Exploring the U.S. aerospace industry strategic leadership's shaping of cultural assumptions for continuous success in the 21st century: An exploratory qualitative inquiry

The U.S. aerospace industry strategic leadership fails domestically and internationally, not managing employee thinking and behavior for continuous success in the 21st century. The problem addressed in this study was to understand the key processes and principles involved in the strategic leadership's shaping of cultural assumptions that may contribute to the industry's failure. The qualitative study explored the shaping of cultural assumptions, as it relates to the organization's relationship to the larger society, in terms of the nature of reality and truth, the nature of human nature, the nature of human activity, and the nature of human relationships for continuous success in the 21st century. The study was guided by Scharmer's (2009) theory U, leading from the emerging future in relation to transformative change, stressing the needs to think and act differently, Gharajedaghi's (2011) systems theory, and Schein's (2010, 2013) findings on cultural assumptions and humble inquiry. The research question asked, "How does the U.S. aerospace industry's strategic leadership identify experiences affecting the shaping of cultural assumptions for continuous success in the 21st century?" The study utilized an exploratory qualitative inquiry that enabled access to the personal experiences of 20 U.S. aerospace industry strategic leaders. Themes and patterns were identified in a data set through inductive analysis. The findings matched the reviewed literature and revealed scarce successful attempts to lead from the emerging future through cultural assumptions shaped for continuous success. The findings encourage the majority of the U.S. aerospace industry strategic leadership to overcome internal blockage and initiate a transformative change to avoid organization declines. The successful strategic leaders in the study support the need for co-creating continuous success in the 21st century.