Management
Ali shariatnejad; Farnaz Mehdikhani; Zahra Ghafoori
Abstract
One of the management errors of managers, which is the result of making non-optimal decisions, is strategic regret, which shows itself in the form of a Weakening of the performance, efficiency, and effectiveness of government organizations managers and causes severe damage to government organizations'. ...
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One of the management errors of managers, which is the result of making non-optimal decisions, is strategic regret, which shows itself in the form of a Weakening of the performance, efficiency, and effectiveness of government organizations managers and causes severe damage to government organizations'. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify and analyze the antecedents and consequences of strategic regret in the managers of government organizations using the fuzzy cognitive mapping method. The current research is exploratory in terms of the practical purpose of gathering information. Also, this research is a mixed type of research and is based on qualitative and quantitative research. The statistical population of this research includes managers of government organizations who were selected by purposive sampling and based on the principle of theoretical adequacy. The data collection tool is an interview in the qualitative part and a questionnaire in the quantitative part. The validity and reliability of which were evaluated using content validity and theoretical validity and intra-coder and inter-coder reliability methods for the interview and content validity and retest reliability for the questionnaire, respectively. Qualitative data were analyzed with "Atlas T" software and content analysis and coding method, and quantitative data were analyzed with the fuzzy cognitive mapping method. This research indicates that not having a strategic approach and thinking, being in conditions of high uncertainty, and lack of vision and short-term vision are the most important factors that cause strategic regret in the managers of government organizations. Also, increasing the atmosphere of lack of trust in managers, reducing the credibility of the organization and managers, and increasing the atmosphere of organizational pessimism were identified as the most important consequences of strategic regret in the managers of government organizations. Therefore, as a general conclusion, it should be stated that according to the findings based on the results section, the strategic regret of managers is a risky phenomenon for the organization. According to the antecedents identified in this research, managers should take into account the approach and strategic thinking so as not to fall into the trap of this phenomenon.Introduction In today's turbulent world where managers are faced with difficult ups and downs, depending on their position, they react differently to conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty; there have not been few managers who, by making wrong decisions, have caused irreparable damage to their respective organizations and caused severe regrets. Regardless of which school of thought managers follow, sometimes there are situations when managers experience strategic regret when they look at the actions they have taken and the decisions they have made. This regret can be caused by using or not using a strategy or excessive allocation of resources to realize a strategy. Therefore, based on what was said, managers of government organizations may be in a situation of strategic regret for various reasons (Mintzberg et al.,2005). It is certain that the organization's choice among several options, which is naturally influenced by the mental patterns and analyses of their top managers, will be accompanied by an opportunity cost (caused by choosing other options) for the organization. Examining this opportunity cost and looking for ways to reduce it can lead to the improvement of the strategic management process in future periods. According to the discussed topics, it is clear that between the "stages before and during strategy selection" and "stages of action, control and evaluation" in the minds of managers, events and processes occur that ultimately lead to selecting an option among the available options. It provides the context for the phenomenon of strategic regret for the organization (Azizi et al.,2015). Therefore, based on what was said, managers of government organizations may be in a situation of strategic regret for various reasons.Literature ReviewKazimieh and Malmir (2021), in research titled "Evaluating the effect of strategic regret on organizational performance with the mediating role of managers' experience, showed that strategic regret has a significant and negative effect on organizational performance and managers' experience." Shalini and Gray (2020) did an article titled Manager's Strategic Regret, Organizational Performance and the Role of Firm Adaptation. This research aims to investigate the relationship between the manager's strategic regret, the organization's performance, and the role of the company's adaptability. By examining three studies on companies, the results showed that the manager's regret has a negative effect on the organization's performance. Diecidue & Somasundaram (2017), In a research entitled Theory of Regret: A New Foundation, presented a new behavioral foundation for the theory of regret based on continuous exchange. In this theory, for the first time, regret has been seen continuously and separated from desirability.MethodologyIn terms of method, this research is mixed and based on qualitative and quantitative research. Therefore, the current research is applied in terms of purpose and terms of method; it is among exploratory research. The statistical population of the current research consists of experts, consisting managers of government organizations in Lorestan province, and 27 of them were selected as sample members using the purposeful sampling method and based on the principle of theoretical saturation. The data collection tool is in the qualitative part of the interview, whose validity and reliability were measured using content validity and theoretical validity, and intra-coder and inter-coder reliability methods. Also, the data collection tool in the quantitative section is a questionnaire whose validity and reliability have been confirmed through the content validity and retest reliability of the test. Qualitative data were analyzed with "Atlas T" software and content analysis and coding method, and quantitative data were analyzed with the fuzzy cognitive mapping method. The fuzzy cognitive map method is a method that identifies the most important dimensions of a concept by analyzing the centrality indicators and then examines the set of relationships of variables with each other through causal relationships. ResultsIn addition, the research results can be presented in quantitative and qualitative sections. The results of the qualitative part show the antecedents and consequences related to strategic regret in managers of public organizations. Based on this, the factors that cause strategic regret in the managers of government organizations are lack of strategic thinking and approach, lack of vision and short-term horizon, suffering from intellectual arthritis syndrome, use of microscopic management style and myopic management, suffering from analysis paralysis syndrome, placement In the state of cognitive fatigue and decision fatigue; they are placed in conditions of high uncertainty, delusional idea of genius and personal knowledge, use of ineffective models of decision-making, and managerial short-sightedness. Also, the consequences or consequential factors of the occurrence of strategic regret, loss of intellectual and material capital of the organization, organizational blockage and strategic impasse, increasing the atmosphere of lack of trust in the managers of the organization, the phenomenon of intellectual and mental imbalance of managers, increasing the atmosphere of organizational pessimism, inability to implement plans and The organization's strategies are jeopardizing the organizational goals, reducing the credibility of the organization and managers, the emergence of the rumination state of managers and weakening the mental well-being of managers. In addition, the results of the quantitative part of the research include the prioritization of antecedents and consequences related to strategic regret in the managers of government organizations.Discussion In today's highly dynamic, turbulent, and ambiguous environment, managers are involved in complex challenges that make decision-making a complex process for them (Boalhari et al., 2022). So they have to solve them in a short time, and this causes that sometimes their decisions are based on bias or innovative options. One of the consequences of making such decisions is the manager's regret. The issue of strategic regret in government organizations is very important in comparison with non-governmental sector organizations due to having a broad and diverse range of stakeholders. Therefore, in this research, an attempt has been made to study the factors that lead to the occurrence of strategic regret in government managers, as well as the resulting consequences.ConclusionAccording to the research, the most important antecedents of strategic regret in managers are, respectively, not having a strategic approach and thinking, being placed in conditions of high uncertainty, and lack of short-term perspective and horizon. Also, increasing the atmosphere of lack of trust in the organization's managers, decreasing the organization's and managers' credibility, and increasing the atmosphere of organizational skepticism were identified as the most important consequences of strategic regret in managers.
