Identifying strategy process ‘pinchpoints': A multi-level, multi-source, longitudinal study of strategy implementation
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 December 2011
End Date
31 December 2013
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Strategy Research Foundation 2011 General Research Grant Program
Description
Well-formulated and appropriate strategies only result in superior returns for an organization when they are implemented successfully. Although a notable amount of research has investigated the strategy implementation process, the reasons for implementation success or failure are not fully understood. More specifically, past research has neglected the relative importance and inter-dependence among multiple strategy diffusion channels (top management, middle management, work group peers), the role of relationship quality (leader-member exchange and team-member exchange), and different dimensions of an employee's organizational identification (commitment to the organization, the supervisor, and the work group). Additionally, many extant studies suffer from methodological constraints including key informant reliance, common method limitations, and cross-sectional designs making inferences from the analysis of causal relationships, at best, equivocal.
We intend to tackle these challenges and examine the strategy implementation process within a Swiss retail bank generating multi-level, multi-source, and longitudinal data. Multiple corridors of influence, the relationship quality among different actors, and the moderating role of commitment, will be explicitly incorporated in the proposed study. Thus, our results will improve the understanding of strategy implementation and help managers to channel strategy implementation efforts effectively.
Member contributor(s)
Morgan, Robert E.
De Luca, Luigi
Partner(s)
Cardiff University
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
strategy process
Method(s)
mixed methods approach
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Division(s)
Eprints ID
212929

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Publication

Diffusing Strategy Implementation Throughout the Organization: Adopting a Social Learning Lens

2013-09-30 , Herhausen, Dennis , Morgan, Robert E. , De Luca, Luigi , Schögel, Marcus

Well-formulated strategies only result in superior returns for an organization when they are implemented successfully. We examine the dissipative processes underlying the role of relationship quality (leader-member exchange and team-member exchange) through to the individual level of the strategy implementation process. We propose a contingent model based on social learning theory using data generated from a retail bank. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that social exchange relationships embedded in a work team setting influence individual employee's strategy implementation support. Namely, the higher an employee's leader-member exchange, the stronger is the positive relationship between supervisor modeling behavior and team member strategy support. Additionally, the higher an employee's team-member exchange, the stronger the positive relationship between work team strategy support and individual strategy support.

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Publication

The interplay between employee and firm customer orientation: Substitution effect and the contingency role of performance-related rewards

2018-07-04 , Herhausen, Dennis , De Luca, Luigi , Weibel, Michael

This paper identifies and explains a potential tension between a firm’s emphasis on customer orientation (CO) and the extent to which employees value CO as a success factor for individual performance. Based on self-determination theory and CO implementation research, we propose that firm CO may represent both autonomous and controlled motivations for CO, but that employees’ CO is more strongly linked to individual performance when employees experience solely autonomous motivation. Hence, we expect a substitution effect whereby the link between employees’ CO and their performance is weaker when firm CO is high. Furthermore, we examine a boundary condition for the previous hypothesis and propose that performance-contingent rewards have a positive effect on the internalization of the extrinsic motivation stemming from firm CO. Two multilevel studies with 979 employees and 201 top management team members from 132 firms support our hypotheses. Against previous research, our findings offer a new perspective on the effectiveness of CO initiatives, propose employees’ motivational states as the theoretical explanation for the heterogeneity in the link between employee CO and performance, and reappraise the role of performance-contingent rewards in CO research. We provide managerial implications for the effective implementation of customer-oriented initiatives within firms.

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Publication

Strategy Implementation as Social Exchange : A Processual Analysis of Multi-Level Exigencies

2013-08-09 , Herhausen, Dennis , Morgan, Robert E. , De Luca, Luigi , Schögel, Marcus

Well-formulated and appropriate strategies only result in superior returns for an organization when they are implemented successfully. Although a notable volume of literature has been published on the strategy implementation process, past research has neglected the role of relationship quality (leader-member exchange and team-member exchange) at the individual level of strategy implementation. We propose a contingent model based on social learning theory and examine the strategy implementation process within a retail bank. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that social exchange relationships embedded in a work team setting influence individual employee's strategy implementation support. Namely, the higher an employee's leader-member exchange, the stronger is the positive relationship between supervisor modeling behavior and team member strategy support. Additionally, the higher an employee's team-member exchange, the stronger the positive relationship between work team strategy support and individual strategy support.

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Publication

When Does Customer-Oriented Leadership Pay Off? An Investigation of Frontstage and Backstage Service Teams

2017-06-19 , Herhausen, Dennis , De Luca, Luigi , Miceli, Gaetano “Nino” , Morgan, Robert E. , Schögel, Marcus

The service literature highlights the importance of organizational leaders in creating an organization-wide customer orientation (CO). Yet some open questions remain regarding this relationship: Are organizational leaders from different hierarchical levels equally effective in creating a CO? Does the functional role of employees affect the importance of certain leaders? More generally, when does customer-oriented leadership really pay off? To address these questions, we investigate how senior managers’ and direct supervisors’ CO affects the CO climate and effectiveness of both frontstage and backstage service teams. Analyzing multisource data from 575 employees and their supervisors from 110 teams in a retail bank, we find that the effect of perceived senior manager CO on team CO climate and team effectiveness is stronger in backstage teams while perceived direct supervisor CO has a greater influence in frontstage teams. Moreover, team CO climate consensus moderates the effect of team CO climate on team effectiveness. These results suggest that, contrary to past theorizing, customer-oriented leadership does not per se increase team CO climate and team effectiveness; rather, the correct coupling of leadership source and degree of customer contact needs to be achieved. Service managers should use these findings and appoint the correct leader to implement CO, to make the organization-wide CO diffusion more efficient and effective.

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