The Tracking of Strategic Thinking in Kutadgu Bilig

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to reveal whether Kutadgu Bilig, which had important contributions to the creation of Turkish management tradition, has emphasis on strategic thinking and offers a conceptual framework that can be referred to in contextual research concerning strategic management. Being one of the most important management books in the world and written by Yusuf Khass Hajib, Kutadgu Bilig was analyzed in its own right through a different methodology than those employed in the disciplines of history and literature and independently of the theories of strategic management. This analysis focuses on the dimensions of strategic thinking and attempts to reveal to what extent the dimensions of strategic thinking are emphasized in the work. The analysis results indicate that Kutadgu Bilig embodies such dimensions of strategic management as holistic perspective, creativity, focusing on not only results but also causes, and hypothesis-orientedness within the management cases and practices in it. The only strategic management dimension that does not take any obvious emphasis in the work is future-orientedness. The analysis of this work hints at the existence of a high-level strategic thinking in Kutadgu Bilig and shows that the work offers a framework that can be referred to in contextual research.