A Social Context View of Strategic Cognition: Strategists Are Highly Emotional and Interactive Homo Sapiens!

Strategy research has been focused on rational and detached ways of thinking, which has led strategists to perform formulation and implementation in a one-dimensional manner. In other words, the work is performed in an emotionless manner, as if procedural instead of developmental in nature, and in isolation from the people who contribute. In order to make sense of this for the practicing manager, I review approximately 60 articles on strategic thinking (cognition) focusing on emotions, the contributors to strategy work and the nature of the work. Fascinatingly, the literature conceives of strategic cognition as overwhelmingly controlled by our historical form of cognition from when we lived in the forest. Additionally, strategists and their team members are described as highly emotional, emotionally contagious, intuitive and interactive Homo sapiens—NOT as calm rational managers! This review demonstrates that the focus on rationality and detachment actually promotes negative and damaging ways of thinking, which is experienced by the strategy team as debilitating psychological harm. However, strategists can use emotional contagion in order to spread positive ways of thinking that are experienced by the team as psychological pleasure. Such pleasure actually enhances passion and creativity, suggested to produce more unique and valuable products. This is what strategists need to know about strategy! This expanded view of strategic cognition provides new implications and questions for strategy research and education.