The effect of strategic thinking on organizational performance in nonprofit organ procurement organizations

Strategic thinkers contribute to the development and creation of strategy that can allow organizational leaders the opportunity to create ideas that give an organization a sustainable competitive advantage. Leadership should focus on strategic thinking at all levels of the organization but balance this with focused and intentional strategy development. Those strategic thinkers who execute strategy may have a greater likelihood of successful implementation of the strategy. Research has shown strategic thinking has emerged as an area of interest and potential value. This study was the first quantitative evaluation of leaders' capacity to be strategic thinkers that indicates how that capacity contributes to organizational performance. Although the results did not indicate significance between strategic thinking, reflection, reframing, systems thinking, experience of the executive director, and size of the organization, the scores of the executive director's capacity to be a strategic thinker are higher than the average. The primary implication of these results is that strategic thinking exists in organ procurement organizations.