Abstract: Strategy formulation is often the emergent result of social learning process in organizations. The inclusion of organization members in the formulation process is important as the success of the strategy is likely dependent on information dispersed across relevant stakeholders possessing idiosyncratic but critical local information. Yet, the greater inclusion of participants raises costs and inefficiencies in the process, and hence a tradeoff for organizations striving for greater inclusion in the strategy process. The results of our inductive fuzz-set analysis of ten strategic initiatives suggest that organizations can effectively manage this tradeoff by increasing participants' incentive to share local information, and engaging with participants informally via socializing. These preliminary findings have implications for both theory and practice in the field of strategy process.

Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that middle managers play a central role in balancing the demands of exploitation and exploration in organizations. While some scholars have recently begun to explain the nature and antecedents of middle managers’ ambidexterity, much remains to be learned about individual level origins of this behaviour. Using the individual difference approach, we develop a model that charts the motivational, experiential, and inter-personal origins of middle managers’ ambidexterity. To further understand these effects within the situational constrains, we examine the moderating influence of slack resources. We test our model and hypotheses using a novel study of 305 middle managers, combining survey and archival data. The results, while providing general support for our predictions, reveal new insights into the origins of managers’ ambidextrous behaviour.

Abstract: This study develops and tests a cross-level model of middle managers’ strategic championing behavior, integrating goal orientations theory and team contextual factors. We propose that dispositional differences in goal orientations may motivate managers to search or avoid new strategic initiatives, and that different individual motivational orientations flourish in different intra- and inter-team contexts. Based on data from 194 senior middle managers in 28 teams, we found that learning and prove orientations affect championing behavior positively, whereas avoid orientation has a negative effect. At the team level, behavioral integration (intra-team context) is positively and procedural fairness of strategy making (inter-team context) is negatively associated with championing. We also report a cross-level interaction such that a prove orientation is positively related to championing under low behavioral integration.

Abstract: While the strategic roles of middle managers have been focused on the upward and divergent roles, the implementation role is crucial for strategy success. The strategic implementation role of middle managers is distinct from the operational role of mechanically implementing top management’s strategies. In this paper, we explore the antecedents of managers’ implementation role by incorporating alignment, network consensus, and organizational identification as the cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of managerial action. 168 senior middle managers of a global Fortune 500 firm were studied with results showing that all dimensions together fulfilled the manifestation of the implementation role above and beyond any dimension separately. These findings build the understanding of the strategic implementation role of middle managers.