Organizational Sensing and the Occasions for Strategizing

Abstract What can a behavioral approach contribute to the understanding of strategizing? Assuming that “strategizing” is a deliberative process typically engaged in by small groups in the leadership of a large organization, the most promising targets for behavioral studies may not be that process itself. Attention could well go instead to the organizational sensors that detect strategic issues and provide the information input for considering them, and the constraints that limit implementation. In contrast to the content of deliberation, these sensors and related structures are often slow-moving organizational traits and may be readily observable from external vantage points – such as the position of an observer seeking to predict the strategic choices of the organization.