, and the ever-increasing uncertainties of the business environment have made addressing it inevitable. A systematic literature review shows some cognitive concepts in forming strategic thinking, which crystallizes in the higher-order theme of “mental abilities.” This paper specifies these mental abilities in two levels, “theme” and “sub theme.” This research employs the thematic synthesis method to analyze 84 selected sources published between 1980 and 2021. The analysis generated 1110 supporting codes, which identified 37 themes (including five themes and 32 sub-themes) related to the mental abilities required for strategic thinking in organizations and formulated as a thematic map (research model). In order to enhance the reliability and quality of the themes, this research underwent an external audit by seven domain experts.It is worth noting that this article is the result of the first research using the thematic synthesis method on the research topic, and 70.3% of the themes included in the research model have created new concepts and constructs.IntroductionTurbulence and uncertainty are the most important factors in today’s business. These environmental factors render the classical strategic planning approaches ineffective and emphasize the critical need to form strategic thinking. A systematic review of the literature reveals that the formation of strategic thinking in an organization comprises two higher-order themes: “mental abilities” and “administrational capabilities.” Mental abilities have been discussed as “cognitive elements,” “mental process,” “mental power,” and “thinking abilities” by prior researchers, which resulted in ambiguity in terminology in the literature. On the other hand, mental abilities are a vague and complex concept in forming strategic thinking that requires clarification.This research provides a model of mental abilities themes in the formation of strategic thinking as a “thematic map“ in two levels of “theme“ and “sub theme, “using a systematic review of the literature by the “thematic synthetic“ method.Materials and MethodsThis research is “quantitative” in its approach, “exploratory” in its results, and “developmental + applied” in its goals. This research uses the thematic synthetic method to discover themes of mental abilities in forming strategic thinking in organizations at two levels of themes and sub-themes and provides them in a thematic map. The main sources of this research include 84 selected references, 69 in English (spanning 1980 to 2021) and 15 in Persian (spanning 2003 to 2021) with the following typology:- English references: papers (56), thesis (5), books (8).- Persian references: papers (12), thesis (1), books (1).It should be noted that these sources provide 89 models/ classifications regarding the mental abilities in forming strategic thinking in organizations, as follows:- Models (54): English (41), Persian (13).- Classifications (35): English (31), Persian (4).This research is based on 1110 extracted codes from the literature. These codes are as follows:- Type I codes (elements of models/ classifications in the literature): 257.- Type II codes (statements and quotes from the literature): 853. Discussion and ResultsThe research model (thematic map) includes 37 mental abilities in forming strategic thinking at the organizational level, including five themes and 32 sub-themes. A study of the models/ classifications of the sources of this paper resulted in a minimum of 1, an average of 2.88, and a maximum of 11. Comparing the 37 elements in the research model of this paper with the previous studies shows a 37-fold advantage compared to the minimum, 12.84-fold against the average, and 3.36-fold increase compared to the maximum number of elements in those studies, which indicates the superiority of the research model over the previous body of work.In 70.3% of the identified themes, some form of construct creation has happened (54.1% of themes with "concept conformation + concept creation" and 16.2% "concept similarity + concept creation"). Only in 29.7% of the themes in the research model complete "conformity" with the previous works is evident. It indicates the research's innovation level in creating new concepts and constructs and the conceptual development of the work.ConclusionsProviding a precise formation of the identified themes as a thematic map (research model) reduces the complexity, clarifies the research subject, and enhances its understanding. In addition, two levels of themes and sub-themes and laying out the themes in a thematic map play a critical role in this end.Moreover, “trustworthiness” in the thematic synthesis method is crucial. This research studied the views of credible and related methodologists and identified common points in their views to clarify the definition of trustworthiness in thematic synthesis and utilized these views to increase the trustworthiness of the work. In this regard, expanding the number and period of the sources used in the research to increase “credibility,” properly extracting the basic research codes to increase “confirmability,” using a team of expert external auditors to increase “dependability,” and clarifying the method of selecting primary research resources in increase “transferability” of the research are some aspects of this attempt.