Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

Abstract

c r-Strategic managers have been found to use sophisticated tactics to implement strategic plans, but seem to limit their effectiveness by applying them indiscriminately. A contingency framework that uses situational constraints, such as the manager's freedom to act and need for consultation, is developed to select among tactics preferred by practitioners. The framework was tested using 50 episodes of strategic planning. There was a 94 percent success rate when the implementation tactic recommended by the framework was used, and a 29 percent success rate when another (non-recommended) tactic was applied, suggesting that following the framework's prescriptions may improve the success rate for strategic plan implementation. The implications of this research for practicing managers are discussed.

Making Strategy Work: A Literature Review on the Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation

“…Examples of such ambiguous studies are Bourgeois and Brodwin (1984), Nutt (1986Nutt ( , 1987Nutt ( , 1989, Noble (1999b), Lehner (2004, Higgins (2005), Harrington (2006), and Schaap (2006).…”

“…Forman and Argenti (2005) find that the alignment between the corporate communication function and the strategic implementation process was particularly visible in those companies that were going through fundamental strategic change: "All of the firms studied were involved in significant efforts in internal communications and felt that IT was central to the success of the function, particularly in terms of implementing strategy and building reputation" (Forman and Argenti, 2005). Nutt (1986Nutt ( , 1987Nutt ( , 1989, Bourgeois & Brodwin (1984), Lehner (2004), Sashittal & Wilemon (1996), Akan & Allen & Helms & Spralls (2006) research the effects of implementation tactics on strategy implementation. Nutt (1986) identified four types of implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes by profiling 91 case studies: intervention, participation, persuasion, and edict.…”

“…Nutt (1989) set up a contingency framework that uses situational constraints, such as a manager"s freedom to act and need for consultation. It was developed to select among tactics preferred by practitioners.…”

Middle management’s role in strategy implementation projects: a behavioral analysis

“…More refined research has looked at the moderating effects of organizational variables on strategy execution processes like size and environmental complexity which tend to be positively related to number of organizational members being engaged in the implementation process (Harrington, 2006). Typologies of implementation tactics have been defined to help practioners understand under which scenarios certain implementation approaches work best (Bourgeois & Brodwin, 1984;Lehner, 2004;Nutt, 1989;Slevin & Pinto, 1987).…”

“…Such leadership style also has positive impacts on building consensus on the strategy to be implemented which tends to improve implementation results (Ho, Wu, & Wu, 2014). However, too much participation creates more issues than helping (Ahearne et al, 2014) and in certain situations even autocratic leadership styles can be the approach of choice, especially when the change has to happen under great time pressure or when no or only limited expertise about the new strategic direction exists in the organization (Nutt, 1989).…”