The role of intuition in strategic decision making

A B S T R AC T Although intuitive processes are critical for effective strategic decision making, there is little in the way of applied research on the topic. Apart from many popularized treatments of intuition in the literature today, there are only a handful of serious scholarly works on the subject. The majority of them are essentially theoretical in nature; field research in management settings is virtually nonexistent. This study examined this neglected but important process in strategic decision making. We surveyed senior managers of companies representing computer, banking, and utility industries in the United States and found that intuitive processes are used often in organizational decision making. Use of intuitive synthesis was found to be positively associated with organizational performance in an unstable environment, but negatively so in a stable environment.