Strategy Implementation: The Role of Middle Manager Leadership and Coordination

Abstract

Strategy implementation is a critical component of firm performance and middle managers have primary responsibility over strategy implementation processes. Unfortunately, researchers and practitioners know surprisingly little about how middle managers influence strategy implementation effectiveness. As a result, our understanding of why some firms are more successful than others remains incomplete. To shed light on this important issue, we theorize and test the relationship between middle manager leadership and strategy implementation effectiveness as well as work team coordination, a potential mediator of the relationship that has been found to be an important element of strategy implementation success. Using a sample of 44 work teams within an organization undergoing a large-scale strategic change, our results show that middle managers’ transformational and instrumental leadership styles directly impact strategy implementation effectiveness and that middle managers’ transformational leadership also has an indirect effect on strategy implementation effectiveness through work team coordination.