The role of emotions and values in executive behavioural strategy
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
A fundamental divide in strategy research is made according to whether the research adopts rationality or behavioural mechanisms. Behavioural strategy, unlike the 'conventional' approach to research, adopts a non-positivistic notion of reality. It assumes that behaviour changes across both time and cultures, with the understanding that economic participants are not always rational and in many ways are more than economic agents. In South Africa, we have witnessed large-scale corruption and strategic failure by senior executives in the public and private sectors. Extending strategy research substantively into human-motivation complexities is bound to suggest positive but also confusing implications for our understanding of strategic conduct. Developing our knowledge with a fine-grained appreciation of the psychological foundations is likely to be especially beneficial for strategy’s behavioural movement. The study's fundamental objective is to investigate whether and how values are central to strategic behaviour, further contributing to the relationship between strategy research and psychological and sociological theories in other social science disciplines that are currently only weakly related. A glaring research opportunity persists in the strategic-management literature concerning the relationship between strategy and central values. Only limited and tenuous efforts have been made to connect strategic management and values in the literature. This study employed an interpretive, qualitative methodology involving six participants and multiple interactions. The researcher triangulated public non-interview data with interview data and observed behaviour in an unsuccessful investment venture during the research period. The study explores detailed interpretations and constructs deeper meaning in the participant experiences. It further adopts both sensemaking and goal-framing theories as analytical lenses to understand behavioural decisions in context. The study makes several contributions that link values, emotions, and cognitive psychology to strategic attention. This research adds to behavioural strategy primarily by establishing empirical connections between congruent or conflicting values, emotional and cognitive salience, and strategic attention. Secondly, the research derives a framework to understand better the motivational dynamics of values, and cognitive and emotional salience in terms of strategic attention, and ultimately behavioural strategy. Thirdly, the study extends the use of goal-framing theory to the field of behavioural strategy
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2021
Keywords
Attention, Behavioural Strategy, Cognition, Emotion, Goal-framing theory, Mental models, Sensemaking, Social psychology, Values, UCTD
Citation
Kader, Aziez. (2021). The role of emotions and values in executive behavioural strategy [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40891