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To succeed firms need a strategic management model which requires the managers to be strategic thinkers. This need demands the MBA programs have as purpose to help the MBA attendees in developing the skills for strategic management. Professors report attendees having problems in coping with strategic business issues. In this way, to address the skill for strategic thinking and its occurrence among professionals in MBA may be insightful for designing learning programs to develop this skill.
The main objective of this paper is to verify, in an exploratory way, if the assessed professional in MBA programs have the personal characteristics – mental model - that indicate the skill for strategic thinking as measured by temperaments, to verify the occurrence of characteristics that are related to difficulties of these professionals to face and work with strategic issues.
It presents a definition for strategic thinking and it characteristics. Many are the ways to assess the skill for strategic thinking and for this search, the choice is the temperament derived from psychological types, which refers to the preferred modes of perception and behavior in facing many life situations. By considering these preferences, it became possible to classify the mental model in two types: operational and strategic. They have several implications for strategic business management
The mental model was assessed by the Questionário de Preferências Pessoais – QIP - developed by Silva (1992) in studying preferences and vocational choices in undergraduate courses at USP. The sample for this study was of a convenience one. Respondents included administrators, engineers, physicians, and others professionals, all attending MBA programs. The QIP was completed by 203 and 197 (97%) are considered valid to the research objectives (101 Female - 51,3%; 96 Male - 48,7%).
Results show that the most frequent mental model among MBA professionals is operational (147 = 74,5%). They appoint that frequency for strategist, the most appropriated mental model for strategic thinking is 22 attendees (11,2 %). They also indicate that, in not attending appropriated training and development programs, these professionals may have troubles in dealing with strategic issues and may consider these questions as theoretical and not related to the business objectives and results.
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