Title: Managing paradoxes in strategic decision-making

Authors: John A. Parnell

Addresses: School of Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, P.O. Box 1510, Pembroke, NC 28372, USA

Abstract: Although there has been a considerable amount of prescriptive research in the strategic management field, top executives are still faced with several key concerns when formulating strategies for their organisations. Three such dimensions – management 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. This paper reports on the development of scales to test for predispositions along these dimensions. Results suggest that managers do not necessarily view the polar extremes as mutually exclusive. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.

Keywords: strategy; decision making; art; science; top-down; bottom-up; flexibility; consistency; strategic management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2006.011078

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2006 Vol.7 No.6, pp.708 - 724

Published online: 07 Oct 2006 *

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