Materializing Strategy: The Role of Comprehensiveness and Management Controls in Strategy Formation in Volatile Environments

Abstract

Drawing on the Mintzbergian perspective of strategy formation and strategy as practice literature we explore management controls (MCs) and comprehensiveness as antecedents to how strategy materializes in volatile environments. We focus on middle managers (MMs) since their role in strategy formation is well acknowledged. We contribute to the literature by arguing that MCs are central to strategy formation due to their role in shaping emergence of strategy and supporting implementation of deliberate strategies, with formal (process and output) and informal (professional) controls being salient micro-mechanisms in how strategy materializes in volatile environments. Specifically we argue that process control may hamper the materialization of strategy but that output and professional control aid it. We also develop the literature by arguing that comprehensiveness embeds both formally planned and emergent aspects in strategy formation, the latter enabled by top management championing and information availability which shapes MMs' predisposition to strategizing. With a quantitative study we test our hypotheses regarding championing, information availability and comprehensiveness; and comprehensiveness, and MCs and implementation performance. Our results show that comprehensiveness, output and professional controls positively influence MMs' implementation performance and, together, our antecedents reinforce each other in the materialization of strategy, hence providing an empirical contribution to the literature.

The role of project portfolio management in fostering both deliberate and emergent strategy

“…This research provides the first quantitative study from a project portfolio perspective to complement earlier studies that explore the phenomenon of emergent strategies and related strategic management practices (Burgelman, 1994;Chari et al, 2014;Mirabeau and Maguire, 2014;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015). The results of this study contribute to the literature in three primary ways.…”

“…This study explores how strategic control mechanisms implemented at the portfolio level can influence organizational performance by not only measuring performance, but also providing impetus and direction for change and emergence in strategic processes (Bititci et al, 2012;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015).…”

“…In an analysis of major oil companies, Grant (2003) found that these new 'planned emergence' processes are characterized by shorter planning horizons, greater flexibility, and an increased emphasis on performance targets that primarily aim at controlling and coordinating the different parts of the business (see also Kim et al, 2014;Meissner, 2014). In addition, a wider dialogue in management research aims to better understand the success of strategy processes and the influence of context, communication, and informal processes and controls (Hodgkinson et al, 2006;Meissner, 2014;Regner, 2003;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015).…”

Innovation and sustainability in a large-scale healthcare improvement collaborative - seven propositions for achieving system-wide innovation and sustainability

“…One of the arguments presented about these findings in the strategy performance relationship was the neglect of strategy implementation (Miller and Cardinal, 1994;Brews and Hunt, 1999;Phillips and Moutinho, 2000;Hrebiniak, 2005Hrebiniak, , 2006Whittington and Cailluet, 2008). This trend is still observed in more recent publications on strategy management and strategy processes (Belmondo and Sargis-Roussel, 2015;Paroutis et al, 2015;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015) where papers tend to examine strategy formation and strategy development, rather than its implementation. So it is now accepted in management literature that the most sophisticated plans require implementation (Heracleous, 2000), as it was famously noted by Hambrick and Cannella (1989, p.278), "Without successful implementation, a strategy (plan) is but a fantasy".…”

Understanding operations strategizing in project-based organisations: middle managers’ interaction and strategy praxis

“…Within the wider SaP community a small number of studies have addressed middle managers as mediators of strategy (see Mantere, 2008;Sillince and Mueller, 2007;Thomas and Ambrosini, 2015), but seldom in relation to project-based organisations. Our research focus and contribution: on middle managers is thus motivated by both their recognized significance middle managers in strategic implementation (Balogun and Johnson 2004, Rouleau and Balogun, 2010, Mantere, 2008Floyd and Wooldridge 1994) as well as the importance of middle managers as agents of control within project-based organisations, not least construction (Styhre and Josephson 2006).…”