Title: Strategic philosophy in Turkey: balancing the art-science, consistency-flexibility, and top-down-bottom-up perspectives

Authors: John A. Parnell, Mehmet Ali Koseoglu, Donald L. Lester

Addresses: University of North Carolina at Pembroke, P.O. Box 1510, Pembroke, NC 28372, USA. ' Il Cevre ve Orman Mudurlugu, Mugla, Turkey. ' Jennings A. Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 75, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA

Abstract: Top executives are faced with a number of concerns when formulating strategies for their organisations. Three strategic dimensions – strategy formulation as an art or science, strategic emphasis on consistency or flexibility, and strategy as a top-down or a bottom-up approach – appear to require difficult choices or compromises between polar extremes. Measurement scales have been developed and tested among US managers, but little work has been done in emerging economies. This paper reports on the measures of these dimensions in Turkey. As predicted, a scientific perspective on strategy was preferred to an artistic perspective and strategic consistency was preferred to flexibility. Surprisingly, however, Turkish respondents expressed a preference for a bottom-up strategy formulation process. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.

Keywords: strategic philosophy; Turkey; flexibility; art; science; middle managers; decision making; strategy formulation; organisational strategy; emerging economies; strategic consistency; business strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2010.035215

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2010 Vol.11 No.2, pp.163 - 181

Received: 04 Aug 2009
Accepted: 29 Apr 2010
Published online: 14 Sep 2010 *

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