Intuition: and its role in Strategic Thinking

Abstract

Even though intuition is recognized as imperative in strategic thinking management literature\nis surprisingly silent on the issue. This inquiry thus provides an historical and hermeneutic\nreview of philosophical, psychological and management theory on intuition. It reveals that\nphilosophers conceive intuition as rational while psychologists tend not to. Philosophers do so\nprimarily because intuition is anchored in Ideas, Forms and Archetypes, which are perceived\nas a priori laws governing and conditioning all existence. The argument is that intuition is the\nontological foundation for any normative theory of rationality. Implications for the rationality\ndebate are discussed.\nThree levels of intuition are discerned and contrasted with analytical thinking. The first and\nsecond levels correspond to intuitions from the personal and collective unconscious\nexperience respectively. They can be either introverted or extraverted. The third level\ncorresponds to what some philosophers call the non-dual, integral state of mind.\nAn empirical study including personal interviews with 105 Norwegian top managers indicate\nthat in strategic thinking more emphasis is put on intuition than analysis, especially in\nexploration of new terrain and technology. They define intuition primarily in accordance with\nlevel one. In describing its key features they focus on foresight, new ideas and synthesis.\nFinally Myers Briggs Type Indicator® was applied, revealing that they have a strong\npersonality preference for intuition.

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