Bill Wooldridge

Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance

This study investigated relationships between middle managers’ formal position, their strategic influence and organizational performance. Among the 259 middle managers represented in the study, managers with formal positions in boundary–spanning sub–units reported higher levels of strategic influence activity than others. At the organizational level of analysis, the study found that firm performance was associated with more uniform levels of downward strategic influence, and more varied levels of upward influence among middle management cohorts. The findings suggest that middle managers’ strategic influence arises from their ability to mediate between internal and external selection environments. In addition, positive effects on organizational performance appear to depend on: (1) whether the overall pattern of upward influence is conducive to shifts in the network centrality of individual managers; and (2) whether the pattern of downward influence is consistent with an appropriate balance between the organization’s need for control and flexibility.

The Middle Management Perspective on Strategy Process: Contributions, Synthesis, and Future Research

During the past 25 years, a substantial amount of research in strategic management has focused on the contributions of middle management. Although useful, the research is characterized by considerable diversity in terms of focal constructs and relationships. The purpose of this review is to organize this research and identify important constructs, relationships, and contributions. The review serves not only to catalog the state of the art and accumulate knowledge; it also facilitates the critique necessary for charting directions and enhancing the cumulative nature of future research.

KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE RENEWAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITY

This paper extends current theory by analyzing the knowledge dynamics and social structure of the internal selection-retention environment. On the knowledge side, our view is that entrepreneurial ideas are subjected progressively to subjectivist, empiricist, and pragmatic criteria in the process of knowledge creation. This argument helps to explain how individual knowledge enters an organizational process and how individual knowledge becomes shared within the group. For social structures, we argue that actor centrality, structural equivalence, and bridging relationships account for an individuals ability to acquire novel information and to achieve a position of influence. Combining these assertions, the paper offers an integrative model that explains how organizations overcome inertia in the capability development process. A series of propositions are deduced as a basis for conducting future empirical research, and the paper closes with a discussion of the models implications for theory and practice.

Path analysis of the relationship between competitive strategy, information technology, and financial performance

Abstract:This study evaluates the impact of competitive strategy on information technology (it) and of it on organizational performance. In addition, the research model incorporates indirect performance effects from strategy and it alignment. Data is drawn from the survey responses of 127 banks and interviews with 68 bank CEOs. Path analysis separates direct, indirect, and spurious effects. Interview data support the quantitative analysis. The results lend statistical support to the strategy–it relationship described in case studies, and in addition, provide an explanation for inconsistent findings in previous it performance research.

Self‐Confidence and Managerial Autonomy: Successor Characteristics Critical to Succession in Family Firms

Much of the literature on succession in family firms focuses on the incumbent. This study examines the attributes of successors that help to explain the effectiveness of succession. The responses of 254 CEOs of family firms were factor analyzed to identify six distinguishing characteristics. A MANOVA analysis suggests that effective succession is associated with successor self-confidence and managerial autonomy.

Achieving Strategic Consensus in the Hospital Setting: A Middle Management Perspective

Abstract This study adopts a social network methodology to explore the achievement of strategic consensus in a hospital system. On the basis of responses from 88 middle managers, the authors determined that a managers (1) knowledge of the internal capabilities and the external environment of an organization and (2) his or her social position in a management structure significantly affect the realization of strategic consensus. Managerial knowledge is essential, and its importance in the consensus-building process is enhanced by a managers social position.

Idea generation in strategic renewal

Though it has become central in strategic renewal research, the concept of emergent strategic initiative has not received a great deal of theoretical scrutiny. Existing theory combines evolutionary, political and cognitive logics to characterize the renewal process, and this provides a useful framework for understanding the context in which emergent strategic initiatives develop. To date, however, theory has yet to offer a systematic explanation of (1) where strategic initiatives come from, (2) how they develop and (3) what they contribute to the development of organizational capabilities. Building on prior research, this paper identifies four key processes associated with the development of strategic initiatives: interpretation, articulation, elaboration and ratification. Emergent strategic initiatives are born when a middle managers interpretation of an idea links it to a strategic issue. Issues become initiatives when an informal social network forms around a central actor, who is also frequently a mi...

Sustainability Ratings and Organizational Legitimacy: The Role of Compensating Tactics

This chapter develops theory concerning how ratings of firms’ business practices are likely to affect firm behavior. More specifically, we draw from established theory on cognitive choice models to posit that sustainability ratings systems may be more likely to promote improved social and environmental performance in non-core practices than in core practices. This improved performance constitutes a form of compensating tactics, as ratings agencies’ analysts may raise their ratings of firms in which poor sustainability performance in core practices remains. The extent to which non-core improvements influence ratings increases, we further argue, is contingent on the visibility of those improvements: improvements marked by higher visibility are more likely to influence ratings increases than lower-visibility improvements. This chapter contributes to a growing body of literature that examines the impact of ratings systems on organizations’ practices, and provides an understanding of the psychological foundations of sustainability through a discussion of cognitive choice models.

Handbook of Middle Management Strategy Process Research

e premise of this volume is that the complex social processes that animate strategic decisions involve not only top-level executives, but also middle managers distributed throughout the organization. Designed for doctoral students and others interested in middle managers and strategy process, the Handbook integrates the threads of scholarly work in this domain and charts a course for future research. Chapters are written both by scholars who have ‘paved the way’ for the middle management perspective and scholars who have done recent, cutting edge research from this point of view.