Szendrey, Jaszmina (2023) Delineating Strategic Decisions from Strategy Making, TAF, Glasgow, United Kingdom

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17108.88968/1
License: CC BY-NC 4.0

When conducting research on decision modeling in organizations, three levels are generally recognized: operational, tactical/managerial, and strategic. A significant portion of the literature on strategic level decisions focuses on strategy making. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of distinguishing strategic decisions from strategy making. By strategy making, I mean the process of identifying strategic goals and providing a high-level, albeit fuzzy, description of the approaches to achieve the overall ‘big picture’ of the organization. As for strategic decisions, I am referring to ‘big decisions’ that carry high stakes, involve substantial resource implications, lead to long-term consequences, and have the potential to establish precedents or result in irreparable mistakes. Although these decisions address issues with strategic implications, they do not directly alter the ‘big picture’ of the organization. Gaining a better understanding of the differences can be useful in choosing an appropriate decision support.